Chemistry

This course examines how cosmetics and personal care products work from a scientific standpoint. Chemistry plays a key role in the manufacturing and continual improvement of personal care and other household products. It is involved in all stages, from the chemical extraction of natural products to the packaging of final consumer products. Throughout the course, students will learn the interaction of skin-care chemicals with lipids in the skin, the suspension of oil in emulsions, and how sunscreens filter or scatter UV light. Furthermore, the students will learn how to interpret ingredient lists and understand their roles. Marketing hype and trends, such as anti-aging, will be dissected to examine the underlying scientific principles and negative campaigns analyzed to evaluate their veracity.

This service-learning course combines a structured curriculum and extensive partnership with a local community-based organization to offer tangible community service. Here, student community service includes direct
engagement as well as a research-based action plan addressing a specific challenge or goal identified by a community-based organization. Students begin by exploring key community-based organizations: examining their
mission, vision and goals, and the place of the organization in the local community. Each student then works with an assigned partner organization and invests at least 90 hours partnering with the organization, working with them
and investigating ways to solve a challenge or issue the organization has identified. Student service-learning includes exploring the proximate and ultimate drivers of the organization's chosen challenge, and the organization's
infrastructure, resources, limitations and possibilities for reducing barriers to achieving the organization's self-identified goals. In concert, coursework probes the role of community-based organizations in both local and global
contexts, common challenges of community-based organizations in defining and implementing their goals, the role of service-learning in addressing these issues, and effective ways for students to help them achieve their mission,
vision, and goals. Coursework also guides the student's service-learning experience by helping students develop sound international service ethics, provide tools to investigate solutions to common development issues, aid in
data analysis and presentation, and provide best practices to illustrate findings and deliver approved joint recommendations orally and in writing. Throughout, students use service-learning as a means to expand their global awareness and understanding, explore shared aspirations for social justice, and develop skills to work with others to effect positive change.

This course examines skills in chemistry for application to life and medical sciences, engineering, and further study in chemistry. It covers nuclear and radiation chemistry, wave theory, atomic orbitals, spectroscopy, bonding, enthalpy and entropy, equilibrium, processes occurring in solutions, and the functional groups in carbon chemistry. Students develop experimental design, conduct and analysis skills in chemistry through experiments that ask and answer questions like how do dyes work, how do we desalinate water, how do we measure the acid content in foods, how do we get the blue in a blueprint, and how do we extract natural products from plants? 

CIEE supports qualified students who wish to pursue an academically rigorous independent research project while abroad. In order to enroll, students must submit a research proposal including a clearly defined research topic,
explanation of research plans, description of preparation in the planned area of study, list of resources, tentative outline of a final paper, and suggested schedule of progress. Students complete a total of 100-120 hours of
research and meet regularly with an advisor to complete an academically rigorous, ethically sound, and culturally appropriate research project and final research paper. Approval for participation in Directed Independent Research
must be obtained from CIEE and the student's home institution prior to arrival on the program.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

Knowledge of the chemical composition and properties of food is of primary importance to ensure product quality, safety, and stability. In the lectures of this course, the effects of processing and storage conditions on the chemical composition of the major food constituents (lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins) and phenolic compounds are discussed. Examples are the modification of lipids and the importance of lipid refining, modification of polysaccharides to optimize their properties, reactivity (e.g. oxidation) of phenolic compounds, and stability & chemical reactivity of proteins. The course focuses on the occurrence and reactivity of these compounds in different food products and raw materials, the analysis of these compounds and their reaction products, and the effect of reactions during storage and processing on the chemical composition and properties of raw materials and food products. Information discussed during the lectures is applied in tutorials, digital case studies, and a practical in which students design the experiment.

This course covers the different types of membrane proteins, how they can be overexpressed and purified from a host cell, and how different methods can be used to analyze their structure and function. The course includes predictions and practical investigations of protein folding in a membrane, as well as a shorter project where you under guidance plan and carry out cloning and overexpression of a membrane protein of your choice.  Course lectures address the three different main types of membrane proteins and associated cellular processes: transport and transporters, signal transduction and receptors, bioenergetics, and photosynthetic and respiratory proteins. Lectures dealing with methods for theoretical modeling of membrane protein structure, fusion protein techniques, X-ray crystallography, heterologous expression, solubilization, and purification of membrane proteins are also included in the course. Laboratory sessions, exercises, and project work are used to determine the transmembrane topology of a protein starting with a model of the protein based on sequence information and theoretical methods. This is followed by experimental determination using genetic construction and expression of a fusion protein of the membrane protein and a marker protein in a bacterial system which is subsequently analyzed.  An individually planned and executed project on protein expression provides practice in literature searching, project planning, and documentation. The project is to be concluded with a poster presentation.

This course examines the historical, practical, and simple chemical aspects of: food, food additives; vitamins; minerals, diet and cancer; dieting; food-borne illnesses, health food and cooking.

For biomedical engineers, the basic concept of organic chemistry including bonding/isomerism, alkane/cycloalkane, and various chemical reactions will be discussed in this class 

The course covers the following topics: 

• Organic Chemistry and Cover Story 

• Bonding and Isomerism 

• Alkane and Cycloalkane 

• Alkenes and Alkynes  

• Aromatic Compounds  

• Stereoisomerism 

• Organic Halogen Compounds 

• Alcohols, Phenols, and Thiols  

• Ethers and Epoxides 

• Aldehydes and Ketones I 

• Carboxylic Acid and Their Derivatives 

Prior knowledge of chemistry, physics, or mathematics is not required to enroll in the course. This course is designed for students in the Humanities or Social Sciences with no previous education in Chemistry. It may also serve as a remedial course for students wishing to proceed to a regular level 1 Chemistry course. Chemistry involves the study of matter and the changes it undergoes. Chemistry plays an important role in everyday life, as matter is everywhere and everything around us consists of chemicals. This includes humans, fauna, flora, stars, and planets, and from a somewhat different perspective food, clothes, buildings, vehicles, computers, drugs, and art.  The course includes an overview of the composition, structure, and transformations of matter and a project in which students apply chemical knowledge in a non-science discipline.