mmething new from the bwt Topic
Academic-Industrial Interface: High School Level
Chairman of Science Education Temple University 345 Ritter Hall Philadelphia. PA 19122
This type of teacher, who has both the theoretical and practical experience in h i s h e r background, is now becoming a rarity, and for many and good reasons: time constraints, location.. iob availabilitv. -.etc. It can be shown. however. that where such reasons are not valid, the real reason for lacking useful knowledee awolications is s i m.~ l vthe in.. of wractical . .. dividual's lack of initiative. Described in this month's column are ways and means to gain practical experiences. The chemistry teacher's literature resources contain many articles of industrial processes that are quite valuahle for
-
Introduction
-
The involvement of Industrv and its processes in the chemistry teaching curriculum used to have the connotation of descriptive chemistry. At the time of the develo~inpof the '60's, curriculum revision programs of the late '50's and the term descriptive chemistry by-and-large meant the teaching and learning of chemist~y&preparation, properties and uses, and/or the description of heavy industrial processes such as the makine of sulfuric acid. steel. sodium carbonate (Solvay process), nzric acid etc. CHEMS and CBA supposedly ended the era of the descriotive chemistrv aowroach as Dart of the chemistry curriculum in favor of a krst'principle;aproach relvine heavilv on the theorv of a whvsical chemistrv base. ~ i k ;most iniovations the "CHEMS and CBA a;proaches spread rapidly-and began to fail rapidly. Yet there were some oases of success in the use of these curricula. In an informal survev that was done in the earlv '70's. I learned that where these cirricula survived and were "well and happy,'' the teacher was able to bring in relevant examples from their experiences having taught the descriptive preparationproperties-and uses approach, and from one other major resource, industry experiences. From virtually every teacher interviewed came the response that they had worked in practical situations such as industrial and/or medical lahoratories. This they did out of necessity, "moonlighting," or just the desire to gain practical experiences.
carry
Thao feat.re ncl~aesannoratlonsol an cleS from prewous issues at !he .oJaha.. am other sc ence team no nournals TOO',cs will be presented in t&'issua prior io when the topic is taught in a typical high
n
Joseph S. Sehmuekler is currently the chsirman of the Department of Education and a Proferror of Chemistry at Temple UnwrSity. He was formerly a chemistry leacner at na.erlara Tonnsn p Sen or nlgn Scnso n Pen? . ,nu rnere nera.Gnl for 15 years Dr Scnmuc* er rere . c a n s H i ?eyes n '952 ME 3earae ,n 1954 an, PnD n 1968 from m e ..n .el< ,. of Pennsylvania. His numerous awards in recognition of his dedication to teaching and chemicai educetion include his receipt of the American Chemical Society James Bryant Conant Award in High Schwl Chemistry Teaching in 1968. That Vear he also received the MCA and Chemical Industries Council
2
A ,,
awards. He is one of the co-authors to the Silver Burden Company pmgrarn
n cnemstr) ana nassn w g nal pan cpant ana contrlo.tor lome CME M SLar Program for rl gn Schoo Cnem n r , ne nar p.o sned art c es n O Y M 5 n s c m c e an0 sc ence -.=a: on
Volume 58 Number 6 June 1981
497
relevant teachine examnles. (See es~eciallvJ. CHEM.EDUC. issllc lrtrln t9-- to currel1r.I 1lnrtt.y H. Russell, Cwnlin;ltor of Education Cwwration, ~ m e r i c a hcyanamid Co., N.Y., wrote an article [J. Chem. Educ., 33 [Ill, 592 (1956)l "Chemists and Educators-A Partnership!' In his article, Russell describes techniques of school-industry cooperation. Teaching aids are cooperatively prnduced invoiv~n~ieacher input for crltlque vvilluation and edltlnr for proper grade level usage, informatwn servlres and sneak&s lists i r e shown to he develoned. Financial assistance programs are described. Plant visits along with pre and post visit classroom activities are sueeested. Assistance is given to individual students (and teach& on projects involvibg both industrial scientists as well as school personnel. Emplovment . and work experience opportunities for teachers as well as vocational euidance for students are also described. In all, thl's article can serve as a good model for the teacher interested in developing cooperatively with local industry "Something New From the Past," which will be timely and interesting. Dr. Russell, who still pursues these kinds of activities a s k this writing, concludds that -
A
~
~
~
~
~~
~~
~
~
~
~
~
The techniques of education cooperation are relatively simple and, when properly applied, can give satisfactory results in terms of enrichment of curriculum, facilitation of understanding and communication between educators and industrialists, and in warmer personal relationships between students and their communities. In his editorial for Chemistry, [51[3], March 19741 Dr. Theodore Benfey wrote of his experiences with local industry and concluded,
-
Would it not he a ereat imorovement in education to attach each .~ high whcd or college student who has a serious inwrest in rhemistry to somr chemist, chemical fmn ur testing laboratorv whrrp he may spend 2t1 day5 in the year ro iind out u hether the liir d r h e chemist appeals to him? ~~
~
~
~~
~
Dr. Robert B. Carlin, Professor of Chemistry, CarnegieMellon University also ulote in an editorial, for Chemical and Engineering News [July 17th (1972)] that "The fundamental need,. . . is not for curriculum changes, but for something far more difficult to achieve: a change in the professor's [teacher's] awn view of his profession and of the occupations within it that are worthy of its best minds. We professors [teachers]must stop telling our students,by word and example,that the business of making chemistry useful is beneath the best of them. They don't need courses in "industrial" chemistrv. Thev do need to have their basic chemistry illustrated and elaborated w;th examples of chemistry in use ..-. showing our students.. .what chemistry has done and what it iscapahle of doing."
498
Journal of Chemical Education
Teachers in Industrial Labs "The Experience of a Technical Summer Employee in Industry," Frank X. Sutman, J. CHEM.EDUC.,32 [12], 634 (1955). Sutman describesthe reasons. DUIDWeS. outcomes. and o~eration of teacher-industry lab experience 'he had with ~ s d ~aboratos
ries-Product
Research Division.
"Local Industry-an Educational Resource," Carl J. Pascarella, The Science Teacher, 45 (April 1966). This article, written 10 years after Harvey Russell's 1956 article cited above is Pascarella's description of his work in the American Cyanamid Company's summer program. The article deals with the many pro's and a very few con's concerning teacher-industry employment.
Students in Industrial Labs "The Chemistrv Student and the Chemical Industw." Josenh S. ~chmuckierand Irwin Siegelman, J. CHEM.E D U C . , ~ ~ [3], 149 (1961). What does the high schnd chemistry reacher anzwer to questions wrh as."What doeaa ehem~std07"and "Whnt is the difference between the work of a chemicc and that of a chemiid mgmeer?" The best answer a teacher can give is "go and see." This answer means little, though, if the studentsisleft to his own endeavors. It is a challeneine for the student if it can . . inv?tatian to an excitine .. exoerience . he implemented hy an wrnhh~hcdprogram c
