Chemistry Instruction Using Evening News Video Tape Segments x numoer of ehemistry-related items have recently appeared on the commercial networks' evening newscasts. These segments often provide current, dramatic, and meaningful applications of basic chemical principles.' Some examples are Dioxin (ABC, 6 min, Sept. 20,1983), Naltrexone2as a heroin antagonist (ABC, 3 min, Jan. 6,19831, fire ants and P r o - D r ~ n e , ~ a synthetic analog of insect juvenile hormone (CBS, 2 min, May 16,1983),the EPA's announcement of new restrictions on ethylene dihromide (NBC, 3 min, Feh. 2,1984), and the FDA's approval of Nifedipine4 treatment for heart disease (CBS, 2min. Dec. 11. 19821. -~ -, These sepnenffi may he horn,wed from The Vanderbilt Television News Archive' at rcm,nal,lr cmt fur classrwm viewing u hile conlorming to cupyright regulations. Al,stractsand indexes uf the Vanderhilt Televisim News Archibe arc generally available a t major university libraries. The last example mentioned above reveals a strikingly successful use of Nifedipine in a 14-year-old boy previously debilitated by angina pectoris. After this tape segment is shown in a sophomore course in organic chemistry, students are given t h e synthetic route to this medicinal drug, in which the essential reagents are ammonia, ethyl acetoacetate, and m-nitrohenzaldehyde. As a meaningful review of aldehyde preparation, five synthetic pathways to m-nitrobenzaldehyde are presented and students are asked to select the one oathwav that is unworkable. However. anv, asoeet of the Nifedi~inestructure or syntherrs wuld he tmphaxized. Instrurrirmal mater~almay likewire he generated from the ahow enampler on s mrrcty uf mechanistic, rtructural, or synthetic featurtr. ~~
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The use of TV newscast segments in medical education has been discussed by Gardener, W. A,, Jr.. and Bennett, B. D.. JAMA, 248,2977 (1982). Windholz, M. (Editor), "The Merck Index," 10th ed., Merck 8 Co.,Rahway, NJ, 1983, p. 6209. Footnote 2, p. 7673 'Footnote 2, p. 6374 The address is: Vanderbin Television News Archive, General Libray Bldg., Vanderbin Univerrky Llbrw, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, (615) 322-2927 Fred G. Greenberg SUNY Cdlege at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14222
Volume 62
Number 3
March 1985
227
