General chemistry

General Chemistry for students enrolled in a life science curriculum

Project Leader

Prof. Jean-Claude Bünzli
jean-claude.bunzli@epfl.ch
Section de chimie
Université de Lausanne
BCH 1402
1015 Lausanne

Project Coordinator

Emmanuel Fernandes
Emmanuel.Fernandes@centef.unil.ch
Université de Lausanne
Lausanne

Project Partners

Summary

The goal of this 3-year project is to establish a modular and interactive Internet web site for the teaching of general chemistry to freshmen students enrolled in a life sciences university program (medicine, biology, possibly pharmacy and pedagogical studies). Students should become familiar with the basic chemistry concepts needed to understand important life processes and the whereabouts in day-to-day usage of chemical technology.

The idea behind the project, supported initially by four universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Fribourg), is to offer a flexible tool to students who have followed very different secondary education programs, some of them not having taken any science course yet. The project aims therefore at optimising their basic science training during the first year of higher education. A system of on-line exercises and tests will help the students to assess their actual understanding of the matter. Video films of live experiments and computer simulations will illustrate the main principles and phenomena described in the teaching program.

The site will offer bilingual teaching (French, German) and is intended to serve 1200-1300 students from the supporting universities. However, efforts will rapidly be devoted to enlarge the number of participating universities and to translate the modules into English (and , possibly Italian), in order to make this teaching site available to all the students enrolled in a Swiss university and, also, to international students. Finally, links will be made with similar programs aimed at more advanced students ("vertical teaching") and also with modules containing prerequisites in mathematics and physics.