edited by: DAVIDA. PHILLIPS WabaSh College Crawfordsville. IN 47933
PRUDENCEPHILLIPS Crawfordsville Hlgh School Crawfordsu~ile.IN 47933
Utilizing a Historical Perspective in the Teaching of Chemistry Joseph W. Kamsar 822 Derry Drive Toms River. NJ 08753
ArnoldThackray of the National Center for the History of Chemistry on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania has said, "Ignoring the path to the present is not quite human." Chemistry is part of our culture. Learning from the past how our culture has influenced chemistry and how chemistry has influenced history and peoples' thoughts can he a basis for exploring how chemistry and present societal issues and thoughts interrelate. If evaluation of thoughts and ideas is a major critical thinking goal in education, this can be a positive learning step in the educational process. The study of chemistry can best flourish when the public supports this endeavor. This occurs best in a free world, a world that understands its past and can plan for its future. Chemistry is a human enterprise and the history of chemistry and chemical thought integrated into a first- or secondyear course can best illustrate this. Not only are the chemists and other scientists and mathematicians involved in this human enterprise, but all people are part of the products of chemistry in our democratic society. Present social, political, and economic issues are nearly all related to chemistry and other sciences. The content of humanities and social sciences classes must include the role of chemistry and other sciences in our culture, in our daily lives, and in world affairs. Understanding the cultural and philosophic times of the alchemists and the early chemists can aid in understanding the development of our civilization. In these present times of high tech-
(Continued on page 932,col. 1)
History of Chemistry George B. Kaulfrnan California State University. Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
Unfortunatelv, few chemists seem to have more than a passing interest i n the history of chemistry, although the relatively recent establishment of a Center for the History of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania may indicate a change is a t hand. Nevertheless, in contrast to the case in the humanities, where the average student is expected to steep him- or herself in the classics, the average chemistry graduate still has little knowledge of the history of his or her chosen discipline. We take this situation for granted today, yet this has not always been the case. The German poet and dramatist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, himself an amateur scientist, declared, "Die Geschichte der Wissenschaft ist die Wissenschaft selbst" (The history of science is science itself). Many of the founders of chemistry were well acquainted with its history. The first history oirhemistrv in the English language was written in 1830 and 1RX1 bv the Scottish chemist. Thomas 'I'homson. an active practicing scientist ( I ) , and August Kekult., who spent much time reading the classics of chemistry before making any original discoveries of his own. Furthermore, several founders of the American Chemical Societv were very interested in the history of chemistry. A lack of historical ~ e r s ~ e c t i can v e result in a distorted view of chemistry. In addition to its cognitive, factual aspects, chemistry is a process-a search for knowledge carried out by struggling and committed practitioners, both success-
(Continued on page 932,bottom of col. 2) George B. KauHman, Professor at Chemistry at California State University. Fresno. has been at CSUF since 1956. He has taught oenaral chemistrv. . inoraanic chemistrv. ihe historv of chemistrv. alcnomy. m ~ a l c i s m ,an0 Judalsm, an0 he teaches several nLndre0 ~ t ~ w nper l s p a r . His Interest in the history of chemtstry was aroused d ~ r i n gh ~ sunucrgraduate years at m e University of Pennsylvan a. where a strong tradition in history was established by Edgar Fahs Smith, who organized the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry. Receiving his BA with honors in chemistry from the University of Psnn~ylvaniain 1951 and his PhD from the University of Florida in 1956. Kauffman has been e research participant at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, an Instructor in Chemistry at the University of Texas, and a research chemist for the Humble Oil and Refining Co. and the General Electric Co. Long active in American Chemical Society affairs, he was Chairman (1969-19701, Symposium Chairmen (1966, 1968, 1970). and Program Chairman (1967-1969) of the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry. Northwest Tour Speaker (19711, and Editor of the History of Chemistry Series. ACS Audio Courses (1975-1981). Since 1973. 1980, 1982, 1985, and 1987, respectively. he has been Contributing Editor of the Journal of College Science Teaching, The Hexagon. Polyhedron. bdustrial Chemist, and the Journal of Chemical Ed"cati0". Kauffman is the author of 15 b w k s and more than 650 papers. reviews, and encyclopedia articles on chemislry. history of science. andchemical education, mwe than 150of which haveappeared in the Journal of Chemical Education.
