TO THE EDITOR:
The Department of Chemistry is proud to have a dedicated group of faculty who have led the way in reforming undergraduate instruction in chemistry.
Driven by our faculty’s interests in student outcomes, the transformation of many of our large introductory courses into high structure classrooms has been a boon to student success.
Despite budget cuts at the University level, the department has creatively increased resources available to students in the introductory curriculum.
The department deploys a large cohort of undergraduate peer mentors who have taken the courses previously, performed well, and are interested in “giving back” to the university community.
These peer mentors participate actively in our 200+ student classrooms during active learning activities and also run their own help sessions to provide an additional layer of student support beyond instructor-led Q&A sessions.
We have intimately linked our sections of the same courses, so that students are no longer bound to attend the Q&A sessions of only their instructor.
They are instead able to choose a help session that fits within their schedule.
Students have at their fingertips a broad, diverse palette of support resources, such as Chem Primer, Mastering Chemistry, bespoke videos, daily work, Sakai forums, Peer Tutoring, Q&A sessions, Piazza.
