Have you ever had one of the “hello” moments when you were sort of
listening to a conversation but not really paying attention until you heard a
word or a phrase that triggered your interest—then all of a sudden you
started paying attention? I had one of these experiences a few weeks ago when
George Sellers invited me to do a JCE workshop at an ACS DivCHED and
Florida Local Section symposium for High School Chemistry Teachers at Florida
Southern College. When he said that Sir Harold Kroto would be the keynote speaker,
he had my attention. I’ve met the other two 1996 Chemistry Nobel Laureates,
the late Richard Smalley, and Robert Curl, from Rice University, but not Kroto.
What caught my attention was that Kroto was in Florida, again. Why do I keep
hearing about Kroto being in Florida? I checked out the URL for the conference (click
the ACS Florida Section and Division of Chemical Education link, accessed Nov
2005). Here I discovered that Kroto now lives in Florida. Since England has a
mandatory retirement age and Kroto wasn’t
quite ready to retire, he is now at The Florida State University. Like several
other Nobel laureates, Kroto is very interested in science education. For more
information, see his Web site (accessed Nov
2005) and check out his education initiatives and recorded presentations; see
a recent
interview with Kroto published in this Journal (accessed Nov 2005).
World Views on Teaching ChemistryOur world is getting smaller. Again in this issue of the Journal you will find several articles by authors from countries other than the U.S., as well as reports about what’s happening around the world. You might find a few of these articles of particular interest. Mort Hoffman’s IUPAC report states that the Chinese Ministry of Education will require “many colleges and universities [in China] to teach science and mathematics in English” within a very few years. A common language for the exchange of research ideas and results cannot but help improve communications between countries. It is also interesting to note that integrating cognitive and affective content into our curriculum is not just limited to the U.S. Tan and colleagues report from Singapore on their efforts to find interesting ways to involve potential science and nonscience majors in studying chemistry by bringing societal issues into the classroom. Mahaffy (from Canada) uses metaphors and different types of visualizations to help his students pay attention to the content through the human element. On a more practical note, Jalil from Saudi Arabia, explored explaining a laboratory procedure before the students perform it versus letting them do the experiment and then explaining the results. There is an interesting dichotomy of the results from Jalil’s research in that the better students’ preferences were different from those of the lower achievers. ACS Exams InstituteIf you are not a CHED (ACS Division of Chemical Education) member, there is a good reason to become one: for the first two months of your membership you will be eligible for a discount on the purchase of ACS exams. Tom Holme (see Committee Reports) tells us about a new style of exam that the Exams Institute has recently released: the First Semester General Chemistry Paired-Question exam. The Exams Institute also has long-term plans to provide electronic delivery of their assessment materials. See the Exams Institute Web site (accessed Nov 2005) for details about the eight high school exams that are currently available. The courses covered are ChemCom, Advanced High School, and High School courses. More ACS High School Connections
The connection of ACS with high schools doesn’t end with the Exams Institute.
President Bill Carroll ended his 2005 Extreme National Chemistry Week Tour
on Mole Day at The Science Place in Fair Park in Dallas; he began his tour
with a stop at Florida International University where he met with students
from Wellington High School, among others. The Wellington students had asked
and were successful in becoming the first chartered ACS chemistry club. Find
details on how to get onboard. Don’t forget the Biennial
Conference of Chemical Education (BCCE) at Purdue University where a complete
high school program has been planned. Also, the BCCE committee is in the process
of considering proposals for BCCE-2010 and beyond (see Committee
Reports); maybe you know someone who’s interested!
NCW 2006, 2007, and 2008It’s never too early to start thinking about ideas for future NCWs. The American Chemical Society has already announced next year’s theme “Your Home–It’s All Built on Chemistry”. Topics have even been selected for 2007 (Careers in Chemistry) and 2008 (Chemistry and Sports). Have a neat experiment or demonstration or even an idea for a JCE Classroom Activity that fits one of these themes? Let us hear about it and consider writing it up as a submission to JCE to share it with your teaching colleagues worldwide!
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