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Joseph W. Karnsar is currently the science supervisor in the three suburban Toms River (NJ) High Schools-East, Nanh, and South. A farmer teacher of chemistry as well as physics and other sciences. KamSar holds a BA end MA from Montclair State College (NJ) with an additional year of graduate chemistry study at Western Reserve University (Ohio) and major graduate study in science curriculum at Rutgers University (NJ). Joe served as president of the New Jersey Science Teachers Association (1985-1986) and is a recipient of their Fellows award. He has received a major grant from the A.T.8T. Foundation to place New Jersey chemistry and physics teachers in industrial research settings during the summers of 1987 and 1988. A former education chairperson of his local ACS subsection. Kamsar serves on the Executive Board of the N.J.-A.A.P.T. as well as other boards and associations related to science and science education in New Jersey. Joe is also active in the National Science Supervisors Association. Having served two years an the National Science Teachers Association (N.S.T.A.) Committee far Science Supervision followed by two years on the Advisory Board at N.S.T.A.'s high schwl science periodical, The Science Teacher(TST1. Joe now serves as chairperson of the Advisory Board for TST. He reviews manuscripts submitted for publication and writes book and computer sottware reviews.
Volume 64
Number 11 November 1967
931
(Continued from page 931, col. 1) nology and scientific influence in our daily lives, what better way to develop a healthy interest in chemistry and related sciences by students normally "science shy"'? The way that chemistry is taught affects how most of our students value the subject. We can break down the differences between scientists and nonscientists by utilizing a historical perspective in the teaching of chemistry. The content of traditional chemistry courses has undereone manv chanees hv virtue of internal and external oressures. he growch of the chemical industry during thepast five decades has been ~henomenal.The curriculum reform that gave us the CHEMS and CBA courses stressing the disciplines and major themes of chemistry has been a factor. The needs of a greater number of our population electing chemistry courses as a prelude for college entrance has provided additional course objectives. The societal issues relating to acid rain, clean water, food additives, improved food production, and valued synthetic products are concerns for all students. The use of chemistry in understanding and stndvine the new hioloev and medical technoloeies creates additional goals. w h a t % often forgotten is thatchemistry, that all science. is a human endeavor. Chemistrv in a historical perspective makes the course human to students; students have a more open mind when they visualize people in science. The future direct user of chemistry in a profession (chemist, nurse, engineer, cook) as well as the person who will come across chemistry in everyday life (buying gasoline, washing clothes, utilizing paper products and plastics) and public decision making (government, voting), all need to understand the basic principles and applications of chemistry. We must provide this instruction. We should he disappointed when we see astrology in our newsnaners . . taken so seriouslv" hv" so manv. Februarv 2nd arrives each year with a ground hog as the feature story. The more i m ~ o r t a nDrohlems t of life. of human interactions, and of political decision making are in great need of scientific thinking. Our bright pupils can list many benefits derived from our understanding of chemistry. They also can list the societal orohlems related to chemistry. They often cannot rome to terms with the decision-making processes. We learn t).v understanding how others have rhot~ght,how others have combined science with human feelings and have moved forward. In the development of the basic introductory chemistry of molecules and of atoms we can review the lives and times of chemists such as Frenchman Jacques Charles. His interest in balloon flight helped lead to Charles's law. Englishman Robert Boyle declined to take office as president of the Royal Society, a great honor a t that time, because of his religious objections to taking the oath of office. The Italian Amadeo Avogadro's hypotheses were not generally accepted until countryman Stanislao Cannizzaro was ahle to convince others of their importance. Students learn how effective communications based on logical thinking is so important in all human endeavors. We can go hack over 2,000 years t o study the thinking of the Greeks Democritus and Leucippus who suggested the atom. The life and times of the Frenchman Antoine Lavoisier and the Englishman Joseph Priestly are intertwined with the years of our Revolutionary War. This makes their work more meaningful to our students. Knowledge of the fact that Ernest Rutherford came to England from his native New Zealand leads us to consider
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Snow, C. P. The Two Cultures: Anda SecondLook; New American Library: New York, 1964. Conant, James B. Modern Science and Modern Man; Columbia University: New York. 1952. Conant. J. B., Ed. Harvard Case Histories in Experimental Scb ence; Harvard University: Cambridge, MA, 1957. 932
Journal of Chemical Education
