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Secondary School Feature Articles
 Developing an Intuitive Approach to Moles by Dawn
M. Wakeley and Hans de Grys, p 1007.
A Drop in the Ocean by Damon Diemente, p 1010.
Understanding Electrochemical Thermodynamics
through Entropy Analysis by Thomas H. Bindel, p 1031.
High School Day Program in Washington, DC
The High School Program of the American
Chemical Society Fall National Meeting will be held Monday,
August 21, 2000. See page 958 of this issue for details of the
extensive program that Rick Reeves has put together. There is
a session for almost every interest that a high school
chemistry teacher might have. Don't miss this opportunity if it is
possible for you to attend. If you plan to attend more than
one day, the full program for all sessions of the ACS Division
of Chemical Education may be found on pages 947-960.
Also, see pages 950-952 for information about the ACS
Exposition, which is held in conjunction with the meeting.
Learning through Applications: Conceptual Understanding or Real-World Fluff?
Occasionally several seemingly unrelated events occur
in a brief time span so that their interrelation becomes
evident. Currently I am teaching a college chemistry course for
non-science majors using Chemistry in Context
(1) and ancillary materials developed under the auspices of the
American Chemical Society. Although by no means identical
to ChemCom: Chemistry in the Community
(2), these curricula share a common objective of preparing students to
make informed decisions as responsible citizens, consumers,
and voters, and both stress conceptual understanding of
chemistry throughout. A few days ago I read an item from
the ChemEd-L (3) discussion list that undoubtedly caught
my attention because of my current focus on applications
of chemistry. A member of the discussion list, John
Mackin, wrote "We say we want to enthuse students with science
and make them think through problems but we give them
simple problems with occasional real-world fluff that
many disregard." He suggested that a series of problems based
on investigations of familiar objects such as neon signs,
fireworks, and glow-in-the-dark toys could be used effectively to
develop students' understanding of atomic structure and
periodicity, for example.
The two curricula cited above use this type of
approach but neither was designed to meet the needs of science
and engineering majors. Could we do more in the
conventional first- and second-year chemistry courses to build on
investigation of real systems? This question has been discussed
and debated in many forums, including articles in
JCE. The complexity of real-world systems is one barrier to their
effective use in developing basic concepts. Both
ChemCom and Chemistry in Context provide all the background needed but
mainline chemistry textbooks often do not. Newspaper articles
and television documentary programs provide many interesting
examples of chemical applications but lack the technical
background. Chemical research journals are often inaccessible
to teachers and most articles published are not application
oriented. The Journal of Chemical Education, however,
frequently publishes articles that bridge the gap between concept
and application.
Systems that students find most interesting are often
related to medicine and biology. In this issue, Louis
Rosenfeld discusses the relationship between the treatment of disease
of the thyroid and the discovery of iodine (Discovery and
Early Uses of Iodine, pp 984-987), and the acid-base properties
of alkaloids are discussed in an article by JirÍ Dostál (Two
Faces of Alkaloids, pp 993-997). By reading this article, I
learned that oral dental rinses containing sanguinarine behave as
acid-bases indicators. The consumer product Viadent is an
example. The relationship between molecular structure and the
physical and chemical properties of starch is discussed by
Robert Hancock and Byron Tarbet (The Other Double
Helix--The Fascinating Chemistry of Starch, pp 988-992). The
texture of foods is a direct consequence of starch's helical
structure and the manner in which the molecules pack together.
Of course the information gained from these articles could
be shared in a superficial manner--that is, as real-world
fluff--but as John Mackin suggests, it does not have to be.
As many teachers have discovered, the Internet is
the source of a tremendous amount of real-world
data, particularly with respect to systems of environmental
and climatological significance. Two examples are
the Environmental Protection Agency site (4) and the
National Climatic Data Center (5). The JCE High School
Chemed Learning Information Center (6) contains a number of
links on the Chemistry in Action
page. One of the sessions in
the High School Program cited above will be "Using the Web
to Teach Real Chemistry", presented by Conrad Stanitski.
Literature Cited
- Stanitski, C. L.; Eubanks, L. P.; Middlecamp, C. H.;
Stratton, W. J. Chemistry in Context, 3rd ed.; McGraw Hill:
Boston, 2000.
- American Chemical Society.
ChemCom: Chemistry in the Community, 3rd ed.; Kendall/Hunt: Dubuque, 1998.
- Posting dated June 13, 2000. You may subscribe to
ChemEd-L by sending a message (no subject) "Subscribe
CHEMED-L username" to LISTPROC@ATLANTIS.CC.UWF.EDU.
- Environmental Protection Agency. (accessed Jun 2000).
- National Climatic Data Center (accessed Jun 2000).
- JCE High School Chemed Learning
Information Center (accessed Jun 2000).
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