I am excited to report that my department is moving to a two-course inorganic sequence. We have always taught "Advanced Inorganic Chemistry" without an official introductory course. Now we will also have a "foundations" level course. My "problem" is that in this upcoming semester, Fall 2011, the two courses will be cross-listed and the lecture part will meet simultaneously. This is a one-time arrangement; after Fall 2011, the courses will be distinct. We have two populations of students that are enrolled under different graduation requirements, but we cannot staff two courses this year. Hence, the combined/joint lecture.
I will have students enrolled in the foundations level that may have taken only one semester of general chemistry as a prerequisite. Others will have also had a year of organic and one semester of analytical. Students taking it at the advanced level most likely will have had the year of P-chem (or taking it concurrently).The two classes combined will have 15 students in lecture (10 found, 5 adv). I will add that the lab sections meet separately, so I can do different experiments with the different students in some instances.
I'm wondering if anybody has had experience teaching in this format. Did you use any specific approaches to handle this situation? Any concerns that you can envision? Pitfalls? Opportunities? How can I differentiate the two populations of students? Any input would be helpful to me as I plan the syllabus for the Fall.
Thanks!
At least you have the lab to make the classes a little different. I think the most important thing is to make sure the students in the foundation course get the material you want to build on when they take the advanced course in the future. It might mean a little less material for the students in the advanced course this fall, but so be it. You don't have much of a choice.
My Intro Inorg course is the only chemistry course available in the spring for students that take our advanced track. It also counts as an elective for biochem majors. So, it is not uncommon for me to have Seniors and first-year students in the same class. It can be a challenge. Some of the topics I cover are quantum and MOs (you can never see enough of that even if you bore the advanced kids a bit), Crystal lattices (new material for all but accessable for less experienced students), multinuclear NMR (this is a tough one, but my experience is that Orgo teaches them to be trained monkeys when in comes to coupling, they don't understand why it happens), descriptive, intro to d-block (including d orbital splitting) and solid state topics like magnetism and conductivity.
I guess my advice is shoot for the middle ground for now but make sure that you are setting things up for the future in which you will have students take both courses.
Chip, thanks for your input. I've covered a lot of what you mentioned in a previous offering of the advanced course. I will think more about which topics could be presented now, in some detail, while leaving room for greater expansion in the future advanced course.
Randy