How is a dentist related to chemistry
Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pre-med, Pre-dental
hello everyone I'm professor Perry I'm
the head of our chemistry department of
Charleston Southern University I'm going
to tell you about some of the majors we
have to offer in our department some of
the programs we offer and let me also
tell you up front I'd much prefer to be
in a classroom talking to you
face-to-face but until we get back to
normal operations I'm a this virtual
session serve as a substitute once I get
to the end of it
you'll see some of my contact
information on the slide feel free to
contact me and when we get back to
normal operations if you have an
opportunity to visit campus I'd be happy
to show you around our science
facilities and and talk to you in more
detail about some of the programs we
have to offer but until then let this be
our substitute okay so in the chemistry
department we offer majors the
biochemistry major in that chemistry
major and then students who are
interested in careers in medicine or
dentistry we also direct them to the
biochemistry major and that is not at
CSU nor in any other university do I
know is there such a thing as a
pre-medical pre-dental major what
universities do is direct students
interested in those professional schools
do the major they believe that best
prepares them for entry into medical
schools and at CSU we believe that's our
biochemistry major it's going to give
you very solid preparation to do well on
application tests to professional
schools so of these two majors we offer
chemistry about
I'll talk a little bit more about both
of those chemistry major these are
really interested in more nuts and bolts
of chemistry and oftentimes heading
right out into the workforce innovation
sometimes going on to graduate school
and then the biochem major these are
students now who are interested in
understanding a lot of interest in
biology use the understanding of living
systems on a very fundamental basis now
let's be frank and note that for many
students chemistry is not their favorite
topic but if you make a connection their
biology which more students have been
trusted interested in and if we can show
students how you can explain biological
processes on a very fundamental basis by
understanding chemistry better now you
have your field of biochemistry and
that's a much more popular major amongst
our students than the chemistry major
it's now students who are interested in
chemistry these monks majors I've seen
at CSU these are some of the most
employable students immediately I'm
finishing their bachelor's degree and
that the employment opportunities are
readily available to them with the
bachelors we have students who have
graduated in recent years employed in
chemical companies right here in
Charlson area if students want to
further their training a chemistry major
is going to prepare them well for
graduate school Hydra school working on
a master's or doctoral degree those are
processes where the students are usually
have a lot of interested in research and
that says some graduates while clearly
working on the doctoral degree
is designed to facilitate a student
becoming more and more of an independent
researcher the where after obtaining the
doctoral degree one can lead a research
group students who don't go to graduate
school are oftentimes interested in
employment immediately after their
bachelor's degree well there's a lot of
testing analysis opportunities that can
be done with a chemistry major we have
some companies right here in Charleston
general engineering labs gel it's called
Bo - si and others that do testing of
soil samples a water pulls urine samples
all sorts of samples here they're
testing four different chemicals well
those who have a chemistry preparation
are well suited for such studies the
area of forensics in South Carolina and
pretty much every state now this the
state law enforcement division sled now
they have they have a crime research
labs forensics lab where samples are
gathered from crime scenes and came back
to lab and analyzed well not all but a
lot of these testing processes involve a
fundamental understanding of chemistry
being another area of forensics the
chemistry majors are well suited for
another one I have on our slide here
synthesis a sub-discipline of chemistry
is organic chemistry and those
interested in organic chemistry or
oftentimes interested in how you can
take basic building block and synthesize
those in this into something else times
chemicals that better the human
condition well that's a discipline we
call organic chemistry and it's a
discipline that involves synthesis of
chemicals if we had
library consisting while the chemicals
known today mostly chemicals in AD
library would be ones that have been
synthesized in the laboratory so organic
chemistry chemists engage in synthesis
and other important sub-discipline in
chemistry but there there are many
others I don't have time to you know
marry fear that depending on one's
interest a lot of other opportunities as
well a biochemistry major these students
also are are well equipped to seek
employment right after the bachelors
degree but many of them choose to go on
to professional school in that category
at place of dental school medical school
a pharmacy school also biochemistry is
good preparation all these schools you
have to take admission tests and those
admission tests cover on the fundamental
areas of science physics chemistry
