Chaos Can Be Fun If It's Organized A bit of cautious optimism (actually hysterical glee) about first year chemistry "General" chemistry, whatever that is, seems to be only half like the weather. Everybody talks about it, but everybody also docs something about general chemistry. Over the last few years I've seen first-year college chemistry televised, computerized, vitalized, modernized, conceptualized, audiovisualized, programized, Kellerized, Piagetized, and humanized. It's probably been dehumanized fairly often, too, but I couldn't find any Journal articles proposing that approach. In desperation, with the prospect of a general chemistry course enrollment of over 3000 trembling students, I dug out my reprint file of articles on how general chemistry should be taught. I laid the articles end-to-end down the hallway and discovered to my dismay that, not only did they not reach a definite conclusion, they didn't even reach the men's room! Then the miracle happened. It began to rain and students rushingfrom the hallowed (and odiferous) halls of learning stopped to grab my reprints from the floor to shield their heads from the storm. A bright looking young man wearing blue jeans and cowboy boots snatched an article on "Computers in Chemical Education," a uniformed member of the Corp of Cadets braved the storm sheltered by the deathless prose of Leonard Nash,' a lively coed covered her golden curls with an article headed by Bob Barnard'szsmiling photo. I had it! Since nobody knew haw to teach general chemistry, we would just dump out a batch of alternative resources and let the students grab something to keep from getting drowned! Well, sir, that's what we did. We set up sixteen sections of lectures and told the students to shop around and find the lecturer they liked best. If they didn't like lecturers, they could grab a set of programmed-instructional material from our Autotutorial Learning Center. We also provided a textbook and problem solving book for those rare creatures who still read, a batch of slideltape and workbookitape programs far those who would rather listen, and plenty of movies for those who "just like to watch." If they preferred a little conversation, they could use our Professor-Tutorial program with senior faculty office time every hour of the academic day. Now I wouldn't he writing you this epic except far the surprise ending. The darn thing works! We've got a batch of smiling professors because their students are in class by choice and not because the registrar's computer stuck them there. We've got more than half our students making A's and B's, and this isn't "grade inflation." When these students get to organic and analytical chemistry they're beating the pants off of A and B transfer students from other institutions!:' And best of all, we've got thousands of students confused into thinking that chemistry is the greatest thing since football. You don't believe it? Heck, ya'll come down some time and see! Or write me a letter and 1'11 send you a picture of a chemistry auditorium with barely standing room only and the details on the craziest bunch of faculty and students that ever found out that general chemistry is fun. 'A good old boy, for a yankee.
'One of my best friends, so you know what he must be like. "In a two year study of 3757 students taking analytical and organic chemistry, including 937 transfer students representing 113 institutions, students from our program performed 70-9036 better than those from other four year colleges or universities. (Details available an request.) 4D~rrell Axtell, Alton Banks, John Beckham, Dwight Conway, Ed Crawford, Joe Ham, Alan Hart, Alton Hassell, Richard Hedges, C. A. J. Hoeve, J a m Lame, Jack Lunsford, Karl Gingerich, Kelly Gladden, Paul Javora, Larry Peek, Al Rodgers, Tim Rose, Mike Rosynek, Jerry Sarquis, Yi-Noo Tang, John Villarreal, Rueben Walter, Randolph Wilhoit, and yours tl"1". Rod O'Connor Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843
Volume 54, Number 10, October 1977 / 631
