Incorporating ChatGPT into a Simulated Peer-Review Assignment in an Upper-Level Materials Chemistry Course

The growing presence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), such as ChatGPT, has already begun to alter the scientific landscape. In addition to the utility of GenAI, there are also concerns about its ethical use. The rapid introduction of GenAI means that science undergraduate curricula need to be updated to address this technological evolution. To that end, we report here an assignment for an organic materials chemistry course incorporating ChatGPT. This two week activity involves students using ChatGPT to generate short essays on course topics and then critiquing and editing the generated information. Students reported that this assignment helped their understanding of the course topics and that they enjoyed the activity overall. Additionally, we address some of the issues we encountered when implementing this assignment due to the unpredictable nature of ChatGPT, and the solutions we found for them. Overall, students felt that this assignment was valuable for improving their grasp of the course topics without an excessive time commitment.