Jay A. Young King's College Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
The Educational Use of Data Challenge in the laboratory
Since the other participants in this symposium have addressed their remarks to curricular details, these comments will be related to the other side of the coin-to the theme or attitude which underlies the curriculum itself. I will therefore refer to the laboratory, where any thematic policy is more readily noted by the student and inculcated by the teacher. Laboratory objectives such as the following, stated in the prefaces of many laboratory manuals, are of limited B m d upon a. paper presented 8s part of the Symposium on lhi: Changing Chemistry Curriculum before the Division of Chemical Education at the 150th Meeting of the ACS, Atlantic City, N. J., September, 1965.
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Journal o f Chemical Education
value: curiosity about natural phenomena, manipulative skills, ability to reason well, mastering the quantitative approach, and increasing descriptive chemical knowledge. These and other such phrases are platitudinous words too easily agreed upon. Everyone subscribes (almost) and everyone interprets them loosely. I t will therefore be useful to obtain a new set of criteria which, stated in different terms, can sharpen our thinking. Thus, the word "objective" brings to mind a goal; the word "criterion" a measure or test by which we can determine whether the goal has been :.; ,;.iii!~d. If a set. *f Gi.arin. is listed and is complete, fuliillment of thr it;;
