Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Mission Statement

  The mission of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is to equip our students with the conceptual and experimental foundation to support their goals.   Such a foundation is achieved through deep understanding of the chemical basis of matter, in combination with current hands-on practical laboratory skills. The department provides a personalized and accessible learning environment to encourage critical thought, maintain safe and ethical practices, and develop the ability to communicate effectively. First, our mission engages chemistry majors seeking thorough technical knowledge and advanced skills that will enable them to pursue post-graduate studies or employment.  Our degree programs include an Applied Associates Chemical Technician degree, ACS Certified Bachelor’s degrees (Chemistry and Biochemistry), and a Chemistry Teaching Bachelor’s degree.  Our students take on undergraduate research opportunities under the direct mentorship of faculty members.  The relationships between the faculty and local businesses allow for real-world internship opportunities.  Second, our mission supports students in other scientific majors including pre-professional students, by providing molecular context interdisciplinary to life science or other physical sciences.  Third, our mission enables non-science majors (general education credit) to attain a basic understanding of chemistry and the scientific method, growing the community’s ability to evaluate critically and make informed decisions on issues relating to science, technology, and society. We extend our enthusiasm with the wider community through outreach activities, and through concurrent education opportunities.

• Student Learning Outcomes
  • Certificate

     

  • Associate Degree

     

  • Bachelor Degree

    At the end of their study at WSU, students completing a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry or Chemistry Teaching will have knowledge and comprehension of the core concepts of Chemistry. Additionally, students will have developed:

    • Problem-solving skills. Chemistry majors should be competent problem-solvers. They should be able to identify the essential parts of a problem and formulate a strategy for solving the problem.  They should be able to estimate the solution to a problem, apply appropriate techniques to arrive at a solution, test the correctness of their solution, interpret their result and connect it to related areas of chemistry.
    • Laboratory skills. Chemistry majors should be competent experimentalists. They should be able to design and set up an experiment, collect and analyze data, identify sources of error, interpret their result and connect it to related areas of chemistry.
    • Presentation skills. Chemistry majors should be able to express (orally and in writing) their understanding of core chemical principles, the results of experiments, the analysis of problems and their conclusions.
    • Computer skills. Chemistry majors should be competent users of basic software, such as word processing, spreadsheet, and graphing programs.  Strong presentation and organizing skills are complimented with computer knowledge in graphing and spreadsheets.

   

• Curriculum Grid

   

• Program and Contact Information

  The Department of Chemistry is housed within the College of Science.  It is approved by the American Chemical Society (ACS).  The department offers an ACS Certified Chemistry program that leads to the Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.  This program meets all the requirements of the ACS and the graduates' names are submitted to the ACS and certified by the department.  The Chemistry Teaching Major leads to a Bachelor of Science Degree with secondary education licensure.  The Chemistry minor, Chemistry Teaching Minor, and Bachelor of Integrated Studies (BIS) Chemistry emphasis are also available. The two-year Chemical Technician Program, leading to an Associate of Applied Science Degree or a Certificate of Skill Proficiency, is designed to emphasize skills required for employment as a technician in chemical laboratories.  The chemistry faculty’s range of expertise includes Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry.

   

  Contact Information
  Dr. Brandon Burnett, Chair
  Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
  Weber State University
  1415 Edvalson Street, Dept. 2503
  Ogden, UT 84408-2503
  (801) 626-6221

  brandonburnett@weber.edu

  Chemistry Department Website

• Assessment Plan

   

• Assessment Report Submissions
  • 2021-2022

     

  • 2019-2020

    1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:

    a. Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s)

    Hundreds of students enroll in service courses offered by the department each year and individual advising by the department chair (advisor) is not feasible.  Faculty members teaching service courses invite all students to participate in office hours and welcome questions regarding future coursework, course success, etc.

    b. Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)

    All students wishing to declare a major in one of the department’s programs meet with the department chair (advisor) to receive personalized advising, review program requirements, plan coursework associated with the major for the coming year, and get answers to their questions.  Students are then matched with faculty members based on their expressed interests, who act as principle advisors for the student’s remaining time in the program.  Students are also welcome at any time to consult with the department chair and other faculty to get answers to specific questions.  The department admin maintains a list of current majors and shares information of potential interest such as seminars, internships, research opportunities, etc, as they are announced.  Majors are invited to an annual seminar each fall (food provided) where faculty briefly introduce themselves and their research interests.

    2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.

    Closing the loop processes are under development in the department.
     

    The full report is available for viewing.

  • 2017

    1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

    • Each faculty member is committed to providing the highest quality courses possible. The new curriculum is much more flexible and provides students with many options that they do not have previously. Much of the new curriculum has been developed in response to assessment, program review, and ACS recommendations. Several courses are currently being revised to better serve the revised programs. CHEM 1210 now has a MATH 1050 pre/co-requisite with improvements in D/F/W rates already being noted for that course. Other chemistry/math co-requisites are being examined in an effort to ensure necessary student preparation.   

