Best Practices
The courses of our department are rotated between various teachers to enable teachers to get familiar with more than just their topics.
Even though practical examinations are internal, we ensure that the same professor does not examine his/ her own tutored batch of students.
Each question paper made by a professor complies with Bloom’s Taxonomy to ensure all question papers follow the categories of knowledge, understanding, and application. The question paper is also reviewed by another faculty colleague/ Head of Department before being sent to the Controller of Exam.
Given the fact that students have multiple intelligences, we have designed our model of assessment to take on various forms like written, oral, multiple-choice, group and individual presentations, research papers, review articles, preparing exhibits for public awareness, model making, POGIL, flip classroom and survey analysis.
Various ICT tools have been used by our faculty to enhance the quality of education through video making, use of Youtube, Powerpoint presentations, Google classroom, and Socrates/ Clickers/ Kahoot through the student’s cellphones.
We have an organization run by students within the department called as Xavier’s Association of Chemistry (X.A.C.). The students organize quiz competitions/ seminars/workshops for students of Science and other interdisciplinary fields of St. Xavier’s college and also extended to students of other colleges.
We have field trips to eminent research institutions and instrumentation laboratories to extend the theoretical knowledge to a hands- own experience. We also send our students for numerous competitions, posters and powerpoint presentations and research forums organized by other institutions and the University of Mumbai.
Industrial visits have also been organized that help students understand Quality Assurance and Quality Control which are a part of their syllabus.
The Honours Program is an interdisciplinary program offered to intellectually gifted students (G.P.A. more than 3.0 on 4.0).
We have conducted workshops on laboratory safety for the students and lab- attendants. We have put these practices into action by ensuring that students wear safety goggles, lab coats, and appropriate footwear while ensuing other safety protocols like lab faucets to facilitate a face wash or an eyewash in cases of accidents by acids and corrosive chemicals.
Our department works in Nation Building through twining with rural colleges wherein we invite those students to spend a week in our laboratories and going through various experiments that are a part of their syllabi but they do not have the equipment for.
The department has worked towards popularizing science wherein we invite students from neighbouring high schools (private and public- BMC schools) to exhibitions and handling experiments in chemistry and through highly interactive discussions on the same.
As a part of the Social Involvement Programme, students from our department go to teach students from socially and economically weaker backgrounds among the neighbouring municipal schools and sometimes we invite these students to visit our departmental laboratories.
The students from our department have worked towards preparing material safety data sheets (MSDS) which give details about the hazards of chemicals, ways to handle it, methods of storage and possible environmental implications. The datasheet also extends to give us information about physical and chemical parameters such as boiling point, melting point, densities, etc. Scientifically reliable and reproducible results have been obtained through accurate and precise calibration of laboratories, instruments, and apparatus like burettes, graduated pipettes, measurement cylinders and other glass apparatus which has been done by teachers and students as a part of this program so that it becomes a learning experience for them.
Several Guest Lectures from eminent institutions like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology, Homi Bhabha Centre of Science Education, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and Universities abroad are invited for seminars on various fields of research.
The illustrious alumni of the department from various professions are invited to interact with students in order to expose students to various plethora of career choices they have in the future.
Summer program: Our students have been selected for manifold summer programs to some of the most eminent institutes in the country like the Indian Institute of Sciences Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Homi Bhabha Centre of Science Education, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, National Chemical Laboratories, Central Drug Research Institute, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science and Centre of Biomedical Research.
Internships: Our students have been placed in good companies/ institutes/ laboratories for a period ranging from one to three months.
Conferences: The department has organized major international conferences like
Chemistry Cutting Edge: Nano, Green and Beyond (2014).
From Health to Well Being: An Interdisciplinary Approach from Fundamental Sciences to Translational Medicine (2019).
The department has been involved in mentoring students for competitive entrance exams like JAM, GATE, JRF- NET and SET. Students have been made to participate in a chemistry aptitude test along with other students from the University of Mumbai which are conducted by the Indian Chemical Society.
To inculcate and encourage a research-oriented climate amongst the faculty and students, numerous seminars and workshops have been conducted, some of which include:
Research Scholar Meet (RSM) held on 17th and 18th February 2017.
Mass Spectrometry workshop conducted on 15th and 16th November 2019.
General spectroscopy workshops have been conducted annually.