biology and a biochemistry major is
going to give you excellent preparation
for admission into professional schools
like with a chemistry major those
biochemistry majors are interested in
exploring research opportunities further
they often go to graduate school you
know work on masters or and/or doctoral
degrees research and development with
companies biotech pharmaceutical
companies many opportunities here for
the biochemistry major is well depending
on the students area of interest now
when you're thinking about majors to
pursue a lot of different questions want
one probably wants to ask it's a few
those that are listed here and the first
one you see that are simply what do you
like to do what what gives you enjoyment
in life what when you wake up in the
and know you're gonna go what's what
what's gonna make you happy about waking
up in morning and knowing you you get to
go to work doing something you like to
do what is it that you like to do and
then you you want to that's sort of your
idea ideal and then you want to balance
that with a certain degree of practical
to which we have in the second point
here what a mark of light well what what
I what I like to do have that on one
hand but hopefully one can make a living
at that well what's the job market like
for what you like to do can those two
mesh nicely together what skills do I
need to get the job I want and that goes
along with the fourth point here as well
will this major adequately prepare me
well this major give me the skills for
the
well what do you what do you like to do
and what skills are you going to need to
do that well you want you want to pick a
major that's going to equip you with the
skills for the job you desire in the
area of medicine for example students
who end up going to medical school well
you can get the Medical School a lot of
different avenues can lead the Medical
School
but what but what ones are going to best
prepare you for that and that's where
our chemistry major comes in here again
that's a major it's going to give you
the very solid preparation for the
disciplines that not only are covered on
the medical school admissions tests but
also are covered these in the basic
science components the first two years
of medical school then lastly do I have
what it takes to successfully complete
this major again to be frank like
chemistry and biochemistry those are not
easy areas of study by any major they're
they're difficult it's not in them for
students really when they're first
starting out to get some grades they
wish they weren't getting well what type
of student are you what happens when you
get it pointing great you need a lot of
perseverance in these in these fields
you know yes you we provide a lot of
resources for to succeed
professors keep numerous office hours
each week and those are for nobody else
but the students we don't hold those or
gap time with fellow faculty or anything
else those office hours we hold those
are for the students no one what but the
students we want the students using that
we also have tutoring and no charge for
students another opportunity
many many resources we have at CSU to
help students who are having difficulty
and we encourage students don't be
bashful about taking advantage of those
resources you have at your disposal this
is a little bit of a comparison about
some of our majors in biology and
chemistry at CSU and if I start out here
in the far right with our chemistry
major you see that that has a of the
four majors shown on this slide that has
the most amount of chemistry also the
least amount of biology and actually
chemistry majors don't need to take any
biology at all and a rigorous amount of
mathematics and our teachers usually
take so much math that they end up
getting a minor in mathematics
and you see a year that's at least a
year of physics therefore the chemistry
major as well if you compare that with a
chemistry major we still have the year
of physics a little less math for the
biochem major considerably more biology
for the biochem major versus the
chemistry major right here and then a
little less chemistry for the biochem
major comparison to chemistry major now
these two majors right here biochemistry
and biology professional emphases
they're somewhat simpler and that they
have equal amounts of math requirement
somewhat similar amounts of biology and
chemistry requirement and then the
biochem major either with the year of
physics built in and that's a big reason
why we recommend the biochem major to
medical school applicants for example
because physics is a topic covered on
the MCAT exam and chemistry major
requires you to take a year of physics
about the general biology here that's
two major that students inserted more
wildlife
no biology would take okay as students
you have you have a multitude of
different options out there as far as
choosing a college or university
so what's distinctive about CS you might
choose Charleston Southern University or
our most significant distinction is that
we're a Christian University and
certainly in the Lowcountry area of
South Carolina
that's our distinction that's our unique
feature and even somewhat in the
in-state there are other Christian
universities in the state of South
Carolina and not a whole lot so we're
still distinctive in that sense across
eight but being a Christian University
what does that mean at CSU Oh part of
our mission here academic excellence and
a Christian environment well Christian
environment at CSU what's that look like
