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Two-Year College Programs

Student Skills

Student Skills
Section 7

Chemistry education provides the background knowledge necessary to succeed in more advanced coursework and develops both the  transferable and scientific thinking skills that will be an asset in the workplace. Specific technical skills include scientific problem-solving, communicating to both technical and non-technical audiences, working in a diverse team-based environment, and accessing technical databases. Having well-supported research, internship, and other experiential learning programs are a hallmark of the most successful programs.

Problem-solving and scientific skills
Section 7.1

Chemistry education should develop students’ ability to analyze and evaluate information objectively—identifying information of value, integrating new facts into their existing body of knowledge, and developing appropriate solutions to problems.

Essential Components

  • Students objectively analyze and evaluate information by identifying information of value, integrating new facts into their existing body of knowledge, and developing appropriate solutions to problems.

Successful Practices

  • Students use appropriate laboratory skills and instrumentation to solve problems while explaining the fundamental uncertainties in experimental measurements

Aspirational Goals

  • Students identify problems clearly, develop testable hypotheses, design and execute appropriate experiments, analyze data, and draw appropriate conclusions. 

Communication skills
Section 7.2

Effective communication of technical information is vital. Traditional speech and English composition courses rarely provide students with sufficient experience in oral and written communication of technical information.

Essential Components

  • Students present information in a clear and organized manner, including representing quantitative data in visual formats.
  • Students communicate clearly with peers from different backgrounds.

Successful Practices

  • Students communicate in a manner (orally, written, etc.) that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion. 
  • Students create visual representations of complex data sets.  

Aspirational Goals

  • Students write well-organized and concise scientific reports in a scientifically appropriate style.  
  • Efforts are made to incorporate Universal Design techniques to help students demonstrate knowledge in a variety of modalities. 
  • Students have opportunities to communicate science to the public and to their peers.

Team skills
Section 7.3

Science is an inherently collaborative enterprise which requires the equitable participation of individuals from a diverse variety of backgrounds. Teamwork and dealing with diversity are necessary interpersonal skills vital to employment in many fields. Chemistry education should provide students with ample opportunities to develop and demonstrate these skills in the curriculum.

Essential Components

  • Instructors incorporate experiences   in the classroom and laboratory that enable students to develop teamwork skills. 

Successful Practices

  • Students work effectively in a diverse group of peers, as both leaders and team members, to solve problems and interact productively.  

Aspirational Goals

  • As team leaders, students provide project management and a clear direction for the team, encourage team contributions, resolve conflicts, and synthesize individual contributions into a complete product. 

Ethics
Section 7.4

Ethics should be an intentional part of the instruction in chemistry programs. Students should conduct themselves responsibly, exhibit intellectual honesty and humility, and demonstrate respect for individuals and their work. The need for proper citations and abstaining from plagiarism should be embedded throughout the curriculum.

Essential Components

Students:

  • Keep accurate and complete laboratory records.  
  • Describe limitations of their knowledge.
  • Maintain integrity in all work giving due credit to the contributions of others.
  • Present results of research or comments on scientific matters with care and accuracy, without unsubstantiated, exaggerated, or premature statements.  

Successful Practices

Students: 

  • Recognize the constraints of limited resources.  
  • Are able to explain the health, safety, and environmental impacts of their work.

Aspirational Goals

Instructors: 

  • Remain current with developments in their fields and share ideas and information with their students.
  • Serve the public interest and actively protect the health and safety of co-workers, consumers, and the community.

Chemical information acquisition and management skills
Section 7.5

Data acquisition and protection is vital for an array of fields. Students should be able to access databases and other repositories of chemical information, properly document their own experimental data and cite relevant literature precedent when appropriate.

Essential Components

  • Students access and extract data from Safety Data Sheets.
  • Instructors provide examples of appropriate online sources, and how to best research science questions.
  • Students demonstrate record keeping (electronic and otherwise). This includes notebooks and data storage.
  • Students perform effective searches for quality open-access sources using keywords.

Successful Practices

  • Students retrieve information efficiently and effectively by searching the chemical literature, to evaluate technical articles critically, and to manage many types of chemical information. 

Aspirational Goals

  • Students have access to technical databases with sufficient depth and breadth of the chemical literature for effective searching using keywords, authors, abstracts, citations, patents, and structures and substructures.
  • Students’ ability to read, analyze, interpret, and cite the chemical literature as applied to answering chemical questions is assessed throughout the curriculum.