Innovative Teaching in Physical and Computational Chemistry: Making Stronger Connections to Students and Faculty

The current undergraduate physical chemistry curriculum has developed to span a wide range of topics. The traditional topics of thermodynamics, kinetics, and quantum mechanics have spawned a more intensive exploration of advanced and emerging topics such as statistical mechanics, computational chemistry, spectroscopy, and advanced instrumentation. This symposium focuses on innovation in curriculum, activities, and best practices for teaching undergraduate physical, computational, and biophysical chemistry courses technically and creatively. This includes both lecture and laboratory courses. We particularly encourage submissions that discuss active learning pedagogies in physical chemistry including, but not limited to, course-based undergraduate research (CUREs), team-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning. We also welcome activities that focus on data literacy including programming, data analysis, data visualization, and data science in chemistry. Submissions may discuss a particular activity for teaching physical chemistry or larger course- or program-level curricular innovations.