well all the faculty are professing
Christians students we accept students
of any faith background or no faith
background at all just all students are
welcome regardless of a background now
it's said we we do we are very
purposeful about our own disciplines our
own areas of expertise how do those
areas of expertise relate to the gospel
that is something we purposely do in the
classroom and some of these you know
some disciplines that's easier to do and
others like chemistry for example well
we teach the same chemistry from the
same textbooks Nomos in any university
in America so that we have we have that
in common but what we are distinguished
by is how does our particular discipline
chemistry biochemistry
whatever is one study how does that
relate to the gospel and that's a that's
a focal point yeah and that's not always
easy to do but that's something that we
that we are very purposeful about
professors or regardless of their
discipline their teaching we have the
green light to do that we're encouraged
to do that anything if you ask most
professors why are we at CSU it's
because we get to do that that's that's
something we like to do that's that
thing when we wake up in the morning put
some bounce in our step so we get to
campus and teach our disciplines and how
do our and think about how how do our
disciplines relate to the good news the
good news of Jesus Christ science and
faith discussions there's a science and
faith forum that meets independently of
any more formalized lecture discussions
and then your typical course and these
are forms where they're led by faculty
member talking about a subject matter
that particular faculty member is
interested in this will be a subject
area often very contemporary one in our
society that we have a topic science
that something about that topic the
gospel says something about that topic
and you know oftentimes at least these
appear you know occasionally to be in
disagreement with one another
well it's science and in in faith these
are these are both pursuits of truth
they're methods of doing so are
different in each case but if they're
both pursuing truth and they're and
they're both understood correctly well
we don't believe those two are in
disagreement with one another when we
properly understand each so those are
those are issues we wrestle through
amongst the faculty amongst our
discussions with students Sony's science
and faith forums we we want students to
participate in those
they're welcome to to speak up well we
hope they're learning from us we also
hope to be learning from them a little
bit what are what are their perspectives
and can they shed some light on the
topic for us and then lastly here the
Whitfield Christian Leadership Center
that's a center we have on campus that
throughout the year hosts speakers these
are speakers who come in usually very
well-known speakers come in and discuss
a variety of different topics and then
sometimes those are topics of science
again very fruitful times to have these
discussions about how science and gospel
how can they inform one another another
distinctive Charleston Southern
University and this one's also quite
noticeable to me because I taught at
some universities where students
particularly in freshman classes sit in
an auditorium amongst several hundred
other students and that's not a that's
not the best of teaching environments to
make an understatement
well what about CSU CSU we put a lot of
we put a lot of time we allocate a lot
of resources to making sure our classes
stay at a much more manageable size
you're not going to have any classes
here with even a hundred students and
those don't happen you know in Sciences
and this is this is pretty standardized
across university now your largest
course you're likely to have be about 50
students that's the largest many of them
will be considerably less in size and in
the science classes in the largest
classroom we has holds 48 students now
that's the biggest lecture room size we
have in science and even for freshman
classes some of those section
they're just 24 again that's even for
four freshmen classes where were you
have an abundance of students and then
as you progress through that freshman
year and taking introductory course work
and continuing on into upper level class
work now your class sizes are you know
24 or less usually oftentimes maybe a
dozen you know eight ten twelve students
those those small environments that's
very conducive to learning no need even
students at CSU that would want to fall
through the cracks and not be known by
the professor well your professor is
going to know you at CSU and those those
personal interactions that's that makes
for a good learning environment and then
our our labs that we have with the
science classes the largest one you'll
have there in our chemistry lab 24
students max Nagumo C's when you get to
your sophomore junior and senior level
courses are driving average more around
a dozen students so small class size
another distinctive about CSU in
comparison to many other universities in
those small class sizes that makes for a
better learning environment the hands-on
experience here this follows very
directly from the small class sizes well
if you got small class sizes you have
less students competing given course
that's going to facilitate more hands-on
exercises less students competing for
the professor's time for competing for
equipment time well you have more
opportunities here to get more
