reallv have the faintest idea how this can occur. Instead of consiant attention tothedistance between the flameand the flask relative to the position of the front of condensate, they stand around horedkatching distillations on automatic. even tell the students the proper Variac settings for the mantles. In contrast, I remember my heart thumping as I initiated my first Skraup reaction in the basement of our house. In a prearranged scenario I hurriedly put out the propane hurner, unscrewed the clamps, and plunged the 500 mL roundbottomed flask with its violently boiling, black mixture into a bucket of snow and water to moderate the charcteristic, sudden exotherm. I t wasn't very intellectual, I suppose, but I was on mv wav to making a potential anticancer agent. I felt it a worthwhile activity in addition to being enorhous fun. 'I'hedrur companies now design magic bullets with computers, hut they will require someone with the requisite finger skills to synthesize whatever molecules they design. Like farmers, organic chemists will always he needed if not respected. I sense that Pickering's comments about the organic lab reflect an amplification of current public attitude, to wit, that tinkerine with molecules is sort of an ultimate crime against nature. T o counter the popular return to pre-Wohler thinkine. -. we included oreanic lab experiments in which a chemicnl was extracted from natural produrts, such as ipinachor almonds. In the middleof the lab on one occasion, one of the teaching assistants neatly undid my entire effort by barking a t a student, "Take that gum out of your mouth! Chewing gum is almost as bad as chewing organic chemicals!"I am still not sure what she meant by the remark; there are numerous patents on low-molecular-weight copolymers as base stocks for chewing gum. But even venerable DuPout droooed the word chemistrv from their comnanv . . sloean. organic chemists must, I suppose, reel with the punches. A second factor I think has to do with the nature of the students themselves. A generation ago large numbers were from farms or rural areas. Many were used to working hard at chores associated with bad odors and had a sense of a~oreciationfor the effort required to mow a pure crop of &in regardless of the intellekual content of -the process. The job got done even though many important factors, such as the weather, were unforseeable and out of control. Get a group of organic chemists together and you will find them the numerous. essential details of their ~ - - - - -discussine ~ craft, ..."the ehudhoff reaction works best in THF, but doesn't go if there's a nitro group on the molecule. . .no one has been able to duplicate the Selzer synthesis". To mix metaphors, they know the fugue and instantly recognize the sour notes. Scratch a physical chemist and you will find offsnrine of lawvers and the like, who are excited by deterexerted on objects in m i ~ i s t i ~ r e l a t i ohetween & the aclosed room and the temperature of the air. More seriously, I think the growing interrelation of all of the sciences should be an occasion for each subdiscipline to appreciate the contents of the other. The possible benefits of synergism are no better illustrated than with the development of the Woodward-Hoffman rules. Although I now succumb to computer programs to do molecular orbital calculations. I still cannot fathom anvone becoming interested in chemistry by measuring equilib;ium constants and the like. Wibern has suneested in effect that the dullness of contemporary k g h school chemistry texts is due to their excessive content of physical chemistry (2). The one time in the past seven years that I recall the organic lab students showing great interest in an experiment was when they tried to nitrate a sample of cumene that unknowingly contained about 30% cumene hydroperoxide. The reactions overheated and turned all sorts of colors. They were talking about it in the hallways and even in the elevators. The other time the experiments seemed to be appreciated was when they had to develop their own reaction proce~~
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dure, that is, what Pickering spent his summer doing. This invention is a standard experiment in some manuals. The fact that not all the procedures gave the product instilled some degree of respect for the subject. Pickering's drive for intellectual content to simplify the "grammar" of organic chemistry simply doesn't impress me. He realizes in a flash that organic carbonyl chemistry can he explained by nucleophilic attack on carbon followed by loss of water. (Some textbooks present i t this way. Why didn't be look?) Then, I suppose, he heads for the lab to make vinyl bromide by mixing acetaldehyde with aqueous hydrohromic acid, chock full of nucleophilic bromide ions. As with an infant who says he "goed to the store", the successful recognition of general principles does not insure fluency. Literature Clted 1. I8aacs. N. S. Exp~rimentsin Physicai Ormnic 2. Wiborg, K. A c c 1983 16,313.
Chem.Res.
Chmnialry:MacMillan: London, 1969.
G. David Mendenhall Michigan Technological University Houghton, Mi 49931
To the Editor: Professor Mendenhall, you do not have to sell me on the joy of doing organic chemistry. I go a t it with the fervor of a convert. The point of my essay was organic teaching labs are a discredit to thenoble and interesting field of organic chemistry. The average student sees the lab task as "getting through" the preps and unknowns and learns precious little about how organic chemists actually solve problems. Cookbook, cookbook, cookbook.. .how joyless and how unnecessary, considering the real excitement inherent in the field.
