RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Where is Calculus in Chemistry? Determining Content Alignment Between Calculus and Chemistry
Page: 1098
Previous research indicates that mathematics ability predicts student success in chemistry courses. Not surprisingly, chemistry students are required to take courses in mathematics as prerequisites and co-requisites, including calculus. In this work, we seek to identify the ways calculus skills and concepts appear in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum, focusing on the introductory general chemistry sequence. To this end, we combined relevant disciplinary frameworks and looked for alignment: the Calculus Content Framework (CCF) and the Anchoring Concepts Content Map (ACCM) for general chemistry. Preliminary results indicate explicit use of calculus is not common in introductory chemistry, although there are opportunities for instructors to use the general chemistry topic of chemical kinetics as a context for the application of differentiation and integration. Future work will involve mapping out the landscape of the remainder of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum and as an expected outcome of this work we seek to provide tangible resources to facilitate cross-disciplinary discussions between instructors in calculus and chemistry.