EXAMINATION QUESTIONS in PANDEMIC CHEMISTRY JOHN R. SAMPEY Howard College, Birmingham, Alabama
To emphmize the difference in the method of approach and the content between the $rst-year preprofessional course and "findemic'' chemistry, a few examination questions from the latter are given.
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HE ATTITUDE of instructors toward their own examination questions varies from that of the inexperienced youngster seeking to parade his superior knowledge before the class, to that of the solicitous gray-beard striving to lessen the mental anguish of the ordeal that from the student's angle constitutes the curse of our educational system. The thought given to the preparation of the questions ranges from that of the much maligned university professor whose professional standing is in no wise determined by his success as a teacher, and who may, therefore, give no consideration to the matter until he arrives in the examination room, to that of the instructor in high school, one of whom to my certain knowledge begins weeks in advance in the systematic evaluation of each question in its relation to the several phases of the course, and who gives equally painstaking care to the exact wording of each phrase. Regardless, however, of the motive actuating the instructor, or the time he gives to the preparation of the questions, there is an arresting truth in the statement that a course may be judged by the examination questions. In no other way may the contrast be more sharply drawn between the usual professional firstyear course in college chemistry and that of the pandemic type. For a number of years the author has made out sets of questions for each group, and the experience has impressed him with the absurdity of trying to follow the usual procedure of straddling the fence in introducing into a preprofessional course enough material of general interest to hold the liberal arts student. Examinations for the preprofessional group should be largely mathematical with the trend in both theoretical and industrial developments toward that field. To ask such a group to turn from the solution of problems on the gas laws, ionic equilibrium, and hydrolysis to a discussion of some subject that is nearer the present and future interests of the liberal arts student is a compromise that cannot be satisfactory to either group. To emphasize the wide difference in the approach and content of the two courses a few examination questions from the pandemic course are listed below. These are taken from a set of several hundred questions, most of which are of a more factual nature dealing with the
theoretical and applied subject matter. Every important test and examination, however, has contained questions of the type below. 1. What is meant by the scientific method of approach t o a problem? Give three illustrations. 2. How would you determine if a newly announced discovery three were scientific or pseudo-scientific? Desnibe a t 1-t tests you would make. 3. What sources of scientific information have you learned to use that vou think will Drove of value in future vears? 4. what references stand out as must significant in your y r a r ' ~ parallrl rending? Explain why you think so 8. What new points of w r w or methods of thought seem most valuable from the course? Illustrate through Acheson's discovery of carborundum the working of the mind of a research chemist. What part did luck play in the experiment? How are great discoveries made? Describe the qualifications of a research worker in physical science as given by Little, Millikan, Gregory, and others. What are the three periods of human progress according to Dr. Slosson? Illustrate each period in the development of dyes, medicines, and building materials. I n which of the three periods do you classify most of your own mental processes? List two so-called "lost arts," and show how modem methods of manufacture in each case produce equal or superior products today. What conceptions do you have of scientific progress by 1999 in the light of the advancement of the last seventy-five years? Limit your reply t o the fields of textiles, transportation, and agriculture. How did the chemical engineer Kettering justify his existence to his friend the banker? What are the evils of technocracy. and how may they he met scientifically? Describe three monopolies that chemical research has broken. Name three monopolies that still exist. What progress is being made toward their dissolution? Descrihe three industrial developments where the hy-products have become of equal or near equal value to the main product of manufacture. Name five workers in pure science whose work has borne fruit industrially. Describe two of these developments in some detail. Interpret by means of the Lewis or Bohr models of the atom three of the following phenomena: 1. Valence. 2. Order of activity of metals and non-metals. 3. Periodic table. 4. Ionization. What special piece of apparatus or demonstration gave you the clearest idea of the nature of the atom? Explain in detail. Illustrate the need far closer codperation between the medical and chemical professions. What foods might help correct the following conditions: 1. Anemia. 2. Nervousness. 3. Decayed teeth. 4. Dwarfism. 5. Scurvy. 6. Sterility? Outline the argument that Major Lefehure made in 1919 that the German dye industry constituted a threat to world peace. 21. Has gas warfare come tostay? List arguments proandcon.
