Service chemistry courses often struggle to balance disciplinary coverage with the professional needs of nonchemistry majors. At many institutions, engineering students complete only the first semester of general chemistry or a compressed one-semester version, leaving critical topics such as crystal structures, phase behavior, and electrochemistry marginalized or omitted. To address this challenge, Chemistry for Engineers at the University of Kansas was redesigned using an “engineering-first” approach. The sequence was organized around engineering themes─metals, ceramics, polymers, semiconductors, combustion, water chemistry, and corrosion─with chemistry serving as the interpretive lens, rather than engineering appearing only as appended examples. Survey data (N = 259) indicated that more than 80% of students judged the curriculum relevant to their careers and better connected to engineering applications, and two-thirds reported increased interest in chemistry. Institutional records of DFW rates (grades of D, F, or Withdrawal) from Fall 2014 to Fall 2024 provide additional context, showing that the redesigned course coincides with a period of relatively low and stable attrition within a longer-term downward trend. This case suggests that reorganizing chemistry instruction around disciplinary applications can support student motivation and persistence while maintaining conceptual rigor. Although developed for engineering, the model points toward a broader shift for service chemistry: from discipline-centered to application-centered design, offering a transferable framework for aligning chemistry instruction with the needs of partner fields.
Shuai Sun (Thu,) studied this question.