Organic First Development Site

This site is a resource for those considering the Bio-Organic Chemistry First curriculum, which presents a new approach to the college chemistry curriculum that caters deliberately to biologists. A new curriculum in the chemistry department at Juniata College allows for the easy introduction of a great deal of biochemistry at the early stages of the study of chemistry.

Sixty to eighty percent of students enrolled in introductory college chemistry courses take those courses because they are required for a professional or academic goal unrelated to chemistry. Although most of these students are interested in the life sciences, most chemistry departments offer a first-year course that is extremely physical and mathematical, with little obvious application to biology students. This is followed by an organic course that thoroughly surveys all the organic chemistry a chemistry major needs—while including a great deal that biology majors do not need and omitting much that they might find fascinating.

In addition to acknowledging the academic needs of life science majors, this new sequence provides chemistry majors with an early introduction to the connections between chemistry and biology. This connectivity is beneficial in its own right, but recently became more relevant when the ACS’s Committee on Professional Training (CPT) declared that all approved chemistry departments must cover the equivalent of one semester of biochemistry as a required course. Biochemistry content can be offered as a separate course or incorporated into the material covered by the other core courses.