A PROPOSAL FOR COOPERATIVE JUNIOR RESEARCH W. P. CORTELYOU
AND
E. HARTGE CORTELYOU
Alfred University. Alfred New York
ANY chemist who has done a research problem can cite numerous bits of data he has had to determine for himself before he could go on with his major problem. Many have had to spend precious hours determining minor points missing in chemical literature because they were necessary to the solving of more important problems. A glance a t even the most complete handbook will show an appalling number of blanks in the columns dedicated to such commonly used properties as specific gravity, melting point, boiling point, and solubility. Cften the material given is useless. Look a t a solubility table, for instance! Unless one knows the probable shape of the solubility-temperature curve of the substance with which he is concerned, the data in the handbook may prove worthless because the solubility is given a t O°C. and 100°C., or even a t some such freak temperature ai 79" or 3', when he wishes it a t room temperature. Furthermore, an examination of successive editions of such handbooks often reveals changes so shocking as to undermine one's belief in most printed data of this kind. Many chemists commonly assume that if any such data are to be put to a serious use they must be determined anew for the occasion. It is a reasonable assumption that the major reasons for the unsatisfactory condition of such tabulations are that making such a measurement appears to be too simple or of too limited interest to justify its inclusion as even a part of a graduate thesis, that there are few other sources of such data, and that there is inadequate machinery for the collection of such measurements as have been made. 4 Assuming this to be true, may we suggest that such problems be turned over to undergraduate students? Since many will protest that results so obtained would he unreliable, we further suggest that each problem be pursued by a t least two students, independent of and unknown to each other. This would be made possible by the establishment of a central correlating committee. If such a committee were appointed and sponsored by the American Chemical Society, it would act as a national clearing house for problems and results. Practicing chemists and chemistry teachers would be asked to suggest problems
to the committee and these would be assigned individually to students requesting problems, in many cases to those working under the persons making the original suggestions. Certainly the committee would be expected to act merely as a correlating agency, suggesting problems only upon request and not attempting to dictate national research policies. Many teachers, harassed by the need to stimulate A and B grade students in courses necessarily designed for C students, would lind the problems suggested by the committee a source of ample motivation. Such nationally sponsored junior research should help those schools which are dissatisfied with the results now obtained in undergraduate research. Obviously, i t would be impossible for the committee to publish individual papers on each problem, but a summation of the results accepted could be published in some journal of the Society, along with a mention of the names of the contributors. Publishing the names of the students contributing each accepted result would give a great stimulus to elementary research, just as the publication of papers and the recognition of one's fellows is the major motivation for most of the advanced research now being done. As a further motivation we suggest that a certificate be awarded to each student who contributes a result that proves to be valid by the test of independent checking. The certificate might bear some such legend as "The American Chemical Society is pleased to accept your data on the temperature-solubility curve of nickel acetate." May we remind those who doubt the importance an undergraduate would attach to such a certificate that millions of adult Americans toil over lodge rituals to attain some such title as the Exalted Night Hawk, that thousands of housewives devise recipes in the hope of winning certificates of approval from certain household magazines, and that many Boy Scouts work very hard for merit badges. Such a certificate of approval from the American Chemical Society might lead many an undergraduate, undecided ,as to his career, to choose our profession. Started upon a career in chemistry by the stimulus of national recognition, he would hardly fail to continue to have an active interest in research, and to become a loyal member of the Society.
