Chemical Education Today
ACS Presidential Election
Connecting Past Traditions into the Uncertain Future Improving Chemical Education To Meet the Global Challenges of the 21st Century by Yorke E. Rhodes
Thomas Friedman tells us “The Earth Is Flat”. There is no barrier to getting information on the information highway. Anyone with a computer search machine has unlimited access to all the information available, anywhere. Competition is global. An editorial in the New York Times (July 19, 2006) in “Public vs. Private Schools” says the “quality of education offered to students varies widely within all school categories. The public, private, charter and religious realms all contain schools that range from good to not so good to downright horrendous. All forms of education suffer from wide fluctuations in quality and effectiveness. We must emphasize teacher training and high standards that distinguish the effective schools from poor ones. Students perform at mediocre levels in reading, math and science.” There is so much to change. At the same time, foreign graduates decrease and fewer Americans take up science. Our college curricula are outdated. How to teach fundamentals and include new areas? We cannot add to the four-year curriculum. What should we do in graduate education to make broader education? If elected President I will appoint a Task Force constituted of members of relevant ACS committees to work with educators, including chairs of science departments, administrative leaders in the sciences and in industry, to address these problems and propose solutions. We require trained, educated, scientists for creative research necessary to lead competition for new drugs, to lead in energy, alternative fuels, nanotechnology and materials science, biochemical science and life sciences, as well as in traditional fundamental scientific disciplines. How do we get there? We must work with Congress to increase funding for research and education; significant increases are needed! We need research collaboration with physics, biology, geology, medicine, mathematics, and computer science—fields with similar problems of finding practical solutions. We need liaison with the other science societies. Basic research must be supported nationally. Our scientific base is a national resource and has to be treated and funded as the necessary engine to grow new developments. ACS does many of these things, and we must develop even stronger relations through congressional offices. Our most demanding challenge is to develop the scientists of the future. We all need to take a hand in developing scientists from the lowest to the highest levels of education. It is a gigantic problem to recruit, develop, nurture, and stimulate interest in students, but we must solve it, or have no one to educate to do our science in the future. Chemistry, the central science, is the creative science for new compounds and materials, new uses, new synthetic
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Journal of Chemical Education
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methods that create new materials, new drugs, and medicines. We make new foods, clothing, and paint colors. Chemists make things used to make other things that improve our lives. Our understanding of DNA and genetics comes about through chemistry and chemical interactions. We need to tell this story at every level, from kindergarten to elementary school, to middle school, and to high Yorke E. Rhodes school to assure we have a science-educated public. To the general society who listen, read newspapers and magazines, and watch movies and television and computer Web sites and games, we need to tell the story in every medium. We have a wonderful story to tell and we need to tell it, everywhere. We don’t do enough of that. We need to share our excitement of discovery. There’s nothing more infectious. Imagine a weekly science show on television. Imagine a Sunday evening in a local bistro with a discussion on science and art. Scientific content is popular. Join the ACS Tour Speakers. I’ve spoken to 90 of 189 sections from Alaska to Illinois Heartland to Florida to New Orleans—opportunity to tell your favorite story (mine is astrochemistry) and to meet and stimulate our members. I also speak in public schools, to get students involved. Most wonder, “How Big Is a Lightyear?” I get them to calculate it. We need to bring the excitement of scientific discovery to all levels with students of all ages. We attract high school teachers. We need to reach middle school and elementary school teachers, too. Young minds are curious and they like to have fun. Chemistry is fun and science is fun. If we can light a light of excitement in young minds at every level and keep lighting it, we can grow the next generations of curious, challenging minds and scientists. What are you waiting for? Let’s go! We have a lot of work to do. Yorke E. Rhodes is a retired chemistry professor from New York University. He has won student, alumni, and faculty awards for teaching, and has been twice honored by Who’s Who in College Teachers. He’s been visiting professor at Harvard, Hunter College, Freiburg Universitat, Technische Universitat München, and Université Grenoble. He has also had research fellowships at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. For more information, please see the Web site http:// www.yorkerhodes.org/ (accessed Aug 2006).
Vol. 83 No. 10 October 2006
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www.JCE.DivCHED.org
