Developing and teaching an honors chemistry and art course

CHED 32

Jonathan Touster, jtouster@clarion.edu, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, Peirce Science Center Rm. 325, Clarion, PA 16214
I developed and taught a “Chemistry and Art” introductory science course for an honors program. A case study approach was used to introduce basic course material as well as to engage the students. For example, to introduce geometric optics I gave them the artist David Hockney's controversial theory that great masters employed optical aids. The class then read articles for and against Hockney's theory and debated the merits. I will discuss this case and several others, including Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Ginevra de' Benci, the Vinland Map, and Prokudin-Gorskii's color photographs of Czarist Russia.