Jay A. Young
King's College Wilkes-hrre, Pennsylvania and John K. ~ a y l o r National Bureau of Standards Washington, D. C.
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Chemical P r o i e ~ t ~ Research ideas for young chemists
M a n y scientists were st,imulated toward a career hy tlwir own early curiosity ahout natural phenomena. 'They began while in high school or even earlier, either building apparatus from ~natcrialsfound around the home or using equipment borrowed from a friendly advisor. I n their lahoratory work t,he init,ial aims were not always successfully achieved nnr perhaps were they el-en clearly in mind, hut the art,ivit,y itself mas characterized hy t,wo important crit,eria: The "investigation" wax undertaken voluntarily; t,he "investigator" \\-as curious ahout some aspect of nature. Today, many st.udent,s of high school age and younger are working on science projects; each spriug these effort,s are puhlicly exhibited in a "Sricnce Fair." Many of these exhihit,ors h a w a. sincere int,erest in t,heir work hut others participat,e hecause this kind of act,ivity has hecome socially popular or because their teacher encouraged them to participat,e (not always without a remark about t,hc effect such cooperation might h a w upou t,heir grades for the course). Since neither of the collators of this series nf articles is a high school teacher we do uot presume to suggest, t,hat a st,udent should or should not, he st,rongly urged t~ generate an artificial interest in the local Science Fair. However, as judges of these exhihits we have often noted that many of the exhibits are more expository t,han soient,ifir. Some t,hat purport to be srient,ifir fall short of the desirable minimum in demonst,rat,ingreal uuderstanding on the part of the student, in t,he quality of the beginner's scientific effort.^, and in the thoroughness of the st,udyundert,aken. Because of the particular nat,ure of chemistry, it seems to he more difficult to find a suit,ahle Science Fair project in chemistry t,han in biology, physics, or possibly eveu mahhematics. Fortunately, many of the art,ieles published in the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL SDUCATION do contain suggestions, direct or indirect, for further work hy interested student,^. Mauy of these suggestions are suitable for use by high school student,^ who wish to conduct a n investigation and preseut the results of their work in their local Science Fairs. Other suggest,ions are similarly useful t,o freshman students in college chemistry who wish, or who are urged, to undertake an open-end experiment which is a hit more sophist,icated t,han t,hose descrihed in lahorat,ory manuals. With this in mind, we intend t o select mat.eria1 from every hranch of chemistry represented in appropriate art,icles from THIS JOURNAL siuce its beginning in 1924. 6
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Journol of Chemical Education
These mill be presented in ahstmcted form each month for the use of int,erested high school and freshmau college st.udents of rhemist,ry and their t,eachers. Limit,ations of space will oft,eu require omission of secondary details; it is intended t,hat the a h s h c t s shall whet the interest, of t,he st,udent,, 'rather than provide complete information. Hence, t,he ahstract will not always convey informat,ion sufficient, t,o carry out the appropriate experiment,al work. In such cases, a place to start would he t,he original paper. Reference t,exts and laborateory manuals may also he a first (but not primary) source of infonnat,ion. Oht,aining materials and apparat,us may also he a part of t,he "research" involved. With each a b s h c t we shall append leading questions that indicat,e some relat,ed paths a n investigator might st,udy. We hope t,hat a student, under t,he guidance of his t,eacher, will select one quest,ion from one ahstract, and pursue the ansmer as diligeutly as he ran. Since st,udents vary hot,h in their ability and in their interest, in the subject, we shall att,empt t,o provide a list, of questions of graded difficulty and subject matter for each ah~t~ract,.The simplest questions will lead the st,udent toward a mpet,it,ion of the work described in the article itself. Other more difficult questions will lead the student int,o a study of mat,ters direct,ly related to t,he topic discussed in t,he art,icle, but not explicit,ly included by the original aut,hor. The most difficult, questions will help the student. see relationships hetween the topic considered in the article and other t,opics t,hat to a heginner seem unrelat,ed. Some of these more difficult quest,ior~swill, no doubt, lead the st,udent quickly beyond his depth, and hence will he suitsable only for w~periorstudents who can accept t,his kind of challsnge. Insofar as possible, we shall try to present the quest,ions a t the end of each abstract in order, from simple t,o complex; hut, t,he validit,y of our estimates of difficulty will in t,he final analysis necessarily he judged hy the teacher and his students. I n each instance, no mat,t.er what article or abstract and appended quest,ion is selected for further study, our aim will he realized if t,he heginner achieves a great,er understanding of chemistry in particular and of the nat,ure of scientific investrigation in general. We believe that a scientist is a scientist hecause primarily, he is curious ahout natural phenomena, and secondly, he knows how to proceed in a logical fashion to answer a question that has interested h i . Hence, to engender a lasting interest in science, we should help the beginner ns early in his education as possible to become aware of
a few interest,ing questions; we should then help him learn how to answer these questions by a reasonable, logical procedure. We propose to treat several different topics each month, in successive issues. At the end of a year if t,he demand seems to m r r a n t , the articles which have been abstra~t~ed. along with the leading questions, will be reprinted in one hook and made available for distribution. Det,ailr of the original articles from which the abstracts h a w been prepared can be found by locat,ing a library or prirat,e collection of the JOURNAL.'
