4 8th New England Association of Chem
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Content of the College-Preparatory
Alan Lander
Avon High School Avon, Massachusetts
High
Sth00l
The rapidly accelerating growth of chemical knowledge and the resulting changes in the course content of many first year college courses have definite implications for the college preparatory course in chemistry offered in high school. Accordingly, a study was made to see if any general agreement exists on the proper subject matter of a course for the college bound student. The following is a brief description of the study and a summary of some of its findings. Two hundred college and university chemistry instructors and 200 high school chemistry teachers from New England, New York, and New Jersey were selected a t random and asked if they would be willing to take part in the investigation. A total of 103 college and university instructors from highly-accredited four-year institutions and 100 high school teachers agreed to participate. Nearly 100% of the latter were members of NEACT. The following table shows the types of institutions and the percentages of each type represented by the college and university instructors; 80% of these were liberal arts institutions, 8% were science or technical institutions, 11% were teacher training institutions, and 1% were military institutions.
Type of institution Private university Public university Private college Public college
-Student 1-250
population-251-600 Above 600
... ... 1% ...
. ..
22%
17% 6%
17%
6% 31%
The following table shows the types of institutions and the percentages of each that were represented by the secondary school teachers.
Type .. of institution Private secondary school Public secondary school
--Student 1-250 11% 1%
chers
popufaGlllll251-600 Over 600 5% 17%
3% 63%
Chemistry Course
A list of 200 chen~icaltopics most often found in high school and college freshman chemistry courses was prepared and sent to each respondent. He was given a rating scale together with instructions and criteria for evaluation and was asked to indicate the extent to which he taught each item on the list. I n addition he was asked to indicate whether or not he believed the item should be taught in the college preparatory chemistry course. These last data were assembled and tabulated as per cent of each class of respondent (college and university instructors or high school teachers) who believed the topic was important enough to be included. No provision was made for the inclusion of topics not listed among the original 200 items. I n the table, t,opics have been grouped roughly according to estimated importance. The topics are alphabetically listed within groups. The first group includes those topics considered to be important by 90% or more of the respondents, the second group by 75-90'%; the third by 50-75yo; and the fourth by fewer than 50% of the respondents.
It will be of interest to note that there is less divergence between the figures for college and high school teacher preferences toward the top of the table. There is less unanimity at the bottom, where topics are judged to be least important. Wide variations exist in the middle portions of the table. The author is indebted to Professor John G. Read of Boston University for his help and guidance in carrying out this investigation.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The &hence of interpretations of or opinions about the data in this article is 8. purposeful rrmirrmidm. We e m h a s i z e t,hat, this surve-v regresents the existing conditions, not the situation as planners of new courses think things should be. The author encourages interested readers to discussion by correspondence.
Volume 42, Number 4, April 1965
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231
Topics Rated by Teachers To Be Appropriate for Inclusion in the College Preparatory High School Chemistry Course
Tonic Absolute temperature scale Aaid-base, Arrhenius theory Acid and basic anhydrides Acidr bases salts ~ l k met& d Atomic and moleoular weights Atomio mass unit Atomic oamber Avogadro's law Avoi.sdro's number Boyle's and Chsrles' laws Conservation of msss and energy Dalton's atomic theory Eleetriaal conductivity in solutions Electrical nature of msrtter Eleotrolysis Eleotromotive series E m p i r i d and true formulas Eletnents, comoounds. mixtures Iralogens, chemistry of Hydroran, chemistry of Inert gases Ionio and covalent bonding roniastion of acids Isotopes L&w of combining volumes Law* of definite r n d multiple proportions M",. *n"*sn+ .--"". Methods of expressing concentration Neutralisation Nomenelsture, inarganio traditiond Oxidation number. OX"^", ohe,ni.trv of Peiiidio law Reversible reactions
Einstein's eguation Eleotrical oonductivity in solida E l e o t r i d eystema as Bources of energy Electrode gotentia1s Electron affinity Electrooeghtivity E ~ u i l i h r i u mconstaots Paraday's laws Fractional distillhtion Funotional groups, organic Geometry of molecules Graham's law Emf-oell reactions Halogen o l y a d d s Heat of reaction Henry's law ais1ory of chemistry Hydration of ions Hydrocarbons Hydrogen bonding I"" emhanee resins I""iz&tim &nste.nt 1onir;ation energy Ionization potentmle Iron, ohemistry of Isomerrsm Methllio bonding Methlluigy Moseley's arrangement of elements Nitrogen wale Nuclear chemistiv
Bond energy Bond leneths ~~
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Bragg's law Cathodic protection Cellulose compounds Charm cloud model Charge density Charge separation and potenti;&Ienergy Chemotherapy Coordination numbers Debye-Huokel theory Dieleotric oonstants Diyole momonts Dyes E n e r m of v+brhtion, translation. rotation E n t h a l ~ ydiagrams Entro~y Elltectic* Extraction and partition Free energy Goldschmidt reaction Hess' law Hybtidilstion of orbital. Hydrozen psmxide bonding Hydrolysis constant Hydrogen electrode 1soe1eotronio moleoules Lanthanides Law of vhn't Aaff L a r s of thermodynamics Magnetio domains Maxwell-Roltlmann distributionl curves Nernst c0uati0n Nomenolature, organic Nomenelsture. Stook-Werner Oil d r o ~e x ~ e r i m e n t O ~ t i activity d Pauli Erolusion principle Phsse dismsma Phase rule Phosghona oryaaida Photoeleotrio effect Pi and sinma bonding Planek's Constrnt ~
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A.,"..""" Hydrolysis of salts Inorganic carbon chemistry Ionio equilibfium Kinetio molecular theorv Law of mars aotion LeChatelier's prinoip1e Mass definition Nitrogen. e h e m i a t ~of , PR determinations: m d , base *ad salt
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Slilfur'oxvacids ' Theory of ionization Titration Vapor presrure definition
Acid-base, BWsted-Lowly theory Atomic volume Bdanoinc equations, ion e1actron:method Boilins. point elevation Rood angles Bonding c a ~ a a i t y Buffer d u t i o n s Chlorimetry Carbohydrhtes Chtalysis Cathode rays cation anaiysiri Collieative properties Colloid ohemistry cummon-ion effect Complex ions Con8ervation of electric oharge Conlomb's 1sw Critical temperature and pressure Crystalline structure Descriptive ahemistry of metal. Detenmnts and sohos
232 / Journal o f Chemical Education
guantum numbers Raoult's law Reaction mechanism8 Reaction rste laws Resonhnoe Solnhility product constants SD~C~~OSOODY Standard state Van der Waala radius Van der W a d s eouhtion
Per cent Per cent of college of high sehoal r e s ~ o n d e n t s reapondents
