P780: Best teaching practices and strategies for success with a diverse student audience in General Chemistry

Our student audience at SUNY Cobleskill comes from a varied background with diverse preparation in the sciences and differing levels of interest in chemistry. Students’ majors run the full gamut from pre-med and pre-vet to equine health and fisheries management. In order to maximize student learning and mitigate the fear of chemistry, we have implemented a weekly quizzing and testing model with marked increases in student outcomes and retention. Results show a substantial increase of final exam grades when low-stakes weekly exams replace more traditional high-stakes exams. Concurrently, student satisfaction with the course increased. By evaluating our longitudinal data, we will present our successes and failures as measured over the course of two decades.