Teaching Chemistry in the New Century: Physical Chemistry

This essay briefly summarizes the themes of nineteen papers presented at the 221st National American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego, CA (April 2001). The papers showed the importance of progressive and effective pedagogy, assessment to guide course and course material preparation, software for learning mathematics and molecular modeling, and teaching materials that place the course in content rich context. Although the junior or senior level course cannot create experts in physical chemistry, it can be interesting and it can enable students to develop the skills needed for further study in any career.