Chemical Education Today
The Journal’s 75th Anniversary: by Jerry A. Bell
Diamonds are usually associated with a 75th anniversary, but is a different carbon allotrope, fullerene, a more fitting symbol for the Journal? A diamond aptly describes your Journal as long lasting and multifaceted. Month after month and decade after decade readers have found the best ideas in chemical education in its pages. Whether it’s through a novel demonstration to use tomorrow, better explanations of chemical phenomena, or a provocative opinion that makes you wrestle with the way you will structure all of your teaching, every issue of your Journal is a gem that connects you with the chemical education community. Each month, this valued companion invites you to play an active role in enhancing the connections by contributing your own best ideas. Yet carbon is full of surprises; fullerene is the new allotrope on the block. Similarly, your Journal reinvents itself and appears in new forms. Some changes have been stylistic—deAlthough the greatest signed to make it easier rewards of your Journal for you to read or easier ambassadorship will be to find things in each issue. Others, such as intrinsic…we are offering adding a Secondary a more tangible reward School editor two deduring this diamond/ cades ago and introducing specialized colfullerene anniversary year. umns in particular areas of chemical education (use of computers, research on learning/teaching), are more substantial. Still others change the nature of your Journal and make it unique. Two months ago the Journal went online as JCE Online+, and beginning now you can get JCE Annual CD. [Subscribers should have received information in the mail about ordering and access for JCE Online+, JCE 1997 CD, and JCE 1998 CD. If you have not, contact the Journal’s Subscription and Book Order Department, see p 6.] As you read this first issue of the 75th volume of your Journal (either on paper or online), think about and celebrate with us its past. More importantly, think about and collaborate with us on its future. JCE can contribute to everyone who teaches chemistry at any educational level. In the United States, only about a quarter of the people who fall into this category have personal Journal subscriptions. Many of the others read JCE in a library, but would probably find it even more valuable to have personal copies (or online access). Although I don’t like to entertain the thought, it may even be that some chemistry teachers are unfamiliar with the Journal. I would like you to appoint yourself a Journal ambassador. Help change the statistics and increase the subscriber base. Part of an ambassador’s job is to convince others of the potential as well as the proven value of the entity represented. Be aware of how your Journal appears to others—the strengths and weaknesses of its various facets. Diamonds have longev22
or Diamond
? Fullerene
ity and familiarity that appeals to many (a diamond is—kinetically—forever). But others might view it as refractory and resistant to change. Fullerenes have the glamour of freshness and novelty, but haven’t been proven useful or been tested over time. As would any ambassador, present your Journal in ways that are appropriate for the audience. If you have colleagues who are not subscribers, but borrow your copies, point out how much they have come to appreciate the Journal and encourage them to subscribe on paper, online, or both. If you know people who don’t borrow your copies but should, make it a point to show them interesting articles every month and then encourage them to subscribe so they don’t miss novel ideas that you might overlook. Make certain that your library has a subscription. If you have students or graduate teaching assistants who are or will be teaching chemistry, encourage them to subscribe or give them a jump start on a teaching career with a gift subscription. Extend your Journal ambassadorship to workshops, short courses, and in-service programs. Include a discussion of how you have used the Journal in connection with the workshop content. Encourage participants to subscribe, gain the same benefits, and bring freshness to their classrooms. Contact the editorial office (
[email protected]) about getting sample Journal issues, catalogs, reviewer questionnaires, and subscription information to distribute to workshop participants. Although the greatest rewards of your Journal ambassadorship will be intrinsic—seeing colleagues and other teachers making productive use of their subscriptions—we are offering a more tangible reward during this diamond/fullerene anniversary year. For every six years of new or gift subscriptions your ambassadorship brings in (to Print, Print/Online +, Print/Annual CD, or Print/Online+/Annual CD), you will receive a one-year subscription to Print/Online+; it may be used to extend your own subscription or be designated as a gift. Those who are able to bring in twelve years of new or gift subscriptions will receive a three-year subscription to Print/Online + that may be used either to extend their own subscription or as a gift. All subscription orders should be sent to the Journal’s Subscription and Book Order Department (see p 6). Awards are activated by simply sending your name and address and the names of the new subscribers to Richard Schwenz, our Publications Coordinator. In addition, the Journal will publish the names of all ambassadors. Be a Diamond Ambassador! Whether you are drawn by the diamond’s proven endurance, the fullerene’s novelty and excitement, or a combination of the two, become an ambassador for your Journal. You will be part of making the second 75 years even more successful than the first. Jerry A. Bell is the chair of the Journal’s Board of Publication. He is at present the Director of Science, Math & Technology Education, AAAS but has spent much of his life inside a) classroom, most recently at Simmons College in Boston.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 1 January 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
