Gatorade
General Chemistry Curriculum Supplement
Instructors Guide:

Reference to the topics of the General Chemistry curriculum to be covered in the case.

Inquiry-based discussions of development issues.

Student research elements.

A major problem requiring understanding of the curriculum elements in order to outline potential solutions.

B. Gatorade®:
Gatorade® shows how a few young physicians at the University of Florida used the principles of General Chemistry to develop a fluid-replenishment beverage that reformed the practices of athletic performance. Problems of dehydration and heat prostration plagues athletes and others undergoing hard physical exercise in hot, humid environments.

The developers of Gatorade® understood the gas laws, colligative properties, thermochemistry and thermodynamics and chemical kinetics. They used these principles to develop a simple beverage capable of maintaining human fluid balance in exercise.

1. Curriculum Topics: Our Gatorade® case shows the scientific, commercial, legal and environmental issues that Gatorade®,'s developers faced. Gatorade® calls out a need for understanding: a)of the Gas Laws as we consider water vapor loss through respiration, b) of colligative properties as we understand salt balance, c) of thermochemistry as we think through energy replenishment.

2. Development Issues: Gatorade®'s young physicians thought through:

The ethics of treating a football team with a newly developed beverage.

The ownership of the Gatorade® development.

Reformulation when the government banned the artificial sweetener cyclamate.

The case forces the students to discuss these issues without establishing a right/wrong answer or approach. We seek to foster inquiry and encourage conflict. We know how the case developed, we give the students an a-priori opportunity to develop their own viewpoints. (Students or faculty can click on the Case Discussion units to open an isolated case page for printing. See Example.)

3. Student Research: We select student research tasks. In the Gatorade® case we ask that students identify normal concentrations of body fluids. This is an easy task, requiring a handbook reference. But we go to a more difficult level when we ask that students identify the work of exercise. Energy consumption in exercise is often reported, but the amount of energy appearing as work is less-readily found. Yet the relationship of heat/work teaches a critical element of thermochemistry and thermodynamics.

C. Presentation:
If we expect to supplement the existing, rigorous chemistry curriculum, we must provide the time. ChemCases offers a transition between the classroom and the laboratory. Preliminary discussion during class time of the critical science and the decision-making, leads to research, experiments and problem solving during the laboratory time.

• We design ChemCases as a supplement within the standard, four credit second semester General Chemistry course of 45,  fifty-minute lectures and 14 three-hour laboratories.
• The ChemCases are web presentations and we assume internet access for all students.
• The standard text remains the primary source for scientific topics.
• We expect the instructor will use 6-8 lecture sections/semester for the introducing five ChemCases.  We suggest teaching two chapters over five classes, then introducing the real-world ChemCases unit for the sixth lecture.  The ChemCases unit will replace end-of-chapter considerations of the two subject chapters.
• Each ChemCases unit requires two hours of student preparation.   Preparation includes reading the unit, looking up relevant research material linked to the ChemCases unit, doing simple comprehension/application exercises related to the Case Discussions and analyzing/synthesizing a position for the Case Discussions.

D. Comments:
We invite your reaction to the ChemCases Gatorade® case and to the outline of our presentation format. We join with a number of similar efforts at curriculum development knowing full well that no single effort will represent the way to revise the teaching of our science to make it as appealing to our 21st century students as it was to us.