Chemical Education Today
ACS National Meeting
A Celebration of Chemistry in the 21st Century Saturday, March 25: Public Understanding of Chemistry Day Carver Kidvention Following de-mystification of the inventive process, students will realize that they can invent, doing so using household items such as tin cans, string, and coat hangers. Small work groups will identify a problem, a customer, a marketing plan, a cost breakdown, and a name for their invention. Many of the inventions and photographs of the event will be in the Moscone Center lobby during the ACS meeting. Details Moscone Center, 9:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m. Participants include approximately 300 minority students in grades 3 and 4 in schools in the Santa Clara Valley, plus their parents.
Doing Science with Chemists of the Future Students will participate in ten different hands-on activities, learning that chemistry is something they can do, that science is part of everyday life, and that science can be fun. Ten stations will be staffed by volunteers who will plan and conduct the activities. Students will be encouraged to visit several stations and interact with the volunteers. Details Moscone Center, 1 p.m.–3 p.m. Audience is students from grades 4–6 from the greater San Francisco community. Chemagination 2025 Competition This is a science essay competition for high school chemistry students. The assignment is to design and write an article of no more than 1,000 words for the October 2025 issue of ChemMatters magazine with the theme, “What breakthrough/innovation related to chemistry and/or its applications will improve the quality of a teenager’s life in the year 2025?” Articles must focus on one of four categories: medicine/health care, foods/cooking, athletics/entertainment, or transportation/the environment. Students will display a poster depicting the cover of the ChemMatters issue and their articles. All articles entered in the contest will also undergo the normal editorial review for ChemMatters and will be considered for publication during the 2000–2001 school year. A panel of judges will interview all students during the poster session, awarding the winning team a computer, monitor, and printer for the classroom. Each team member will receive a $250 savings bond. Details Moscone Center, 1:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Participants will be high school students and teachers from more than 400 schools in the San Francisco area. Monday: 2000 College Students’ Town Hall Meeting
Up Close and Personal: Insights for Your Future Undergraduates will have the opportunity to hold informal conversations with chemists from Corporation Asso280
ciates (CA) member companies. The CA representatives will identify topics that address the future of chemistry to discuss at the table they host. Student volunteers will report on the highlights of each table’s discussion. Details Moscone Center, 5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. Participants will be undergraduate students, both those attending the ACS meeting and those invited from the local community. Sunday, March 26, Moscone Center Presidential Plenary Sessions
Biotechnology Sunday, 4:30–6:30 p.m. The session Beyond the Technology of Biotechnology—Government Regulation and Consumer Acceptance will focus on public policy issues associated with genetically modified foods. Speakers will include a congressman, a government regulator, a representative of the Monsanto Company, and a public advocate. This session will follow the plenary session for the Symposium on Biotechnology Applications in Food & Agriculture, Enabling Sciences for Biotechnology in the 21st Century. Partnerships Sunday, 7–9 p.m. Chemistry in the 21st Century: The Partnership Between Education, Industry, the Media, and Science Policy— The Four-Legged Stool is a symposium organized by the Chemagination Steering Committee. Speakers will be Ron Breslow, Mary Good, David Perlman of the San Francisco Chronicle, and a government representative. The long term quality of chemical research depends significantly upon the degree to which the goals, objectives, and underlying philosophies of education, industry, and science policy are mutually supportive. In alignment they form a sturdy, well-balanced stool capable of supporting the weight of the responsibilities of the chemical profession. Out of alignment—even slightly—the infrastructure is weakened and future successes are jeopardized. The session will address questions that must be answered in order to maintain the balance required in this critical partnership: What are the requirements of chemical R&D in the 21st century? What is the relevance of chemical education to those requirements and to the profile of the bench chemist in the 21st century? How will science policy be shaped to support R&D and educational requirements? Conversely, how will the chemical industry respond to science policy as it is shaped by the thinking of the next generation? Note: Report to Appear in JCE A report on these two Presidential Symposia is planned for the June 2000 issue of the Journal.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 77 No. 3 March 2000 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
