Communication pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
ConfChem Conference on A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education: Chemistry Cartoon Competition from IUPAC Physical Chemistry Division Jim McQuillan* Department of Chemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem online conference A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical education, held from May 18 to June 28, 2012, and jointly hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. During the UNESCO−IUPAC sponsored International Year of Chemistry 2011, the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division of IUPAC ran physical chemistry video and chemistry cartoon international competitions for secondary and tertiary students. The cartoon competition was more successful attracting over 60 entries from 8 countries with the bulk of the entries coming from secondary students, partly due to utilization of the competition by secondary teachers as an assigned classroom activity. This utilization trend may indicate the perceived value by teachers of cartoons in the teaching of chemistry. The success of the cartoon competition has prompted the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division to run a physical chemistry cartoon competition on an annual basis. KEYWORDS: Continuing Education, First-Year Undergraduate General, General Public, High School/Introductory Chemistry, Public Understanding/Outreach, Physical Chemistry, Humor/Puzzles/Games, Multimedia-Based Learning
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physical chemistry video competition should target tertiarylevel students and accept entries from small groups. The goal of the cartoon competition was to illustrate a chemistry principle, which was a more general aim than that of the video competition. This resulted in wider participation with 44 entries from secondary students and 16 entries from tertiary undergraduates. The adoption of the cartoon competition as high school classroom activity was evident with batches of entries from certain schools. This competition was also more in line with the majority of IYC activities among the secondary student populace. A physical chemistry slant was implied by the “chemistry principle” wording in the goal but in practice few entries addressed that dimension. Publicity was via the IUPAC Web site and through national organizations. We received over 60 entries from 8 countries for the cartoon competition. This was a manageable number of entries but a greater response may have been obtained with more effective marketing of the competition. Entries were received at a University of Otago e-mail address from instructions on the IYC 2011 activities Web site. The first prize for the cartoon competition was presented to Jessica Hough by Jim McQuillan during the August 2011 IUPAC Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico as shown in the abstract graphic. Jessica’s travel costs were
he utilization of arresting visual material is an expanding dimension of the chemistry teacher’s skill base and such illustrations are increasingly found in publications about chemistry research. Thus when the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division of IUPAC was challenged to contribute to the UNESCO−IUPAC sponsored International Year of Chemistry (IYC) 2011, we responded with physical chemistry video and chemistry cartoon international competitions for secondary and tertiary students. Videos related to chemistry concepts and phenomena are increasingly used to enliven aspects of chemistry and cartoons have long played a role in chemistry teaching.1,2 The goal of the video competition was to illustrate a physical chemistry principle in a manner able to enrich the teaching of physical chemistry. In retrospect this was too ambitious of a goal with most of the entries coming from secondary students for whom the meaning of physical chemistry is not yet developed. We also only accepted entries from individuals when in practice the recording of video material involves at least two people if one is part of the action being filmed. This oversight probably had a major influence on the number of entries, which was quite low in comparison with those received in the cartoon competition. About half of the entries came from one secondary school, a trend that was also a feature of the cartoon competition. It is recommended that any future © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: October 8, 2013 1557
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300836x | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 1557−1558
Journal of Chemical Education
Communication
(2) Gonick, L., Criddle, C. The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry; HarperCollins: New York, 2005.
supported by Corning Incorporated and the American Chemical Society with coordinating assistance from the U.S. Academy of Sciences. We required the prizewinners to sign agreements giving IUPAC the rights to use their cartoons for publicity purposes until the end of 2011, later extended to the end of June 2012 for use in the May 18 to June 28, 2012 Virtual Colloquium on IYC activities preceding the ICCE−ECRICE conference in July 2012. One suggestion from the Virtual Colloquium for future cartoon competitions, which would simplify such intellectual property matters, was for IUPAC to be assigned the right to post and archive all entries, which could then be made available to the public through a digital archive. The virtual colloquium provided the opportunity to reflect on the role of cartoons in the teaching of chemistry. The guidelines for the cartoon competition referred to conveying meaning with “economy, clarity, and good humor” with “creation of interest, novelty, and entertainment value” being part of the judging criteria. The prizewinning cartoons certainly had many of these qualities and cartoons can be valuable teacher resources to enhance chemistry teaching in the teaching environment. Alternatively, challenging a class of chemistry students to create cartoons that would effectively convey chemistry concepts would improve student understanding of concepts, as all teaching improves teacher understanding. There is therefore an increasingly graphical dimension in teaching and presentation of chemistry and the utilization of cartoons as teaching tools can benefit both teacher and student. In conclusion, the student chemistry cartoon competition during IYC was moderately successful, particularly among secondary students where capture by teachers as a classroom activity created a significant part of the response. The student physical chemistry video competition was less successful, which may have been due to its restriction to individual entries. The IYC cartoon competition seed activity from the Physical and Biophysical Division of IUPAC has prompted the Division to launch an annual physical chemistry cartoon competition on a similar basis. The first of these competitions was held in 2013 and details were posted on the IUPAC Web site. This paper was discussed from June 8 to June 14 during the spring 2012ConfChem online conference, A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education. This conference was jointly hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE) and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. The conferences are open to the public and can be accessed at http://www.ccce.divched.org/spring2012confchem.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
Full paper from the ConfChem conference. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Wirth, H. E.; Burtt, B. P. Teaching technique through cartoons. J. Chem. Educ. 1945, 22, 501−502. 1558
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300836x | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 1557−1558
