LETTERS ernment needs to stop patching up holes on a sinking ship and get to the root of the issues that cause individuals to attempt these types of attacks in the first place. The N THE ARTICLE BY CELIA M. HENRY Ti collective monetary resources that would be required to facilitate vulnerability as tled "Medicinal Chemistry in the Class sessments and counterterrorism measures room," it is stated that "for other pro would be better spent changing our unfair fessors who are unfamiliar with medicinal and more-often-than-not hypocritical for chemistry he [Erland P. Stevens] recom eign policies that anger and inflame radi mended a weeklong residential school on cal groups around the globe. Surely, this is medicinal chemistry offered each summer a better place to start securing a future at Drew University in Madison, Ν J." without terrorism. (C&EN, April 21, page 56). I would like to ADAM DUNKO inform similar college faculty that each BeUeville,NJ. year the Residential School on Medicinal Chemistry at Drew University offers a lim ited number of scholarships that cover transportation, tuition, and lodging. In formation on the program can be found HE REPORT ON T H E RESEARCH BY on the school's website at http://www. Dawn I. Del Carlo on student cheat depts.drewedu/resmed. ing was revealing for its insights on BILL HOULIHAN what turns students on (C&EN, April 14, Madison, N.J. page 51). The example of independent in organics lab experiments brings to mind the old chestnut, 'What's old is new again." In the fall of 1965 in Introductory Inor ganic Chemistry atJuniata College, Hunt FIND IT UNFORTUNATE THAT THE FEDingdon, Pa., sophomore chemistry and jun eral government has drafted a security ior premed majors were met in our first lab bill that will force companies to waste session with a check-in list, a silent lab as time and resources on building some fa sistant, and a professor who explained that cade of safety that would be useless to se we were responsible for a certain number cure a chemical facility against a terrorist of quantitative analyses and a certain num attack (C&EN, April 14, page 7). Although ber of preparations/characterizations— security measures are needed to ensure and who then walked out the door. safety when working with hazardous chem icals, those measures should be in place al When queried on what we were to do, ready No amount of security in a chemi the lab assistant smiled pleasantly and cal plant is going to deflect an incoming pointed out the window We all turned our jet or rocket. This legislation will be about heads. He was pointing at the college's new as useful as having armed military person library Later, when asked why the molar nel standing in a subway with a machine ity of concentrated sulfuric acid was not gun to guard against the release of bioterprinted on the manufacturer's label, the rorist agents. same assistant patiently told us that there was enough information on the label to fig If someone wants to attack a facility, ure it out. We weren't left completely to there will always be away to do it. Our govour own devices, but it's amazing how the expectation of intelligence can turn dull CORRECTIONS lab days into adventures while simultane ously teaching students how to think. • March 3, page 25: The Grecian For
Medicinal chemistry scholarships
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Student cheating
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Money drain
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mula line from Combe International darkens gray hair through the use of lead acetate. C&EN's article incor rectly named the firm's Just for Men line as a user of that process. • April 28, page 44: An editing error placed Greek scientists/philosophers Euclid and Galen as living earlier than Aristotle. Euclid was not born until around the death of Aristotle (322 B.C.), and Galen lived in t,he 2nd cen tury A.D.
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C & E N / MAY 2 6 , 2003
CHARLES R. LYTLE
Portland, Ore.
I
WAS S U R P R I S E D THAT DEL CARLO'S
cheating deterrent dissertation did not mention a method that I found useful both as a high school chemistry teacher and as a teaching assistant for organic chemistry labs in graduate school. In my experience, an effective approach to pre vent students from cheating or "fudging" on laboratory experiments—in addition to those mentioned in the article—is to give them some or full credit for negative
or failed results, provided they offer a sound scientific explanation as to why their experiment didn't work. Most students want that positive result and would likely repeat the experiment; however, those students with less honed skills could demonstrate their under standing of the reaction and the proce dure and not be penalized because they were having a bad lab day Instead of tak ing a huge hit on their laboratory note book or report grade, their failure was re flected in a less critical technique grade. I believe this makes the students still feel vested in the exercise and doesn't dis courage them from continuing to strive for mastery in the lab. TRACEY D. M C G R E G O R
Baltimore HOW TO REACH US CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR • Our e-mail address is
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