5. F. Barber, Frank Brescia, and Chester B. Kremer The City College of N e w York New York City
C.C.N.Y. Honors Program in Chemistry
The encouragement of students begins with the entering class in September. The City College of New York participates fully in the Advanced Placement Program, usually granting placement for a rating of 3 and placement with credit for a rating of 4 or 5. The department of chemist~yhas been concerned about the variability of laboratory experience presented by these candidates, but has found that this situation tends to be rectified after such students have completed one or two elective courses. I n addition, the college offers its own program of placement examinations. The high schools from which most of our students come are invited to designate students who should take these examinations. Thus with each entering class a fair number of students are identified who will be ready to begin elective work early in their college careers and who will have additional room for electives by virtue of placement and credit earned on the basis of high school preparation. Another source of potential majors in chemistry is a program for identifying students who give evidence of scholastic ability and academic promise as early as possible in their college careers. This program is a very flexible and simple one. At the close of each semester, faculty members are asked to nominate students who have shown intellectual promise; how one determines this is left for each instructor to deride. Students thus nominated are invited to participate. Each student who accepts this invitation (about 95% of those nominated) is assigned each term to a professor who discusses degree objective, courses from the major field, related work in other fields, the honors program (see below), opportunities for graduate study, etc. An effort is made to rotate students among faculty participants, arranging for the student to confer with professors in his major field as he approaches the senior year. The next occasion for special consideration comes up largely in the junior year when many students, by now sure of their objectives, apply for departmental honorsin chemistry. The essential feature of the honors program is the opportunity provided for independent work by a student on a topic in which he is interested, under the direction of a faculty mentor. We have found this individual approach to be a good one. We have learned that reliance on grades alone does not give a complete index to a student's potentiality. When a student who gives evidence of promise turns up, we do all that we can to find a place for him. Thus, a student with a "B" average in chemistry and "C+" average in physics and mathematics courses may apply directly to the chairman of the chemistry department for permission to do research.
After acceptance into the chemistry department research program, the student consults with the mentors. We have 24 professors who have volunteered to serve as research mentors; after consultation with one or more professors, the student selects a mentor. Students are not assigned to a particular mentor, nor is a mentor obligated to accept a student; the choice is mutual. After a student has been accepted by a research adviser, he applies for one of the NSF awards under our URP and the mentor may apply to the College Research Committee for financial support. The application includes a brief statement of the problem and the minimum number of hours per week the student expects to devote to this work. A third path into our chemistry research program is provided for students with comparatively poor records, less than "B" average and even with one or two "D" grades. If a mentor is sufficiently impressed by the student's desire, persistence, curiosity, and potential to do research, he is free to accept such students. These students, unlike the honors students and students certified by department chairmen, are not eligible to earn college credit (with other studente, college credit is optional). They are however permitted to file application for NSF awards and their mentors are financially supported by the College Research Committee. Although our NSF budget for the academic year September '60 through May '61 allowed 20 student stipends, we s u p ported 37 students: 23 honors, 9 certified by the chemistry department, and 5 students ineligible for either category but strongly recommended by their mentors. These latter stndents, of course, received only token or "encouraging" awards. These 37 students include 1 upper sophomore, 7 lower juniors, 14 upper juniors, 13 lower seniors, and 2 upper seniors. One of the lower juniors, an honors student in mathematics, is doing research on the effect of an alternating current on the electrolysis of water with platinum electrodes, in place of the general chemistry course required for his degree. After a student is accepted for research by a mentor, the problem is outlined to the student and he is told to consult the literature and report back with his findings and his ideas of translating the problem into terms of experimentalion. This may involve additional discussion periods after which an experimental line of attack is agreed upon and outlined. The student is now largely on his own. The mentor, of course, is available for questions and discussions and may visit the student in his laboratory. Each student meets with his mentor a t least once or twice each week for mutual evaluation of results in terms of the original problem. Volume 39, Number 3, March 1962
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A cardinal point is never to permit the student to perform any laboratory operation until the mentor is satisfied that the student understands the experiment and its execution. The student is also told to read a guide to chemical literature (such as those by Dyson, Mellon, or Crane and Patterson), 'LIntroductionto Scientific Research" by E. B. Wilson, and "Science and Hypothesis" by H. Poincare. Concurrently, a hi-weekly seminar program is estahlished. The seminar is a regularly scheduled hour attended by the research students and the faculty. I n his first seminar, the student talks about his problem, the results of searching the literature, and experimental procedures. Later in the year, in his final seminar, a paper is delivered which includes the statement of the problem and discussion of experimental results in relation to the problem. A question period follows each presentation. Tn addition, we conduct a student research paper contest in which students deliver papers based upon their work. The contest is judged by staff members and prizes are awarded. Students are sent to the Eastern Colleges Science Conferences and to the ACS Student Affiliate Meetings to deliver papers with all expenses paid by the College. Evaluation of the Program
As commonly experienced, the good students do well and achieve self-reliance, and only occasionally are a source of disappointment. We do nevertheless guard against the possible over-enthusiasm of a student who may sacrifice course work to gain laboratory time. Of special interest, however, are the results achieved with the comparatively poor students-students only
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Journal of Chemicol Education
slightly above average but with a good "steam-head" of enthusiasm and thirst for research. One student improved his grade to a "B" average, won a first prize in the organic chemistry section of the ACS New York Student Affiliate Meeting, was selected to represent the College a t the Eastern Colleges Science Conference, received a Faherge Chemistry Award of $1000 at the College, and a Fellowship and a Tuition Scholarship a t Brandeis University. His work will be published in Tetrahedron, followed by publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society or the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Another student also improved his grades to a "B" average and has developed into a slow but extremely meticulous and independent worker with an excellent understanding of the theory underlining his problem. At the end of his senior year, it is anticipated with confidence that his work will form the basis of a publication. Still another student has improved his grades to the honors level, scored 760 on the chemistry section of the Graduate Record Examination, won a first and a second prize in the physical chemistry section of the New York Student Affiliate Meeting, twice represented the College at the Eastern Colleges Science Conferences, received a Faberge Award a t the College, and a Florida State Nuclear Science Fellowship. A paper based on his work has been accepted by the Journal of Colloid Science and a second paper is in preparation for the Journal of Chemical Physics. Thus, in our objective to stimulate and activate the minds of students toward research, our experiences in the undergraduate research program suggest we can afford to be flexible and that profitable returns may be expected from our attention to and confidence in the "borderline" student.