intimately involved in your subject
matter and these would include
undergraduate research for our science
majors we don't require but we certainly
encourage students to do at least one
semester of undergraduate research
that's usually at least three credit
hours worth
and that would be where the student
works either one on one or two students
to one faculty member in any given
semester again meant many times it's
just one on one sometimes it's it's two
students per faculty member that would
be where the students are going into the
faculty members research lab and then
participating on a research project
conducted by the faculty member stay the
art instrumentation our Science Building
moving around fall two thousand four or
five and that's about 15 years or so old
now it's still very modern facility our
commentation it is very modern very
up-to-date it's well taken care of you
know you don't go into a laboratory and
find half the instruments in there and
in a state of bill then things are
working the instrumentation we have and
if we want to quantify it it's certainly
not the amount that a major research
university would have but for the size
institution we are you know around 3,500
students we're very well equipped to
carry out research projects some of the
other things you see I dissections uh
you find that and your your biology
classes and gene cloning PCR and DNA
fingerprinting those are techniques of
molecular biology frequently used and
biochemistry type work those are decades
old now but they're they're very
important techniques using an everyday
sort of fashion now to investigate a
number of number of research avenues in
the laboratory very very important
techniques again students are
facilitating and learning these
their techniques and then the
environment you know our building is
about 15 years old now but it's a
building kept in very good condition
laboratories very well-equipped faculty
research facilities not only do we have
the King labs but separate from those
teaching laboratories we have the
faculty research labs the animal holding
facility we don't currently don't have
any animal research going on at CSU but
we do have those areas students
interested in plants we have botany we
have a greenhouse area on the lawn
behind the Science Building and then on
both the first and second floors of our
science facility we have you know
student study areas and particularly in
the second floor large atrium like Lobby
that's one of the favorite places for
students to study that we have on campus
that's our science building right there
an open fall of 2005 fifty-four thousand
square feet the the general layout of it
it's a two-story building general layout
is of most of the biology on the first
floor in most of chemistry on the second
floor and I will note also in a lawn -
building that you can't see from the
picture here we just broke ground a
couple weeks ago on an expansion of our
science facilities and that new facility
vennett has some additional biology and
chemistry space it's also going to house
a new engineering program for your
engineering program is coming online and
on campus it's actually in effect now
for incoming freshmen an engineering
program but that facility will be
opening in about 18 months this is a
picture of our chemical instrumentation
laboratory on the second floor
a lot of the instruments their
chromatograph spectrophotometers
instruments that are used in analyzing
molecules not only in a quality sense
but also in a quantitative sense those
things you see hanging from the ceiling
all those are snorkels is remove any
volatile gases from the laboratory take
those outside students who are working
on a research project with faculty
member often times are involved in using
ups fermentation is laboratory and in
chemistry we have a course it's simply
called instrumentation that teaches as
the teaches the theory and practice
behind each of the many instruments that
we see there and then you know one of
our other other distinctives being a
university that's not too large in size
and around 3,500 students is that we
participate in Division one athletics
so we students that you know haven't in
that Leduc area there's opportunity to
participate in many different men's and
women's sports here and maybe you don't
have a lot of athletic talent but you
like being a spectator like I do well a
lot of opportunities to go and watch our
athletes and you know with your CSU ID
that's of no charge to you
and then are a little bit about the city
were located then we're on me CSU's
campus those of you who might not be
familiar with the area we're on the
outskirts of Charleston we may be sure
our exact distance may be about 15 miles
or so from downtown Charleston but
Charleston City Charleston annually
ranks as one of America's most friendly
cities it ranks very high yearly basis
and favorite destination for
international travelers someone who was
born and grew up in Ohio I'm one of
those Yankees that has migrated the
south but I'm very happy today to call
Charleston my home it's a beautiful city
the coastal areas of South Carolina
slide in general has done a pretty nice
job of taking care of their environment
or coastal areas are beautiful a lot of
opportunity to get outside and
participate in a lot of activities a lot
of cultural events in the city of
Charleston so CCSU is right in the
center of a thriving city that's got a
lot of history a lot of culture a lot of
great places to get outside and join
