Open to Senior Honors candidates with consent of the Department. A double course.
Spring semester. The Department.
How to handle overenrollment: null
Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: The course emphasizes readings from the primary scientific literature, independent research, quantitative work, and laboratory work toward the writing of a senior honors thesis.
Open to Senior Honors candidates with consent of the Department. A full course.
Spring semester. The Department.
How to handle overenrollment: null
Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: The course emphasizes readings from the primary scientific literature, independent research, quantitative work, and laboratory work toward the writing of a senior honors thesis.
The thermodynamic principles and the concepts of energy, entropy, and equilibrium introduced in CHEM 161/165 will be expanded. Statistical mechanics, which connects molecular properties to thermodynamics, will be introduced. We will spend significant time constructing, analyzing, and interpreting microscopic models of matter and will use these models to understand our macroscopic world.
The thermodynamic principles and the concepts of energy, entropy, and equilibrium introduced in CHEM 161/165 will be expanded. Statistical mechanics, which connects molecular properties to thermodynamics, will be introduced. We will spend significant time constructing, analyzing, and interpreting microscopic models of matter and will use these models to understand our macroscopic world.
The thermodynamic principles and the concepts of energy, entropy, and equilibrium introduced in CHEM 161/165 will be expanded. Statistical mechanics, which connects molecular properties to thermodynamics, will be introduced. We will spend significant time constructing, analyzing, and interpreting microscopic models of matter and will use these models to understand our macroscopic world.
The foundations of analytical chemistry are explored and developed in this course. These include principles of experimental design, sampling, calibration strategies, standardization, statistics, and the validation of experimental results. The course begins with a rapid review of the basic tools necessary for analytical chemistry (significant figures, units, and stoichiometry) and an introduction to the terminology of analytical chemistry.
The foundations of analytical chemistry are explored and developed in this course. These include principles of experimental design, sampling, calibration strategies, standardization, statistics, and the validation of experimental results. The course begins with a rapid review of the basic tools necessary for analytical chemistry (significant figures, units, and stoichiometry) and an introduction to the terminology of analytical chemistry.
(Offered as CHEM 330 and BIOL 330) What are the molecular underpinnings of processes central to life? We will explore the chemical and structural properties of biological molecules and learn the logic used by the cell to build complex structures from a few basic raw materials. Some of these complex structures have evolved to catalyze chemical reactions with an enormous degree of selectivity and specificity, and we seek to discover these enzymatic strategies.
(Offered as ENGL-227, CHEM-250) This is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate identity, inequality and representation within Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields--at Amherst and beyond. We begin the course by grounding our understanding of the STEM experience at Amherst in national and global contexts. We will survey the interdisciplinary literature on the ways in which identity - race, gender, class, ability, sexuality- and geographic context shape STEM persistence and belonging.
(Offered as ENGL-227, CHEM-250) Being Human in STEM (HSTEM) is an interactive course that combines academic inquiry and community engagement to investigate the theme of diversity within STEM fields at Amherst and beyond. We will survey the interdisciplinary literature on the ways in which identity—e.g., gender, class, race, sexuality, disability—and context shape STEM persistence and belonging. In parallel, students will design projects that apply the findings of our research to develop resources and engage the STEM community, whether at the college, local, or national level.