Miles Pickerlng Princeton University Princeton. NJ 08544
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A Syllabus for a Two-Semester Chemistry Course for
Health Professions To the Editor: We wish to comment about the paper "A Syllabus for a Two-Semester Chemistry Course for Health Professions" [J.Chem. Educ. 1987 64, 6991. We believe that the main criticism in the proposed program is the lack of a redox section. We consider that the student must know elemental ideas about redox potential, transference of electrons, and oxidized and reduced forms of chemical snecies. because redox reactions are involved in many biological processes. A knowledge of this also seems to he necessary to understand some examples of redox reactions that appear further on in the prorwsed course (sections X11 and XlIlL ~ o r e o i e rwe , disagree with some aspects of section VIII, "Acids, Bases, and Salts". The point l h (2) refers to reactions of arids with metals, whichare not acid-base reartiuns but redox processes. The inrlusion for these electrnn-transfer reactions here will create erroneous concepts for the students. In the same chapter there are two separate blocks, A and B. referine to Arrhenius and Brdnsted theories. respectively. Some topics, such as neutralization processes and titration methods. are listed under Arrhenius theorv, whereas others, such as pH, dissociation constants, and buffers are listed under Rrensted theors. This c c d d lead the student to the erroneous idea that neutralization and titration process-
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Volume 67
Number 6 June 1990
539
es can only he explained by the Arrhenius theory, when in fact both theories can he used. In spite of the historical interest in Arrhenius's theory, today the acid-base equilihria is explained according to the Br$nsted theory in current textbooks of general chemistry, including those written for the high school level. E. Bosch and M. D. Prat Deparmment de Quhica ~nalhica Universitat de Ber~tlona Barcelona. Spain
To the Editor: We wish ta respond to the commenta of Bosch and Prat on "A Syllabus for a Two-Semester Chemistry Course for Health Professions" IJ. Chem. Educ. 1987.. 64.. 6991. Thev comment on a lack of coverage of oxidation-reduction conceots in the svllahus. While oxidation-reduction is not eiven a major hea&ng, it is included in several different places in the syllabus. For example, oxidation-reduction is addressed in the following sections: VI. Chemical Reactions; XII. Alcohols, Ethers, Sulfides, and Phenols in subcategories E. 2. and G. 1.; XII. Aldehydes and Ketones in subcategory C. 1.; XVII. Carbohydrates in B. 1.; XVIII. Lipids in B. 4. and B. 5.; and XXII. Energetics in A. 1. The committee's intent was to cover oxidation-reduction in the context of the imnortant biochemical orocesses in which redox is involved. We would also liketo re-emphasize, as stated in the third oaramaoh. that while all tooics mentioned in the svllabus are quite important, the order of coverage is to he lefi to the individual instructor's discretion. The Committee on Chemical Education for the Health Professions is still an active committee of the Division of Chemical Education. The current Chair is Anna Wilson, Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907. We encourage our colleaguesto communicate with the committee about their concerns for the chemistry courses serving students planning careers in the health professions.
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John M. Daly Bellmine College LOUISViile, KY 40205
Jerry L. Sarquls M m l University Oxford, OH 45056
Physlcal Sclence for Elementary School Teachers To the Edito~
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Your editorial 11988.65.2831 sueeestine that nresent col, . lege-level physical science courses, chemistry included, are not meetine the needs of the elementarv teachers is correct. ~lementar; teachers take physical science courses that are too complicated for them to adapt to a lower level. In addition, most teachers take astronomy, geology, biology (most popular), and science education courses; whereas, the same teacher is expected to be able to teach simple topics in chemistry and physics. To meet the needs of the elementary teacher, Montgomery College, Takoma Park Campus, in conjunction with the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), has developed two courses titled "Physical Science for Elementary School Teachers", one for teachers of grades K-3 and the second for teachers of grades 4-6. The course for teachers of grades 6 6 540
Journal of Chemical Education
is in place and has been taught during each of the past three summers. The course for teachers of grades K-3is targeted The content for either the Summer of 1989 or 1990. -~ - - ~ of ~ each - ~ course is based on the physical science topics in the MCPS Program of Studies for the appropriate grades. Laboratory exercises have been chosen from those developed for elementary schools and for which either equipment is easily obtained (grocery stores, etc.) or is currently found in the schools, such as SCIIS, ESS, etc. The courses are team taught by faculty from geology, chemistry, physics, nursing, mathematics, and psychology and cover the general topics of chemistry, physics, geology, biophysics for kids, and mathscience anxiety. Evaluation has shown that the teachers who successfully complete this course are more confident, more enthusiastic, and more successful science teachers. Many of these teachers are now being recognized as science resource people in their schools: others have moved into advanced nositions due ta their expertise in elementary science. For these teachers and their students. teachine and learning science has become fun! ~
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Susan Fell Thornton Montgomery College Takoma Park, MD 20912
Leopold Gmelln-200th
Anniversary Stamp
To the Editm
In reading the October 1988 issue I found your series "Chemistry on Stamps" with the contribution on "Alfred Nobel and Philately" [1988, 65, 8431. I want to draw your attention to the fact that the Deutsche Bundespost has issued a special stamp of Leopold Gmelin on occasion of his 200th anniversary. Below is pictured the 1988 Christmas c'ard from the Gmelin-Institut showing the above-mentioned stamp.
w. Llpperl Steilvertretender Direktor Gmelin-InstIM fdr Anorganirche Chemie der Max-Pianck-Gessellschafi 0-6000 Frankfurt (Main) 90 Postfsch 900467 West Germany
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