nature in my last few minutes here I
want to say a few things about your
preparation in coming to the University
now whenever students get to CSU as
professors we try to meet you right
where you are and do the best we can of
preparing you for your for your goals
for the for the job you're seeking well
the flip side of that is that we hope
before you get to CSU that you are doing
the best you can to prepare yourself
and the college board that administers
the SAT exam they've been doing this for
years and years and they have mountains
of data on test you know they they've
looked to see what students when you get
to the University the ones that are
succeeding what have they been doing in
high school and success here you know
that can be an arbitrary what we define
as success can be quite arbitrary but
the College Board defines that here is a
student then when they get to the
University and their freshman year they
they get a B or better average their
freshman year because the College Board
says getting that is very important as a
predictor and doing well your remaining
years and graduating them for from
college through getting a job afterwards
well the students that are getting that
that B average or better their first
year of college that correlates with
getting a SAT score in today's SAT about
1120 or better so that's that sort of
that SAT target there at least 1120 I
that is if you're getting that eggs a
pretty good predictor for doing well
once you get to college well working
backwards here still to get that 1120 or
better what have they been doing in high
school and this slide might be a little
difficult to read therefore you saw I'll
point out some of these first thing most
of these students are doing is taking
high level math whether it's
trigonometry precalculus or calculus
whatever the highest math courses your
high school has available take those if
you want to major in the sciences and
colleagues take those a higher level
math courses because we could build a a
pyramid where we would have mathematics
on the bottom and maybe physics above
that
history and biology and social sciences
as we get more to the peak of our
pyramid and that thing you have down at
the bottom there mathematic that's the
foundation for all of our sciences and
that is if your math you're doing well
in that area that's probably a pretty
good sign that it regardless of what
discipline science you choose you
probably have pretty good odds of doing
well these students are also completing
a core curriculum in high school that
would be four years of English at least
three years of science three years of
math and so forth they're also taking AP
or honors courses again if your high
school offers those and if you have the
prerequisites to take them take those
courses if you if you take with an AP
course for example and take the AP exam
at the end of it you score high enough
on that AP exam CSU and pretty much
every other university will allow you to
in effect test out of many freshman
level courses taking high level math
taking AP courses and we know those
aren't easy things to do you know one
hand in high school you're trying to
manage the jeat your GPA get a good GPA
because you're applying for scholarships
and what we know that we appreciate that
but as far as professors go you know we
want you to take those difficult courses
in high school even if your GPA gets
banged up a little bit that's because
that that's telling us that now you may
might it might have not gotten the score
in that class that you would have liked
have gotten but you took some something
difficult there and that's telling us
that you're gonna be more amply prepared
for your college level coursework so
let's say don't don't shy away from
those difficult courses at your high
school as professors we want you taking
those because those are going to better
prepare you for the college experience
one other thing to note here ranked in
the top 10% of their high school class
well that's not a very good predictor of
success in college and that tells us
that there's a lot of variability in our
in our high schools ranking in the top
10% of one high school well that may
really be outstanding ranking the top
10% of another high school well that
high school is not a strong high school
overall that may not hold a lot of
significance so don't don't get have any
hang-ups about where you rank in your
graduating class some of these other
things your your math preparation taking
AP your honors courses though those are
more significant when it comes to doing
well in college so those are some things
if you have time yet in high school then
you can be doing to give us a better
material to work with once you get to
the university we like to see you do
those things and then when you get to
the university you're in a better
prepared State we're going to be able to
hopefully propel you forward to higher
levels if you come in at a higher level
I think my time is pretty much expired
here we're thinking about some of these
things and you have any questions that
come up you have my email address on the
bottom of the slide there feel free to
send me an email and but like I said at
the onset if you can have opportunity to
visit the charleston area visit CSU i'm
more than happy to show you around our
science facilities and talk with you in
more detail about your career plans and
at least our chemistry and biochemistry
majors might apply to those so thank you
very much for listening goodbye
