Assignment: Chemical Technology

Southeast Community College (SCC) in Lincoln, Nebraska, in partnership with the University of Nebraska, Montana State University, Texas State Technical College, and the DuPont Company, is designing a major curriculum and materials development project called "Assignment: Chemical technology-III," or ACT-III. The purpose of the project is to further enhance chemical technology educational programs in 2-year colleges by building on two previous successful NSF/ATE projects, called ACT-I and ACT-II, which were also lead by SCC. The new project completes the development of analytical chemistry course work begun by this group in ACT-II and also addresses organic/biochemistry courses. The analytical and organic chemistry courses are considered extremely important for these programs because they embody the heart of chemical technology education in the United States and are the primary vehicle by which the American Chemical Society's Voluntary Industry Standards (VIS) will be implemented. The project utilizes the VIS heavily and generate a variety of useful nationally disseminated products for such education, including a number of modules and monographs covering topics appropriate to these courses, a series of innovative laboratory activities for students, two interactive multimedia programs on CD-ROM modeled after the popular I.O.N.S. concept utilized in the previous projects, distance education models for these courses, and model 2+2+2 articulation agreements. Methods to be utilized include the American Chemical Society's Gap Analysis, faculty enhancement and participation workshops and development institutes, and research to create and practice various distance education models. The partnership includes the DuPont Company, which has donated $50,000 in matching funds, and also a National Visiting Committee consisting of real-world chemistry technicians and others who have a stake in the outcomes.