Juniata's Organic First Curriculum:
Juniata's Chemistry curriculum is quite unusual, in that we begin all students with Organic Chemistry. This is not the normal sophomore organic course taught to freshmen: we have created a new hybrid course, one that leads in slowly enough for freshmen, that leaves out some of the traditional organic material needed only by chemists, that interweaves as much biochemistry as possible into the fabric of the course. If you are interested in a complete description of the curriculum, its philosophy, logistics, and results, click on the links below.
Overall Philosophy and Approach
(printed in J. Chem. Ed. 2001, 78, 869 )
Course Details and Results
Labs
Applying the Philosophy to Sophomore Organic
(printed in J. Chem. Ed. 2004, 81, 470 )
Chemistry as a Second Language--our Approach to Peer-Led Team Learning
(printed in The Chemical Educator 2011, 16, 217.
Description targeted at Biologists
(printed in Cell Biology Education, 2005, 281-283.)
One of the problems we struggled with for years in this curriculum is that there is no book designed for this audience. Fortunately, in 1999-2000 I was supported by a grant from NSF to write such a textbook on organic chemistry for freshmen. It was published by Houghton Mifflin Co. in July of 2001 until summer of 2006, then by IA Books, then by McGraw-Hill, and now it is available at the Kindle store. See my list of books.
Truth in advertising: Juniata no longer uses this curriculum.
Other schools that do Organic First:
University of Michigan, contact Brian Coppola, bcoppola@umich.edu
Washington and Jefferson University, contact Steve Malinak, smalinak@washjeff.edu
Also see The Impacts of an “Organic First” Chemistry Curriculum at a Liberal Arts College, SM Malinak, JL Bayline, PA Brletic, MF Harris… - Journal of Chemical Education, 2014
Washington College, contact Aaron Amick, aamick2@washcoll.edu
University of Vermont, contact Matthias Brewer, Matthias.Brewer@uvm.edu
University of Wisconsin, River Falls, contact Mike Kahlow (rhymes with J-Lo), michael.a.kahlow@uwrf.edu