Chemical Education Today
Report: ACS Division of Chemical Education
Highlights of the Las Vegas ACS Meeting by Tom Wildeman The education program at the recent national meeting spanned all areas of chemical education, was well attended, and, in some cases, provided great discussions. This was the case in spite of the fact that Las Vegas is not a favorite spot for chemists and the din from the slot machines in the Stardust Hotel was an immediate and lasting annoyance. Here are a few of the highlights distilled from session chairs and filtered through the program chair. NSF Educational Programs Educational programs from the National Science Foundation were presented and discussed in two symposia. In the symposium on Systemic Reform in Chemical Education, the four programs funded by NSF were introduced and progress reports were presented. In another article in this issue of the Journal, Arlene Russell provides a short description of each program and plans for future activities. The Eleventh Annual NSF-Catalyzed Innovations in the Undergraduate Laboratory symposium was well attended. In the first presentation, Hal Richtol of NSF staff outlined how the Foundation intends to combine the present ILI (Instructional Laboratory Improvement), CCD (Course and Curriculum Development), and UFE (Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement) programs into one large program having one annual solicitation for proposals. He cited flexibility in project operation as one reason for this action, but some of those present felt that there seems to be some pressure to reduce the total funding for these three types of projects. The other papers were given by project directors and included group learning, the use of an instrument across the curriculum, and focused on use of instrumentation in upper-level courses. The instrumentation focus appears to have shifted to the use of FTNMR in the undergraduate curriculum.
Scenes from Lake Mead
Scenes from the Division’s Banquet on Lake Mead. Top: Richard Schwenz and Ken Emerson. Right: Ron Archer and Mary Virginia Orna. Photos by Tom Wildeman.
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The Electronic Classroom and Beyond In the symposium Is CD-ROM Dead? the answer seemed to be a qualified “No”, according to those demonstrating the increased effective use of this technology in chemistry classes. Web-based materials are making gains, and the future looks to hold much excitement for web/CD combinations to deliver materials to students. Steve Gammon offered some provocative comments about the future of the university as a whole and our destiny as determined by these new waves of technology. The Electronic Classroom, organized by Alton Banks, proved to require logistic support comparable to the WWW symposium in San Francisco. Although no live Internet connections were used, the talks still required the rental and use of a computer. There were a number of talks from people at remote or small campuses explaining their use of webenhanced courses to reach home-bound or nontraditional students. In these cases, the effort is not to develop supplementary materials but primarily to have lectures, assignments, and announcements continuously available. Andrea Huff of Ohio State presented results showing that using PowerPoint for lectures in general chemistry did not improve student performance, nor did the students have a strong preference towards those types of presentations over the use of overheads. This generated a spirited discussion on whether in some instances a PowerPoint presentation is just an expensive method of using overheads. There appeared to be agreement that use of electronic media has to be carefully designed if better quality learning is expected. For people looking for interesting web sites, two had particularly interesting materials. Gary Frederick of Brigham Young University—Hawaii (email:
[email protected]) has produced some excellent materials for teaching organic nomenclature. Justin Fermann and Bill Vining of University of Massachusetts (http://soulcatcher.chem.umass.edu) has a site called Chemland with good exercises in physical and inorganic chemistry. One-Liners If your library resources are shrinking, don’t feel alone. In the symposium on “Confronting the Library Funding Crisis”, it was painfully clear that escalating serial subscription rates have exceeded both the rate of inflation and the yearly library budget percentage increases at most institutions. This symposium focused on the methodology used by libraries to make decisions concerning serial cuts as well as the methods used by the presenters to access the usage of individual serial titles in their collection. Alternatives to printed journals via electronic access and document delivery were also addressed. It was clear from the presentations and ensuing discussions that diminishing numbers of serial titles in light of budgetary pressures have and will continue to force many libraries into the uncomfortable position of cutting the numbers of journals in their collections. The symposium on “Integrated Science and Mathematics Programs” found a mature group of presenters who all
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 11 November 1997
Chemical Education Today
Abstract Deadline knew how their material related to the other talks. Consequently, there was an excellent exchange of valuable ideas. In addition, several of the presenters were able to model in their talks the teaching methods that they used in the programs. This is the first meeting in which the decision of putting general poster sessions on Sunday evening and general oral papers on Thursday afternoon was implemented. The number of Sunday evening posters has been significantly expanding so that the social hour/poster session is becoming a heavily attended event. In Las Vegas there were 36 posters and in Dallas, it’s anticipated that there will be 100 posters. An unexpected, but good, consequence of this decision is the success of the general oral papers on Thursday afternoon. In Las Vegas, two concurrent sessions of general papers were convened. The highlight of the session was that every paper had important things to say and was well presented. The number of attendees was respectable and was maintained until the end. Based on the success at Las Vegas, this general paper policy will be maintained through 1998. The highlight of the session of general papers on Thursday afternoon was that every paper had something to give to the faithfuls in the audience. The papers ranged from an interesting example in which the classical treatment of sig-
The Deadline for Abstracts for symposia at the next ACS National Meeting (March 29–April 2, 1998, in Dallas, TX) is November 1, 1997. For information, a list of symposia, or other details about this or other meetings, contact the Division of Chemical Education’s Program Chair, Thomas R. Wildeman, Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401; email:
[email protected]; phone: 303/273-3642; fax: 303/ 273-3629.
nificant figures fails, to enlightening examples of conceptual exercises, to the emphasis of electronic shielding as an approach to teaching organic chemistry, to teaching quantum chemistry using cartoons, to using probability in teaching entropy. Also described were the merits of undergraduate research, writing projects, an industrial chemistry course, and an interactive quiz program.
Reports: ACS Division of Chemical Education Meetings is edited by Tom Wildeman, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401;
[email protected].
Vol. 74 No. 11 November 1997 • Journal of Chemical Education
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