Some more information about the new chemistry integrated curriculum and its impact on undergrads:
http://news.emory.edu/stories/2017/08/er_bts_school_roundup/campus.html
"Emory College’s Department of Chemistry launches a completely new curriculum for undergraduates this fall, two years after the opening of the new addition to the Atwood Chemistry Center.
The Department of Chemistry launches a completely new curriculum for undergraduates this fall. Supported by a $1.2 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the new curriculum features five interdisciplinary foundational courses that give exposure to organic, inorganic and physical chemistry to students early on in their education using hands-on, collaborative instruction.
The new curriculum features direct exposure to current research and its relevancy to multiple fields within and outside of chemistry. It also includes specialty courses for upperclassmen that delve deeper into those connections in subjects ranging from nuclear chemistry in medicine to the cellular respiration that defines metabolism."
https://emorywheel.com/chemistry-department-updates-curriculum/
"General Chemistry I and II (Chem 141 and Chem 142) have been combined into one class, Chem 150: Structure and Properties. Laboratory courses are now independent, two-credit courses rather than being paired with a lecture as one credit. By Fall 2018, Organic Chemistry (Chem 221 and Chem 222) will be replaced with Chem 202: Foundations of Reactivity, Chem 203: Advanced Reactivity and Chem 204: Macromolecules.
The new curriculum aims to shift from teaching topics in a detailed but isolated manner to emphasizing connections between topics, Mulford said. Topics such as kinetics and thermodynamics, which were previously not covered in depth until higher-level courses, will now be introduced in the foundational courses. Mulford said that he hopes the changes will allow students to focus more on reasoning and understanding rather than memorization.
“We wanted to move away from labs being verifications of lecture material to focusing on specific aspects of the experimental science of chemistry that were specific to laboratory environments,” Mulford said. The department agreed the amount of work required of students for lab as a separate course is more in line with two credit hours than one.
Chemistry majors will also now have more options for electives. Previously, chemistry majors could only choose one elective and the remainder of their required major courses were outlined for them. Under the new curriculum, students have the chance to take more classes that interest them."
These changes seem very positive to me and to others interested in the biological and medical applications for chemistry.
@bernie12 For those of us who took general chemistry under the previous curriculum and are now taking orgo in the form of Chem 221, will there still be a Chem 301 (Biochemistry) going forward? For how much longer?