Chemical Education Today
Conant Award Interview
An Interview with Eleanor Siegrist, 2007 Award Winner by JCE Editorial Staff
Receiving the Award The Conant Award is the highest award that a high school teacher can receive. What does winning the award mean to you, both personally and professionally? What did it mean to your students, colleagues, and administrators?
Personally I was deeply touched to receive such an honor. I never expected it. Since the award was announced, I have heard from a number of my former students. Many of them mentioned some way in which I had influenced their life and expressed appreciation. Their kind words mean much to me. Background and Teaching Career How did your academic background, people, or events influence your choice of a career in chemistry teaching? Have you had a particularly influential teacher or mentor?
I enjoyed chemistry in high school, so when I had to choose a science course in college I selected chemistry. I was actually preparing to teach history, but my advisor felt I needed a second field of certification since at that time it was difficult to get a job teaching history. I chose chemistry for my second field. I still thought I wanted to teach history and never really saw myself teaching chemistry until one night in my senior year I needed to go back to the lab to check on an experiment. One of the other girls on the floor offered to walk over with me. I started talking about the experiment and explaining it to her. She then looked at me and said “you really ought to teach chemistry”. That was the first time I began to think seriously about teaching chemistry. The decision to teach chemistry was sort of made for me when I was offered a job teaching chemistry and had no job offers to teach history. Very shortly after I started to teach, I knew chemistry was the right choice for me and never considered teaching history again. Are you aware of personal characteristics that helped you become an award winner? Are there especially effective ways that you go above and beyond minimum requirements? Perhaps an anecdote or student success story would serve to capture your philosophy or style.
I generally work hard at whatever I do. I believe that gave me the right to ask my students to do their best. One part of my philosophy was never to ask my students to do something I was not willing to do myself. I tried to challenge the students but to always be available to help them. I enjoyed working on
science fair projects with the students and would spend long hours in the lab working with them. I enjoyed guiding students through the research and problem solving that was always a part of the projects. Project work involved reasoning and problem solving skills that are not used often in high school. I found that my creative thinkers often excelled at projects where they sometimes had trouble with the routine work. It was very rewarding to see these students suddenly blossom.
photo by M. Z. Hoffman
Eleanor Siegrist received the 2007 James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching in March 2007 at the 233rd American Chemical Society Meeting in Chicago, IL. She spoke with Journal staff recently about the award and the successful teaching career on which it is based. Her responses are below.
During her presentation at the ACS Meeting in Chicago, Eleanor Siegrist shows the workbook she made to help her students keep organized.
What are your sources of new and innovative ways to teach—things that will help students and inspire you? Are there things you wish would be available?
About mid-way through my teaching career, I was fortunate to become part of the Science in Motion program sponsored by Juniata College. This was a life-changing experience for me. I now had available resources to do many things that I had not been able to do earlier. These resources included instruments such as spectrophotometers, gas chromatographs, pH meters, analytical balances that worked—and in classroom quantities. The resources included summer workshops in which teachers were first taught to use the instruments and then were given the opportunity to develop lab activities using the instruments for the classroom. These workshops then came to include the resources of other chemistry teachers in the area and the knowledge of the college professors. I also attended conferences when possible. I found the ChemEd Conferences to be especially helpful and inspiring. Many ideas for labs and projects came from the Journal of Chemical Education. I found that most freshman labs could be adapted for high school. Many undergraduate labs could be turned into a project or described a technique that could be used in a project. Tell us about changes in teaching and learning chemistry during your teaching career and describe your reaction(s) to them.
Many of the changes in teaching involved technology. I went from teaching the use of log tables and a slide rule to calculators and computers. I went from two-pan balances with weights and triple-beam balances to electronic top-loading balances and analytical balances. I found that I was instructing high school students on instruments I had not even used in college—such as UV and IR spectrophotometers and gas
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Chemical Education Today
Conant Award Interview Don’t try to teach like someone else, find what works for you. That may mean trying some new things.
chromatographs. HPLC and electrophoresis went along with paper- and thin-layer chromatography. Mimeographs and ditto machines were replaced by copiers. Sixteen millimeter films were replaced by VHS, video discs, CDs, and DVDs. Blackboards became green boards and then white boards, now moving toward smart boards. Opaque projectors were replaced by overhead projectors which are now being replaced by PowerPoint presentations and tablet computers. In general the changes have made more information available more easily. Dissemination of the information has become easier, faster, and more realistic. At the same time, standards for what is expected of teachers have been raised. These changes contributed to improvements in teaching and learning. It was an exciting time to be teaching and learning to adapt to the new technologies. What qualities do you think characterize a great teacher?
A great teacher loves to teach, enjoys and respects her students, is concerned for the growth of each student, enjoys the subject being taught, and keeps current in both subject matter and educational methods.
About the Conant Award James Bryant Conant Award in High School Chemistry Teaching
I am the co-author with Guy Anderson of one article in JCE (1). Relationship with Students What do you believe the nature of the relationship between students and teacher should be?
