Rich's Chemistry Tests; Gamma and Epsilon Tests with Manual of

Rich's Chemistry Tests; Gamma and Epsilon Tests with Manual of Instruction for Giving and Scoring Tests (Rich, S. G.). C. H. Stone. J. Chem. Educ. , 1...
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rect one, an s e t whch presvpporer certain earefvi thinking or computation. Definitions are not required and equations are called for but once in both papers except ar they may he incidcoral to the solution of aproblem. The terts are stated to be applicable from the middle of t h e first =emester up to the time when general chemistry branchep out into specialized subjects. Other tests are atated t o be i n preparation. As a brief and rapid method for testing attainment of students along certain lines and as a means of reducing the time vsually allotted for examinations, these terts may prove satisfactory. There is a point of view in regard to these tests, and t o others of similar character, which ought not t o be overlooked. The purpose of cdllcation is: first, t o train the stadenl', ability t o think straight; and, second, to develop his pswers of seiEexpresion. In the older types of examinations, to mhieh the College Entrance Board still almost entirely adheres, the student is required t o express in his own language, without any ruggertive appended ststements, what he knows about the questions set. I" order t o he prepared t o pas5 such examinations the student needs such practice at frequent opportunities t o develop through written work his powers of selfexpression. Obviously this requires both time Rich's Chemistry Tests; Gamma and Epsilon and labor on the part of teacher as well %s stuTests with Manual of Instruction for Giving dent, but how else *hall t h e student get trnining and Scoring Tests. S. G. Rrc". PublicSchool in one of the fundamentals of edvcation? The Publishing Co.. Bloomingtan. Illinois. 1923. tertr devised by Mr. Rich, and by others, doubt12 pp. 22 X 28 em. $100 per 22 net. less demand careful thinking, bur it may he quesTeachern who are burdened a t frequent intioned whether they afford t h a t opportunity for tervals with the heavy task 01 correcting large .elf-expression which the older type of test afnumbers of examination papers in chemistry.. forded. T o underscore a dozen answers t o ar and who consider a saving of time and lmhor ma"$ quertionr may demand the ability to think of primary importance, will he interested in rtralght hut i t doe. not, in the judgment of the any method of conducting examinations which reviewer, provide much if any opport,,nity for promises t o reduce t h e drudgery of correcting that self-expression which the stlldent must depapers. Such a method is offered in the two tests velop if he is t o meet successfully t h e standards mentioned above. s e t for adnlirrion to college. Quoting from the author's Manual, the chief It may also be debated whether it is better point. t o be tested in chemintry eraminztionr pedagogy to piace before the candidate printed are: "ability to think, information. ability t o anrwerr, one of which is known t o be correct, or to mlve prohlemr, habits aod knowledge acquirrd ask q~lestionr which must be answered ~ o l e l y from work in the hhoratory." from the candidate's knowledge, without the The content of t h e two tests is derived from possibility of s u ~ ~ e s t i owhich n may lie in a list material contained in five standard textbooks, of answers. twenty-five recent eraminatioos given by the For variety's sake and for the purpose of apCollege Entrance Board r n d by the New York p'oaching the matter of testing attainment from Regents, and from a number of state syllabi. a new angle, the occasional use 01 such terts as N o material has been used which r w a not common thme above indicated may be recommended, b.t t o at least two texts, or to a t e x t and an examinat h e reviewer would be loth t o .base a series of tion and ~yliabua. marks upon the data derived solely from such a I" order t o avoid terting memory alone, the set of tests. C. H. S ~ O N B questions are arranged on the ''eyclie principle" of Kugg as lollows: thinkins, memory, numeried, Junior Science. JOHN C. HB$SL$P, Ph.D., thinking, memory, laboratory. On each paper Pa. Benj. H. Sanborn 81 c o . New York. the time allowed for answering the twenty-five 1923. xvii 533 pp. 13 X 19 cm. $1.60. question. h twenty-five minutes. To each I n hi. preface the author ha7 taken the viewquestion four answer3 are appended. The point t h a t while every child user in an empirical candidate ir told t h a t one of these answers in way the f a c b of science, relatively few children each ease is correct and is instructed to underleave school with theve facts clarified and eascore t h a t answer which he believes to he the corI t s particular value t o c h e m i ~ t r yteachers lies in the diagrams and the numerou. references to chemistry. I t should give the non-biologiral teacher of chemistry interesting and valuable side material. The dingrams that caught the eye included: (1) storqe and reieare of enrrgy, (2) food m m ufacturc, storage and assimilation. (3) per cent of dcohol in patent medicines and in liquors, (4) carbon cycle, and ( 5 ) nitrogen cycle. There diagrams are "nunually good. T h a t the text is closely iinkcdup withchemistry is further evidenced by the tact t h a t eighteen of the 357 illu~trationsmight be found in the urllal chemistry textbook; one of them shows the interior 01 a chemical laboratory. A rough patimate rho,"$ t h a t abollt one~sixfhof the r e f e r rneer in the Index arc chemical in nature. Sixty~thrre laboratory cxerrircr are included and i t may interest authors of chemistry texts t o know t h a t they "are included in the body of the hook, because" t o quote from the preface. "they constitute an es.ential part of the course and because they are more convcnieot for use here than they would be if placed in a sep-rate W. SecnanLoM volume or in appendices."

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