College Receives $20,000 to Redesign Chemistry Course

Montgomery College has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Lumina Foundation and the University of Maryland System for the redesign of the College's first-semester general chemistry course, CH 101 Principles of Chemistry I. Each academic year, approximately 1,160 students enroll in CH 101 across teh College. Principles of Chemistry I is a gateway course for health-related, engineering, and science majors. Historically, an average of only about 55% of students complete the course with a grade of "C" or above. In addition, more than 21% of students who initially enroll withdraw entirely from the course. Across the country, institutions have developed solutions to combat rising dropout rates and to bolster student completion. The College will be modeling its chemistry redesign on North Carolina State University's teaching technique called SCALE-UP, which the school introduced to benefit its physics courses. North Carolina State University demonstrated significant improvements in student success and a decrease in the number of students withdrawing from a course as a result of this instructional style. At MC, Physics Associate Professor Dr. Nawal Benmouna has been using SCALE-UP in her PH 203 sections since fall of 2009 with encouraging results. The SCALE-UP approach is now used for instruction in all science disciplines and mathematics as well as in the humanities. The redesign of CH 101 will involve chemistry faculty from each MC campus, the course structure and will be piloted in the fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters. If successfully piloted, the redesigned course will be implemented in all sections collegewide beginning in the fall 2012 semester.