Keep a Research Record
In work of this kind, safe laboratory practices hecome paramount in importance. We strongly recommend these minimum precautions: Consist,ent. and regular w e of safety goggles and a fire-resistant lahoratory spron. (A swatch of mat,erial, cut from the hem of the apron, should he t,est,ed if this matter is in doubt,.) -4 fire extinguisher and a pail of sand or salt should he available in the immediate area where the work is perfornied. A fire blanket should be affixed to an adjarent vall. (An old woolen blanket, folded in accordion-fashion, nith the folds impaled upon a peg and a rope handle sewn to the outer edge makes a good snbst,itut.efor the commercial article.) Each step in the student's proposed experimental procedure should be checked bqforchand by the teacher or advisor. If some of the work is t o be performed in a home laboratory, t,he laboratory should be checked in order to ideut,ify and elin~inateother safet,y hazards, such as improperly grounded elertriral devices, cloth curtains near a burner, wast,ehasket,s made of rombustible material, poor labeling of hottles, etc. See also the "Laboratory Safety" senes of three articles by Mnrk M. Chamberlain with Gerhardt A. Jabs, THIS Jot-RSAL,37, 446, 511, 583, (1960.)
We also recommend that students be encouraged to keep a not,ebook in which, with proper citation of the source, they summarize pertinent information learned from their et,udy of reference hooks, texts, articles in t,he JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION, and other similar publications. This not,ebook, together with a laboratory record book, forms an important part of any worthwhile exhibit for a Science Fair. In the laboratory record book, all details of the lahoratory work performed should be met,iculously and habitually entered a t the time the work is performed. Failures as well as successes should be recorded. The pager; should be numbered and, as t,he entries are made, the date should be noted on each page. Incorrect entries should not be erased, but, rather indicated by a single or double line drawn through the entry and initialed t,o verify t.he error as a known error. The first few pages, or the last, few, of the notebook should he used for a compilation of a list of t,he cont,ents of the notebook pages, as the pages are filled. (For efficient use; t,his requires that each page containing entries describing the work he similarly tit,led in the top margin.) Other details concerning the proper use of a laboratory notebook ran be found in many laboratory manuals. We earnestly solicit t,he active cooperation and assistance of ot,hers who are interested in this work. We vould particularly appreciate help in finding suitable art,icles, in preparing the abstracts for publication, and in composing appropriate leading questions related to the abst*ract,edarticles.? Suggestions whirh are used will be credited. We know of a few published books for beginners which suggest real research investigations in chemistry. We plan to present a list of these soon; since it is quite possible that our knowledge is incomplete, we solicit information about such books from others.
'Should this be impossible for some, and should their number be not too I ~ r g rlnll-size , photographic reproductions of a desired article can be ohtained upon application to one of us (J. A. Y.) when the request is accornpaniod by 251 per page and an nddressed, stamped return envelope a t least 24 cm X 10 cm.
¶ W e do not propose a t this time to abstract articles from sources other than the J O U R N A L OF CREMICAL EDUCATION.Although other articles may indeed be suitable, limitations of space and copyright prohlems preclude t,heir con8ideration nt present.
Safety I s Important
-Editor's
Note
The first items of the new Chem E d Feature appears this month on pages 8 and 9. Hereafter it will appear in the section oi t,he magaeine hearing page designations A000, as did the "Demonstration Abstracts" during past years. Projects on related themes will fill each page. The present plan is not to use arbitrary labels designating the area. of chemistry involved. Not only would such labels be of questionable veluc, but they would often be impossible to devise. Two general xrcas will be involved each month; for example, this iesue presents projects related to physical chemistry and organic synthe& and the February themes will be qualitabive analysis and physical chemistry. We very much hope that readers will send us their comments and suggestions. Only thus can this feature heeome as useful as the authors and editor want.
Volume 38, Number 7, January 1967
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