     

    2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors or graduate students. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed. Finally, what were your findings from this past year’s graduates?

    • All chemistry majors complete CHEM 4990, Senior Seminar, during their last semester, which serves as a program cap-stone that focusses on the student’s research experience and includes directly measurable outcomes reflected in student research reports, posters, and presentations. Assessments for that course are included in this report. 
    • Also, as part of the graduation sign off, each graduating chemistry major completes a questionnaire then interviews with the department chair.  These questionnaires and interviews provide some of the most valuable feedback that the chemistry program receives, emphasizing strengths and revealing concerns that need to be addressed. These questionnaires and interviews also provide a formal way of determining what our students plan to do following graduation. Feedback from these interviews and questionnaires frequently motivate changes to the programs and curriculum offered by the department. 
  • 2016

    1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

    • Each faculty member is committed to providing the highest quality courses possible. The new curriculum is much more flexible and provides students with many options that they do not have previously. Much of the new curriculum has been developed in response to assessment, program review, and ACS recommendations.

     

    2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.

    • All chemistry majors complete CHEM 4990, Senior Seminar, during their last semester, which serves as a program cap-stone that focusses on the student’s research experience and included directly measurable outcomes reflected in student research reports, posters, and presentations.  Assessments for that course are included in this report. 
    • Also, as part of the graduation sign off, each graduating chemistry major completes a questionnaire then interviews with the department chair. These questionnaires and interviews provide some of the most valuable feedback that the chemistry program receives, emphasizing strengths and revealing concerns that need to be addressed. These questionnaires and interviews also provide a formal way of determining what our students plan to do following graduation. Feedback from these interviews and questionnaires frequently motivate changes to the programs and curriculum offered by the department.

     

    The full report is available for viewing.

  • 2015

    1) Based on your program's assessment findings, what subsequent action(s) will your program take?

    • Each faculty member is committed to providing the highest quality courses possible. The new curriculum that we hope to introduce fall 2016 will be much more flexible and will provide students with many options that they do not currently have. Much of the new curriculum has been developed in response to assessment, program review, and ACS recommendations.

     

    2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them?

    • no response 

     

    The full report is available for viewing.

  • 2014

    1) Reflecting on this year's assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty's confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

    • The faculty of the Department of Chemistry are very confident in the quality of chemistry courses and overall program. As can be seen in some action course specific plans, faculty are making changes to improve student learning as indicated by the assessments.
    • While admittedly qualitative in nature one of the most useful program assessment tools for the chemistry program remains the exit interviews held with all graduating chemistry majors during their last semester of coursework. The following summarizes this year’s responses (these responses can be found in the attached full report).
    •  Chemistry Department Interviewer: Dr. H. Laine Berghout Graduation Exit Interview Responses. Exit Interview: 2013/2014. Compilation of Comments: 19 interviewed students

     

    2) With whom did you share the results of this assessment?

    • Assessment results are shared among the chemistry faculty and staff and with the Dean of the College of Science.

     

    3) Based on your program's assessment findings, what subsequent actions will your program take?

    • The Chemistry Program is preparing curriculum proposals to implement a significant revision intended to take advantage of recent American Chemical Society Bachelor’s Degree Program guidelines. We hope to implement the new curriculum in Fall 2016. These changes will provide students with greater flexibility in tailoring their degrees to meet their goals. Faculty within the department are increasingly implementing high-impact teaching methods in the classroom and laboratory, including POGIL, flipped, and other inquiry based methods. Based on faculty feed back, these methods are being successfully applied to some topics and circumstances, while more traditional lecture/discussion formats continue to produce the best learning results for other topics and circumstances. A new adaptive online homework system is being introduced in the general chemistry series that is showing promising results. The chemistry faculty are looking forward to the new science building that will come on line in 2016. The American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training is preparing a new revision of the Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor’s Degree Programs which will likely be adopted during the coming year. The Department of Chemistry is monitoring the development of these revisions and will likely adjust program and course content and learning outcomes as a result.

     

    Access to full report is available for viewing.

  • 2013

    1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

    • While admittedly qualitative in nature one of the most useful program assessment tools for the chemistry program remains the exit interviews held with all graduating chemistry majors during their last semester of coursework. The following summarizes this year’s responses (see the link to the full report below; responses to this question begin on page 54). 

     

    2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts? 

    • Assessment results are shared among the chemistry faculty and staff and with the Dean of the College of Science.

     

    3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take? 

    • The Chemistry Program is undergoing a significant revision intended to take advantage of recent American Chemical Society Bachelor’s Degree Program guidelines. These changes will provide students with greater flexibility in tailoring their degrees to meet their goals. Faculty within the department are increasingly implementing high-impact teaching methods in the classroom and laboratory. 

     

    To access the full report, select this link: Chemistry 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report

   

   

• Program Review

  2019-20
   

This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.