Chemistry and Integration' SISTER M. XAVERIA BARTON, I.H.M. Marygrove College, Detroit, Michigan
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T THE present time chemistry has come into the field of vision with a brilliance even greater than usual. Chemistry in the recent past has been a subject of interest, a source of pleasure, utility, and wealth. Even in its present setting in the war picture, chemistry does not stand alone; it touches closely practically every other field of knowledge. The realization of the significance of chemistry in all its relationships is of special value to all of us today, as we plan not only to win this war but to win the peace. The peace will settle down on human beings, not on machine guns, planes, shells, and other paraphernalia of war which are products of chemistry and the other sciences. The peace will settle on rational beings who must live an integrated life in which one field of human endeavor dovetails another. Appreciation of the interdependence of fields of thought is, therefore, not a luxury of education but rather a vital necessity for a sane future. I should like to indicate briefly how the integration of chemistry with other branches of study is made a t Marygrove. Chemistry is one of many departments in the institution, each with its own pattern cut to fit its own needs, but each paralleling the others in philosophy and aim, and consequently contributing to a unified educational picture. The integration program has special importance in the total college plan. To quote the catalog: "In senior college seminar in fundamental relations, she (the student) applies herself specifically to a study of relationships. She sees her own field as an integrated part of the bigger thing that is human life. In a four-semester cycle, she makes contacts with four or more other major fields to which her own is related, and discusses common problems with the students in these fields. She finds out for herself the practical philosophic, moral, and religious implications of apparefltly compartmented a r t s and science^."^ The integration program seeks to give students the benefit of investigating problems common to several departments and to develop in them the techniques of research and of the public presentation and discussion of a paper. I shall limit myself to a presentation of the general method of handling the course and the cycle of problems considered in the chemistry integration program. Public health is studied with the departments of biolow ", and sociolow:. science and its influence on the progress of civilization with the departments of biology, -
