Chemistry Honors Programs in Liberal Arts Colleges
William B. Guenther University of the South Sewanee, Tennessee
The basis for this portion of the discus sion of honors programs is a collection of facts and opinions from 50 chemistry departments in liberal arts colleges. The term honors is taken to include any programs devised for the ablest students of chemistry. In June, 1961, a questionnaire was sent to 65 independent liberal arts colleges, and 50 of these replied in time for the symposium.' Of the group, 35 have ACS certified departments of chemistry and 15 do not. Almost all have fewer than 1000 students and all cooperated in the Wooster study in 1959.= No statistical conclusions should be drawn from this small, biased sample, and only afewfigures are presented. The purpose was not to survey American college research, which has been well done in the recent Wooster report, hut to gather facts and opinions as a basis for discussion. The author is indebted to many colleagues for their detailed, thoughtful, and very helpful replies: ?.
Albright, Allegheny, Amherst, Antioch, Baldwin-Wallace, Bates, Bellarmine, Beloit, Beres, Birmingham-Southern, Bowdoin, Carleton, Centenary, Centre, University of Chattanooga, Coe, Colgate, Colorado College, Denison, DePauw, Dickenson, Esrlham, Franklin and Marshall, Grinnell, Hampden-Sydney, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Hiram, HobarbSmith, Junirtta, Kalamamo, King's, Lawrence, Lynchhnrg, Middlebury, Monmouth, Muhlenberg, Oherlin, Reed, Saint Olaf, University of the South, Swarthmore, Trinity, Washington and Lee, Wesleyan, Wheaton (Ill.), Williams, Wilrnington, Wittenberg, Wooster. "Research and Teaching in the Liberal Arts College," a report of the Wooster Conference, 1959. Available from Hamy F. Lewis, Institute of Psper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin, and John D. Reinheimer, College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.
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48 have some type of honors work; all agree that some student research is desirable. 9 allow freshmen, 10, sophomores, 28, juniors, and 48, seniors to do honors work or research. 23 departments have arranged summer research for their students. 40 regard the honors program as successful. 11 believe freshmen capable of doing research.
The aims and benefits of student research are too obvious to argue. However, for completeness, the unique features of undergraduate research should be listed: Research involves the student actively in learning. Because of the essentially passive nature of our classlecture system, his project may be the student's first academic experience in learning by himself. Devising experiments to find out new things about nature brings the student to the essence of scientific activity as his class work does not. Pragmatically, it works. Students are fired with enthusiasm and invigorated a t a stage in their careers when continued laboratory exercises may dull their interest in science. Timing of Student Research
A major question is that of timing: How early and how extensively should the undergraduate be turned loose on laboratory projects outside the regular course work? With the pressure to add inorganic, instrumental, and other courses to the already tight curriculum, time for research is hard to find. This may be most acutely felt in the liberal arts colleges, where distribution requirements for graduation may be extensive.
The natural answer for nearly half the colleges in this survey has come with the NSF Undergraduate Research Participation Grants for summer work. This seems an ideal solution. The students can put in full days of laboratory and library work without the class interruptions that make continuity of school-year work difficult. Where this has been tried, both student and faculty enthusiasm for it is high. A very important device in summer work has been the weekly conferences of the whole group to discuss the progress of the research and to clarify questions for the students. The student's new-found enbhusiasm is soon transferred to others in the college, a powerful stimulus to small schools. Wide variation is seen in the class level of participating students. Only one-fifth of the departments allow freshmen to start project work. About half took a negative view of freshmen research, saying that it is premature, or, at best, less valuable than the course work they need. In the panel discussion after this Symposium, it became clearer that the advocates of freshman "research" mean a very simple, and limited type of project work and agree that true research by all but the rarest college freshman is out of the question because he lacks the needed knowledge of chemistry, equipment, and literature. Time for research may increasingly become available if more exceptional students are able to achieve advanced placement, releasing a year of their college chemistry time. Many respondents noted a recent improvement in their studentas' preparation. Much of the credit is again due the NSF whose extensive and effective teacher institutes have grown from 2 in 1953 to 398 in 1961; they reached 18,000high school teachers in the summer of 1961. With well prepared teachers in high schools, it is not surprising that advanced placements in chemistfryhave increased each year. College teachers might help in encouraging high school teachers to attend the institutes and to offer sufficient science to prepare students for advanced placement. Selection of Students
The methods of selection of students to do project work seem to vary widely, but the differences may not be so great if the requirements stated are flexiblein application. I n the small college the student will be well enough known to the faculty to make a rigid grade requirement unnecessary. This is proper because the student's active interest is the first requirement for research. Any student of chemistry in good standing should have the chance to work on an individual project if he really wants to. The experience has been a true awakening to his science for many a previously mediocre chemistry major. Indeed, if this much individual consideration is denied the student, the small college cannot make much case for its existence. Reed College has long required a senior thesis on original research of all its chemistry majors. Others now giving research experience t,o all chemistry majors are Bellarmine, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Juniata, and Wooster. Attracting Qualifled Students
Another problem is that of attracting qualified students to the college and to science. This is a big topic
