Chemical Education Today
Reports from Other Journals
The Physics Teacher : Faraday as a Lecturer by Roy W. Clark
The Physics Teacher (TPT) is dedicated to introductory physics education at the high-school and university levels. Its articles are frequently interesting to chemists. Lan and Lim’s article about Michael Faraday is not about his many scientific contributions to physics and electrochemistry. Instead, it is about his awareness that he was not a good lecturer, and his earnest efforts to improve his lecturing style. Here are two quotations from this fascinating article, the first illustrating his awareness of what a good lecture should be like, and the second illustrating what he did to improve his own lecturing style. The first is from a letter by Faraday to his friend Benjamin Abbott. …they should not be read but delivered freely and readily. The lecturer should speak simply and fluently, at a slow pace with short uniform pauses so that ideas could be conveyed clearly. In addition the lecturer “must have some motion,” not remain “glued to the table or screwed to the floor.”
The second quotation is from his niece, Margaret Reid, recalling his efforts to improve his lecturing style. Mr. Magrath used to come regularly to the morning lectures for the sole purpose of noting down for him any faults of delivery or defective pronunciation that could be detected. … In early days he always lectured with a card before him with Slow written upon it in distinct characters. Sometimes he would overlook it and become too rapid; in this case, Anderson [Faraday’s assistant] had orders to place the card before him.
All chemistry lecturers will want to read this article, except for those who are already perfect lecturers.
Mak and Cheung’s article concerns improvements in the classic vibrating-BBs-type molecular-motion demonstrator. The “molecules” are 2-cm-diameter polystyrene spheres for better visibility, and the vibration generator is powered by an audio signal generator. This allows the choice of vibration frequency independent of the amplitude adjustment. It also allows square waves to be chosen in addition to sine waves. This apparatus, it is claimed, shows the distinction between solid and liquid state more clearly than older demonstrators of this type. Finally, Paul Hewett’s monthly contribution to TPT is a cartoon-like thought problem called Figuring Physics. This issue has a good one for chemists, since it concerns candles burning in a bell jar. Don’t peek at the answer until you think you know the correct solution. Roy W. Clark is in the Department of Chemistry, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132;
[email protected].
TPT Featured Articles Michael Faraday: Prince of Lecturers in Victorian England, by Boon Lan and Jeanette Lim (TPT 2001, 39, 32–35) A Dynamic Styrofoam-Ball Model for Simulating Molecular Motion, by Se-yuen Mak and Derek Cheung (TPT 2001, 39, 48–50) Figuring Physics, by Paul Hewitt (TPT 2001, 39, 22)
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 78 No. 4 April 2001 • Journal of Chemical Education
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