Secondary School Feature Articles

* Low-Cost Science Teaching Equipment for Visually Impaired Children, by. H.O. Gupta and Rakshpal Singh, p 610.
* Synthesis of Exotic Soaps in the Chemistry Laboratory, by Otto Phanstiel IV, Eric Dueno, and Queenie Xianghong Wang, p 612.

A Month To Forget?

Of course not, even though the media conveyed a great deal of news in February that one might wish to forget. The February 25th issue of our local newspaper carried a headline "U.S. School Seniors Fare Poorly in Tests". Similar headlines appeared in papers across the nation but the subject - the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) - drew scant attention from the general public. However, the report is causing considerable discussion among those directly involved with K-12 science. In her article on page 526 of this issue, Carolyn Sweeny Judd provides a WWW address where you can find detailed information about the results of the study. Another source of information is TIMSS Resource Center, http://www.rbs.org/eisenhower/resources/timss.html. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to visit one of these sites in order to become equipped with the facts to respond to administrators, parents, students, and the public. I have been depressed by some of the unproductive finger pointing that has occurred, but greatly encouraged by the positive "let's roll up our sleeves" approach taken by many teachers. A high school chemistry teacher in my community, Lucretia Carpenter, took pen in hand and promptly wrote to our regional newspaper, asking parents to encourage - and require - their children to devote the time and energy needed to prepare for science classes. A modest action, perhaps, but she took time from her extremely busy schedule to do something positive. I am certain many readers of this column took similar action, whether it was responding to a reporter's inquiry, talking to a parent, serving on a task force or curriculum committee, or myriad other possibilities. Let's salute all the 'Ms. Carpenters' for their initiatives and challenge each other to focus less on the things we can't change and concentrate on what we can do.

We also need to be concerned with those things that we can't change individually. In a February 24 press release (see http://ustimss.msu.edu/12gradepr.htm ), William H. Schmidt stated "US students frequently opt out of advanced study of mathematics and science in high school or are placed in less demanding courses even if they do continue to take mathematics and science courses. So high school mathematics and science is unlikely to overcome the poor foundation provided during US middle school education and reverse the downward trend in comparative performance for average students." Do you agree? What do you think are the most important policy and practice issues relative to improving science achievement? And, what interesting initiatives have you taken in response to the report? Email (j.e.howell@usm.edu) your response to any or all of these questions before April 10 and I will summarize them in the June column.

Applications and Analogies on Video

Ron DeLorenzo, editor of the Applications and Analogies feature, frequently speaks to high school and college teacher groups about topics from his newspaper columns directed to grades K-8, the JCE Applications and Analogies feature, and articles he has published in textbooks. Earlier this year one of his presentations was taped by WPBA, a public broadcasting station in Atlanta. The Georgia Science Teachers Association is distributing the videotape. For ordering information, contact GSTA, 1447 Peachtree Street Street, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309.

Chemical History and High School Teachers

Mark Alber, editor of the Interdisciplinary Connections feature, appears in the Spring 1998 issue of Chemical Heritage, p 19. Mark, and English teacher Rena Patton, presented "The Poetry of Chemistry" at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia recently. Also featured in the same issue (p 5) are the Polymer Ambassadors, a group of high school teachers who work under the sponsorship of the Intersociety Polymer Education Task Force. Pictured are several indviduals who have contributed to the pages of JCE or are otherwise well known to JCE readers: Mary Harris, Sandra Van Natta, Melanie Stewart, Lynn Higgins, Jean Delfiner, Bill Bleam, and Gordon Hahn. The article was written by Marie Sherman, who is also a Polymer Ambassador. Chemical Heritage is edited by Mary Virginia Orna who is well known to many of our readers for her extensive work in providing resources for high school chemistry teacher. Information about the Chemical Heritage Foundation and its news magazine can be obtained by writing CHF, 315 Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA.

Coming in the June Issue

The June issue will include several articles that are specifically directed to high school chemistry teachers. We believe you will find the issue to be especially useful and interesting. Also included will be news from High School Day at the Dallas ACS Convention for those who were unable to attend.