Chemical Education Today
Editorial
Enthusiastic Teachers, Vivid Experiments A fringe benefit of editing JCE is that I encounter so many nice people who send interesting and helpful communications. One of the first of these to cross my desk this year was from E. J. Behrman, who recommended that I read and call to your attention “Brilliant Light: A Chemical Boyhood” by Oliver Sacks, noted neurologist and author. It appeared in the December 20, 1999, issue of The New Yorker and is well worth your time and effort to find and read. Sacks’s reminiscence of his boyhood interest in chemistry is fascinating. His obvious love of our science is inspiring. And he has expressed both in words that are brilliantly chosen and a joy to read. In a profile of Sacks that appeared in Chemical and Engineering News (January 10, 2000), Madeleine Jacobs relates that he is writing a book on his boyhood encounters with chemistry (to be published by Alfred A. Knopf ). I am looking forward to that with great anticipation. During 1999 he also wrote an article on the periodic table in the New York Times Magazine (April 18) and an op-ed piece on chemistry sets in the New York Times (May 13). In the latter he describes how hard it is these days for a nonchemist, especially a young one, to obtain chemicals to experiment with. Chemistry sets are not what they used to be! Sacks’s writings contain important messages for all of us who teach chemistry and all who are involved in piquing students’ interest in our subject. A brief excerpt from his New Yorker article illustrates my point. I knew zinc—the dull, slightly bluish birdbath in the garden was made of zinc—and tin, from the heavy tinfoil in which sandwiches were wrapped for a picnic. My mother showed me that when tin or zinc was bent it uttered a special “cry.” “It’s due to deformation of the crystal structure,” she said, forgetting that I was five and could not understand her—and yet her words made me want to know more.
Fascination with materials and chemical change is a hallmark of chemists, and it is also an important pedagogical tool. Real substances have very interesting properties—ones that can excite students and spur them to greater achievement. Sacks’s writing is full of such fascinating factoids. It inspires me to try to use them much more effectively to help students develop the curiosity and commitment that will help them learn. Everyday things, such as the startling cold of a diamond engagement ring when it touches one’s lips, can illustrate otherwise tiresome topics like thermal conductivity far better than a table of data. Sacks was fortunate that his parents, both physicians, had the means and took the time to show him interesting phenomena and respond to his many questions, as did two uncles. In addition, his father’s office was in their home, providing a broad range of interesting substances and solutions that enhanced his curiosity and experience. Few of our students have had such opportunities before they come to us, but we can resolve that they should not leave our classes with-
Fascination with materials and chemical change is a hallmark of chemists, and it is also an important pedagogical tool.
out seeing and experiencing real chemistry that grabs their attention and interest. If we are to do this, we must be familiar with lots of chemical phenomena and realize how they can be applied effectively in our classrooms and laboratories. And we need to know which of them are appropriate for students to observe and interact with without violating rules of good sense and chemical safety. That’s no mean feat, especially if our own backgrounds are much less rich than was Sacks’s childhood— an extremely likely possibility. Formal education is important, but it is unreasonable to expect that it can provide all the knowledge that would be useful to any of us in our teaching. And new chemistry is discovered every day. Learning more and more chemistry and improving our teaching skills are processes that continually require our attention and effort. I hope that JCE contributes in important ways to such professional development. My overriding goal for this Journal is to provide accurate, interesting, relevant information that can enhance chemistry teaching and learning. Your editorial staff organize the information so that access is as quick and easy as possible, and we try to make connections both by juxtaposition of articles in print and by linking information electronically. The latest example of this is being introduced this month. It is a new feature directed especially to busy high school chemistry teachers: the JCE High School Chemed Learning Information Center (JCE HS CLIC). In this special section of JCE Online we have collected and organized JCE ’s many articles that are of interest to high school teachers, aiming to provide the quickest, easiest access to the information. You can read more about it on page 536. We look forward to feedback from those who have tried CLIC and have suggestions for adding to it or otherwise improving it. When asked how children today could be weaned from the many distractions of modern life and turned on to chemistry, Oliver Sacks recommended, “Enthusiastic teachers, vivid experiments”. I recommend that you read Sacks’s article in the New Yorker to rejuvenate your enthusiasm and read JCE to find new, vivid experiments. The combination may be just what is needed to capture students’ attention for the rest of this school year and to enhance learning for many years to come.
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 77 No. 4 April 2000 • Journal of Chemical Education
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