This course is designed to make fundamental changes in chemical education and address chronic problems involving science reasoning, understanding the impact of chemistry in our society and retention of science majors. A curriculum and instructional materials (text, and most importantly, case study modules) are being designed for science, pre-med/pharmacy and engineering majors, dealing with contemporary chemical technology. The curriculum has a decision-making orientation and uses the case study method that has been successfully employed in business and law schools. The subject matter is chemical innovations, namely, the process of taking an idea in the research laboratory through to commercialization. The course teaches chemical concepts while addressing the competitive advantages of materials, environmental constraints, toxicology issues, intellectual property rights and economic considerations using products familiar to students where innovation has been driven by technical, market and environmental issues. The curriculum highlights the major hurdles facing the inventor(s) in translating a research idea into commercial reality. The course includes a laboratory component and provides an alternative to a second semester of general chemistry. The curriculum and course materials being developed can be tailored to the specific interests of any class through selective use of case study modules containing sufficient tutorials in chemistry to assure comprehension by students having as little as one semester of college chemistry. The course brings to the classroom, through case studies and video tapes, culturally representative role models who can provide inspiration and career direction to aspiring science and engineering majors.
