Chemical Education Today
Letters Chinese Students’ Opinions about “What Is the Biggest Problem in Chemistry?” In the spring of 2002, we taught a 16-contact-hour course “Chemistry Today” (1) to 133 undergraduate students from years 1 to 3 in Tianjin University and Nankai University. They come from 29 majors, of which 48.9% are from chemistry and chemical engineering. The students are very interested in the course, and on the final examination one of the test questions is: “What is the biggest problem in chemistry? Please design your program to resolve it.” The analysis of the students’ views is given in Table 1.
Table 1. Chinese Students‘ Responses to the Biggest Problem in Chemistry Number of Students
Percentage (%)
Environment
79
59.4
Energy resources
17
12.8
New chemical theories
12
9.0
New experiment methods
9
6.8
Applied in production
7
5.3
Synthesis of new compounds
5
3.8
Chemical education
4
3.0
Problem
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Journal of Chemical Education
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From Table 1 it is clear that most students think the biggest problem in chemistry is environmental pollution. The environment problem includes several aspects, such as chemical production, water, food, air, solid waste, automobiles, and so on. We are happy to know that there are 15.8% students interested in developing new chemical theories and chemical experiment methods. The energy resources problem is mainly divided into two sections: one is how to find new energy resources; the other is how to use the energy resources more effectively and safely. We feel gratified that there are only 3.0% students who consider that the biggest problem in chemistry is chemical education. Most of the students confirm that the problems in chemistry are connected with each other, and they will be solved well in future, which mainly depends on the development of new chemical theories and experiment methods, and chemistry must combine with the knowledge of other scientific fields. Literature Cited 1. Breslow, R. Chemistry Today and Tomorrow—The Central, Useful and Creative Science; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1997.
Zhang Mingjie and Yang Qichao Department of Chemistry Tianjin University Tianjin, 300072 P. R. China
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 2 February 2005
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