On Campus Blog

How one University of Minnesota professor crowdsourced the answer to a higher-ed question

For those academics unfamiliar with crowdsourcing, here's an example to get your juices flowing:

University of Minnesota chemistry professor Chris Cramer recently went on Twitter to ask what math requirements were for chemistry majors at other schools:

 

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(via Storify)

He then collected the international collection of tweeted replies on Storify, which you can find here.

If you're interested, here's his summary of what he found:

"It's all over the map. ... Non-U.S. degrees require both of these courses and likely others beyond them. In the U.S. about half of degree holders had to take one or both, and of those who did NOT take them, many wished that they had. However, a sizable fraction suggested that (whether they had taken them or not) they were unnecessary unless one planned a focus on physical chemistry that went beyond the undergraduate major. A few, of course, asserted that it was just good for one's soul to take more math... Finally, a small number suggested that their Chemistry program had taught a boutique math course tailored specifically for the P.Chem. courses in lieu of requiring more general courses."