Spearheaded by a committee report from Harvard (1),the general education movement was invigorated at the end of World War II,although the movement has lost momentum in the intervening half-century.Educational reform is cyclic;Harvard has issued a new report aimed at revitalizing the liberal education component of the undergraduate curriculum,with an emphasis on general education in science (2,3).The report identifies three groups of students in introductory science courses:"science majors,those preparing for medical school,and those whose interests lie outside science" (3),and suggests that courses be designed to serve the needs of all three groups at the same time.Few post-secondary institutions are selective enough to make this a viable approach.Instead,the more conventional separation of beginning chemistry courses into two groups,one for science and engineering majors and the other for nonscience majors will persist.In 1955 I wrote a paper with the same title (4)as this paper:in the former paper I suggested a number of general education topics that were appropriate in an introductory chemistry course designed for science and engineering majors.It was tacitly assumed that chemistry courses for technical majors necessarily expose students to the general education aspects of science.I now feel that a more explicit approach is necessary and that the general chemistry course is a suitable vehicle for addressing certain general education issues.
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