As a general statement, I think that the relationship should be one of mutual respect: set high standards, hold high expectations, provide encouragement, praise, and support. A teacher may be an exhorter or encourager, a counselor, and a role model. Why do you think it is important for students to take chemistry? What do you hope they will gain from being in your class?
Chemistry involves a unique combination of concrete and abstract reasoning with mathematical applications that are important in intellectual development. Chemistry is the foundational science. A basic understanding of matter and its reactions is necessary to understand biology or physics and the applied sciences such as medicine. I hope students learn to think, to solve problems, and to believe in their own abilities as learners. Are there things you do to make chemistry come alive for your students? Do you have a particularly successful method encouraging them to strive academically?
I used demonstrations, analogies, and mini labs to create and maintain interest. Most of my students responded to the high but attainable standards. Students really do know when they have achieved something, and they gain satisfaction in the achievement.
photo by yearbook staff, Hollidaysburg Area High School
This award of the American Chemical Society is intended to recognize, encourage, and stimulate outstanding teachers of high school chemistry in the United States, its possessions or territories, at the national level. In 2007 Thermo Electron Corp. began sponsorship of the award, which consists of $5000 and a certificate; reasonable travel expenses to the national ACS meeting at which the award is presented will be reimbursed; a certificate will also be provided to the recipient’s institution for display. Any individual, except a currently enrolled student of the nominee or a member of the award selection committee, may submit one nomination or support form in any given year. Local Sections of the ACS are especially encouraged to submit nominations for the award. The nominee must be actively engaged in the teaching of chemistry in a high school (grades 9–12). Information about candidate’s attributes as well as nomination procedures is available from the American Chemical Society: go to www.chemistry.org and search for Conant Award.
Have you had success in writing up and publishing your work? How did you get started; what assistance did you have along that sometimes rocky path to final publication?
Eleanor Siegrist works with a student to prepare for National Chemistry Week competition.
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Chemical Education Today
Advising students about career choices will necessarily vary with each individual, but is there an underlying theme that you could share with our readers?
I encouraged students not to “sell themselves short”. I would tell them that if they really wanted to achieve something, they could. I also encouraged them to “keep the doors open”. That might mean don’t take an easy course or a course for nonmajors if taking the harder course would enable you to take other courses later on.
Teachers need to be allowed to teach. Much of what is now going on in meeting state and national standards is teaching to a test. That is not real teaching. Teaching to a test tends to discourage the creative, enthusiastic teacher.
Summing Up As an award-winning teacher, your voice may now get a fuller hearing. Is there anything you would suggest to those who shape education in this country that would enable teachers to do a better job in the classroom? That would attract and keep the best teachers in the classroom?
I am concerned that chemistry is not well represented in the standards. Specific chemistry concepts need to be included in state and national standards. One result will be fewer jobs for chemistry teachers (similar to what happened to Latin teachers over the past 50 years). That will then mean fewer students interested in and prepared for chemistry in college and ultimately fewer chemists. Teachers need to be allowed to teach. Much of what is now going on in meeting state and national standards is teaching to a test. That is not real teaching. Teaching to a test tends to discourage the creative, enthusiastic teacher. There is no doubt that the educational system needs to be improved but the current emphasis is incomplete. All students deserve the best education possible. Unfortunately there is an over emphasis on reaching the bottom student. We also need to serve our brightest students and help them reach their full potential. I believe the Science in Motion model of cooperation between a college or university and the schools in the area, of sharing equipment, and training teachers has the best potential of improving education in a cost-effective manner.
I graduated from Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA in 1966 with a B.A. in history and a double minor in chemistry and education. I was offered a position teaching chemistry with the Hollidaysburg Area School District starting in fall 1966. I continued teaching chemistry for the Hollidaysburg Area School District until I retired June 2005. I received an M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction (Science Education) from Penn State in 1998. I was involved with the Juniata College Science in Motion program from basically its start. That program was a very significant factor in shaping the second half of my teaching career. I became
What advice would you give to prospective teachers or those just starting out in a teaching career? What has helped you guard against the complacency that can come from many years in the same job?
Enjoy teaching, enjoy the students, but don’t try to be their friend. The first year is the hardest. Don’t try to do everything perfectly at first, just do your best. Take a break once in awhile. Start a file. Don’t try to teach like someone else, find what works for you. That may mean trying some new things. Literature Cited 1. Siegrist, Eleanor; Anderson, Guy. Analysis of Mouthwash. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 567.
photo by Charles Siegrist
About Eleanor Siegrist
Good teachers seem to leave the classroom for two reasons. One is the seemingly endless amount of paperwork that appears to have little to do with actually teaching. This leads to frustration and discouragement. The other reason is the often large difference between the salaries of teachers and that of administrators. Many excellent teachers become average administrators because that is the only way to advance financially within the school system.
active in the Pittsburgh Region Science Fair and several times received the award for the teacher with the most winning entries. In May 2005 I graduated from a certified lay minister’s program with the American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Since September 2005 I have served as Assistant Interim Minister for the First Baptist Church of Hollidaysburg. (If you follow the dates above you might notice that I graduated in May and retired in June 2005. I really didn’t plan it that way!)
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