fit for another symposium, yet honors work is out of the question without a fairly steady supply of good students. One factor on which the faculty can operate is the public relations of the college. The small school which rarely has spectacular athletic events or numerous faculty currently in cabinet posts, must take care to keep the public aware of its existence and activities. A vigorous public relations office is essential if the small college is to compete for talented students who need to be shown the unique advantages for them of the good small college. This can be done through the press and through the alumni of the college. Teachers should be sure that all news of research, student achievements, new contracts, facilities, and programs is sent in clear detail to the public relations office. Several chemistry departments keep in touch with their graduates through a yearly report of chemical and personal news. At least one department head has sent notes to the high school teachers of students who have done well in their college chemistry. These efforts may help continue the flow of good students to the colleges. Nature and Pitfalls of Honors Programs
In the foregoing paper Dr. Willeford said, "Each college has the obligation to design its own program in accordance with its own needs." Enthusiastic young instructors often plan very extensive programs that are found to be beyond the abilities of staff and students for reasons of time if not also because they are educationally inappropriate. As one who has fallen in many a pit dug by unrealistic expectations, this author can write with sympathy of these pitfalls. Major ones are overestimating the time that students can give to research while taking many courses, and overestimating the readiness of undergraduates to use advanced theory. Some reading in education and psychology, especially Whitehead's The Aims of E d u c a t i ~ nmight ,~ help those who fall for the superficially logical plan of teaching mostslytheory first so that the students will understand the facts of nature when they meet them, later. This is sadly backwards. Poor results are almost assured with young students if one does violence to Whitehead's "Rhythm of Education" with its cycles of romance, precision, and generalization. Teachers must be careful to supply the romance of chemistry missing in many necessarily condensed texts. The enjoyment of knowledge and discovery should permeate both course and project work if talented students are to he attracted and retained and if the liberal arts tradition is to be fulfilled. Most students cannot, even with the best of intentions, find time for extra work especially now that increased selectivity has augmented competition and quality of work demanded in most courses. Most schools questioned, therefore, give credit for their projects and thus reduce the student's course load. A major deterrent to expansion of student project activity is the great demand on faculty time to direct this work. College students can rarely work long on
a WHITEHEAD, ALFRED NORTH,"The Aims of Education," The Macmillan Company, New York, 1929. Also republished as s. Mentor Book, The New American Library of World Literature, Inc., New York, 1949.
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their own without meeting problems requirmg assistance from a more experienced researcher. The universities have been able to assign undergraduates t o projects supervised by graduate students in chemistry. The college professor, however, who encourages all able students to undertake research may find himself inundated. An interesting solution appears in the plan being tried at Hampden-Sydney College. Outstanding freshmen and sophomores may begin research as apprentices to juniors and seniors who have had experience on the project. A continuing chain of apprenticeship should relieve the professor of much routine instruction on equipment and technique, which would usually require yearly repetitions. Other plans to help the busy teacher find time for research are given in the Wooster Report, p. 20-22.$ A Typical Honors Program
It may be of value to record what seems to be the typical honors or project program in 1961 in colleges. After two or three years of college chemistry, the student asks to work on a laboratory project, usually allied to the research of one of the staff. This he will do one or two afternoons a week and in any extra time he can find. I n many schools now, he will he able to continue the work in the summer on the NSF grant plan for pay. He will usually receive academic credit for the in-term part of the work and present a thesis or seminar on his results. The staff may then certify him (usually after further examinations) for honors on his diploma a t graduation, With many variations, this describes the programs at most colleges which the Wooster Report classed as productive of chemists. A number of experimental programs and new ideas show the range of activities that may affect the honors program indirectly. Wesleyan University pnts a history of chemistry reading course in summer: "In the fall of their senior year, all majors in chemistry must pass an examination in the history of chemistry based on reading assigned to them for the preceding summer."
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There may be many more possihilities for self-teaching by students. A combined chemistry-physics course for freshmen is being tried at Beloit, Amherst, Carleton, Hiram, Lawrence, and Wabash. Juniata is centering its first course on the covalent bond and organic chemistry. Sophomores may then be able to work on organic projects. The widespread experimentation in chemistry curricula permits optimism about the continued vitality of college teaching. The factor of refreshment of the faculty may be as important as the effectof the curriculum itself on students. The success of research is due to the feeling of students and staff that it is both important and very enjoyable. No Substitute for Enthusiasm
As stated in the report of the Bucknell conference4 in 1960, the details of the chemistry program are "not so important as the catalytic effect of the good teacher." This has been amply documented in many studies. The school, large or small, which fosters little personal interaction between faculty and students will quite generally show a productivity of scientists near zero. Professor Henry A. Bent of Minnesota put it well in his comments on the author's questionnaire: "such a program (honors) exists whenever a group of eager and qualified students is placed in contact with an instructor who is blessed with similar traits and who has a penchant for humanizing knowledge." Harry F. Lewis in the Wooster Report (p. 64-6W has stressed the importance of the teacher who has the research approach even where money, equipment., and time are lacking for much formal laboratory research. With enthusiastic and qualified teachers any convenient plan of individual student work can succeed; u~ithoutsuch teachers, no plan is likely to succeed. "Report of the Bucknell Conference on Undergraduate
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Trainine of Chemistrv Maiors." " , Bucknell Universitv. LewisB., AND WILLEFORD, BENNET burg, Pit. See CLAPP,LEALLYN R., THIS JOURNAL, 38, 251 (1961).
