Chemical Education Today
News from Journal House Two Special Inserts with This Issue There are two special inserts with this month’s issue— the latest edition of our Book Buyers Guide and our special 1999 Calendar that celebrates our 75th year. Nearly all of the colorful demonstrations that can be seen on the calendar are from JCE Software publications. If you are interested in learning more about these demonstrations, citations to the sources of the visual information as well as to articles about the chemistry underlying them can be found on the last two pages of the calendar. If you are reading your library’s copy of the Journal and therefore have not received these treats, all is not lost. To get a copy of our Book Buyers Guide, just contact us at the address in the masthead. If you attend ACS meetings, you can also pick up copies at our booths. Or you can get the same information online at http://www.jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/jcewww/resources/. Extra copies of the calendar are available while the supply lasts. To get one or more, use the order form on pages 1192A–1192B, just inside the back cover. Or contact JCE Software at the address on the masthead. This issue’s inside back cover shows the graphic from each of the 12 months. Preparing Laboratory Experiments for Submission If you are planning to submit a laboratory experiment for possible publication in the Journal, remember that new guidelines now apply, based on four fundamental ideas: • •
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readers who decide to use a lab should be able to adapt it to their circumstances quickly and easily peer review of submitted labs should be based to a large degree on the written and technology-based materials used by students in the laboratory the Journal should print only the information a reader needs in order to decide whether to try to use the experiment more detailed information, including student materials, should be available to adopters or an experiment in a format that is modifiable and easily adapted for use by students and support staff
All of the standard submission guidelines still apply, so include an abstract and four double-spaced copies of all written materials. Guidelines for lab experiments and regular submissions appeared on pages 646–648 of the May 1998 issue. Coming Attractions At the beginning of the academic year it is customary to describe what lies ahead, if not for the entire year at least for the first semester. While we would not think of burdening you with a course syllabus, there are things scheduled for the next few months that we think you will be interested in. 1064
Next month our Viewpoints paper is “The Art and Science of Organic and Natural Products Synthesis” by K. C. Nicolaou, E. J. Sorensen, and N. Winssinger. If you are teaching organic chemistry you certainly will want to use this as a reference. Even if you are not, it is fascinating reading. You have heard a lot about our 75th anniversary celebrations at this summer’s meetings, the 15th BCCE and the ACS Meeting in Boston. If you are not able to attend and participate, you will find photos from the 15th BCCE in October and from the Boston ACS Meeting in November. With the December issue, subscribers will E Q U I P M E N T receive a special, new insert when B U Y E R S G U I D E we introduce an Equipment Buyers Guide. This is a comprehensive source of information about laboratory equipment and supplies that are used by colleges and high schools. The guide will be organized by item type and by the name of the supplier, with appropriate cross referencing. We intend that the Equipment Buyers Guide will be as useful a source of information as is the Book Buyers Guide. The December issue will also carry a special series of articles that will close out our 75th celebrations on a somewhat reflective note. We have posed the question “The State of Chemical Education: Where Are We and Where Are We Headed?” to twenty people who represent widely different constituencies—those with more than 50 years in teaching and research as well as those just starting out, those who decide on funding, write textbooks, explore the use of technology, do science in a non-standard setting, … Don’t miss it. Introducing… Jennifer Sherrill has recently joined our staff as an assistant editor, replacing Gail Thorson. Gail will remain in Madison, dividing her time between Fleming Crim’s research group and teaching general chemistry. Jennifer was trained as a protein chemist by Jack Kyte at the University of California at San Diego, where she studied signal transduction by human epidermal growth factor receptor. She then did postdoctoral research with Perry Frey at the Institute for Enzyme Research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her long-term goals involve both teaching and science writing. She is interested in educating the public about recent developments in science and technology. Currently, she is trying to gain some experience in the field of science writing as well as insight into the makings of a scientific journal. She is an outdoors-enthusiast, and she enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, and swimming. Her latest goal is to learn how to fly.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 9 September 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
