Commonwealth College

The Chemistry Department offers several courses designed for honors students enrolled in the Commonwealth College. Each course is designated with an “H” after the course number; CHEM 121H, General Chemistry, is offered in the fall semester and CHEM 122H, General Chemistry, is offered in the second semester. These courses are taught using a highly student-centered approach and make extensive use of computer and media technology. The laboratory component of CHEM 121H/122H emphasizes investigative experimental projects. CHEM 265H, Organic Chemistry I, is offered in the fall semester and CHEM 266H, Organic Chemistry II, is offered in the spring semester. For chemistry majors the laboratory component of CHEM 265H/266H is CHEM 267H/268H and is offered in the fall and spring, respectively. Commonwealth College non-chemistry majors take CHEM 269 to fulfill the organic laboratory requirement. Commonweatlth College students may enroll in CHEM 396H-Independent Study and CHEM 496H-Independent Research. Enrollment in 496H requires EH&S certification.

The department also offers 1-credit honors colloquia with some of its upper level courses. In recent years, honors colloquia have been offered with CHEM 476 – Physical Chemistry 2 and CHEM 513 – Instrumental Analysis, both in the spring semester.

Departmental Honors in chemistry requires 4 honors courses to include CHEM 499Y, CHEM 499T, and two other honors courses in chemistry with one at the 300 level or above. All four of these courses count toward the Commonwealth College 8-course requirement.