the contrihutions of the Asian students who have come to America for the same purposes. Why have there been more Nobel Prizes in science awarded to Rutherford's students than to any other single group of people? Was there somethine in his life and in the lives of the others that caused t h i s r ~ was r it the times? Students will enjoy a short study assienment of the lives of William Crookes. J . J. T h o m ~ s o n , and-~ohertMillikan. They could recite (or sing) poems and songs these men sang- at their science societv meetings. . By learning that the early scientists who contributed to our understandine of the atom came from manv different countries ( ~ m i t rMendeleev-Russia, r Niels B&- enmark. . . .). students learn how international cooperation plawd a major role in the development of scientific hought. The fact that the number of women is si~nificantlyl e s than the men on lists of major contributors can create an interest in encouraging women in science today. Why are things changing now, however slowly to he sure? This will not diminish the work of scientists such as Marie Sklodowska Curie and Lise Meitner hut will mod students to studv the contrihutions of women and minority background scientists before and after the imnlementation of Affirmative Action programs. So much has been said about the needs for the nonscienceoriented to understand chemistry and other sciences. The historical oersoective will breathe life into the studv of chemistry ior these students and bridge the gap of the-two cultures as defined by C. P. Snow and elaborated on by so many others. Snow tells us, "It is dangerous to have two cultures which can't or don't communicate . . . ." James Bryant Conant, the American chemist and former president of Harvard University, tells us that "Among the commonsense ideas from which we cannot escape, even if we would, is our belief in the reality of other p e ~ p l e . " ~ Students need to learn to think criticallv, to think creatively. There is a major contribution to this-end that can he made by students spending some time talking and thinking about chemists as people. From the past came the examples; into the present will come the analogies. Students do learn from true scientific experiences. J. B. Conant believed that case studies that explain
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the experience of those whoonce participated in exciting events in scientific history.. . can teach. The interplay of ideas of several men. areuments about exoeriments and their inter~retationbe-
methods often employed stand out clearl~.~ Scientifically literate citizens are necessary to our society. Students need to develop a personal philosophy based on loeic. truth. and understandine. rather than one of suoerstit i i n and blind wishes. T o do th% students need to realize the interrelationshios of science. societv as a whole. technoloev. and each individual in our society. Time taken in chemistry classroom for a hackaround in this area is time not wasted. I t provides a "thinking floor" for future chemists to find their place in society and, most importantly, creates interest and thinking about the scientific endeavor for the majority of pupils who will not become chemists, physicists, and the like in the next generation. (Continued from page 931, col. 2) ful and unsuccessful, working in the context of their scientific, social, and political milieu, that is, an exciting human activity. Yet, except for a few historically oriented hooks such as Leonard W. Fine's Chemistry Decoded ( Z ) , most textbooks fail to make this obvious fact clear to the student. C. P. Snow has focused much attention on the split between the practitioners of the humanities and those of the sciences-the so-
called "two cultures" (3).By treating chemistry as a human activity carried out by human beings in a context of other human activities, the history of chemistry can serve as a bridge across the chasm that splits these twin fields of human endeavor. It can also serve t o motivate those students who are alienated by the impersonal, wholly rational, and logical approach emphasized by most chemistry textbooks. Regardless of what some textbooks may still imply, there is no universally applicable scientific method-and, if there were one, any self-respecting student should not he content to follow i t mechanically like an automaton who can he replaced a t will by another scientist without any noticeable change. Inclusion of history can help t o combat this dehumanized view of science, which, unfortunately, many students still have. In fact, some chemistry teachers have used science to teach "human values" (4). A senseof history can nlsogive the student a feeling for the mowment, progress, and continuous change inherent in science. In Bent's words, "Science is more a process than a product" (5). Without some history, the student is apt to regard the chemistry in his text and laboratory manual as a finished product unchangingly etched in stone. With some historv.. he comes to see that chemistrv is a dvnamic rather than a static structure, with today's ~heoriesmerelybeing the leadine edee " of a trail from the past that stretches indefinitely into the future. Inteeration of historv into the chemistry course also places the nature of discover& in a truer persp&tive. By doing so, students do not view these discoveries as isolated and complrtrly independent events mented hy great mrn. For example, a study of the origins of the periodic system made by Hein7 Cassehnum and me disclusrd no fewer than six scientists who might lay rlaim to this important discovery ( 6 ) .As lhdt! -~~~~ has ernnhasized.."The urimarv farror in brineine- about scientific discovery is not necessity, or individual genius, but the relentless uressure of accumulatine knowledee" (7). A ronsidrrntion of historiral events ihouid also mnke the student aware of the resistance of scientists thrmselves to new discoveries, a theme pursued by Barber, Kuhn, and other sociologists and historians of science (8). Not too long ago, the scientist, like the god-king or chieftain of aprimitive tribe, was often considered to be in possession of h a n a or magic power, and consequently, like the chieftain of old, he was often treated with great respect and fawning obeisance. However, if the scientist allows himself to be undeservedly deified, he may eventually suffer the fate of his aboriginal predecessor. Though for a while he may bask in adulation, sooner or later his admirers will realize that he does not possess the powers that they ascribed to him, and they will turn upon him in rage and disappointment and rend him as their ancient forbears did to their unsuccessful witch doctors. This disenchantment with science has already begun as science is blamed for problems ranging from pollution to war. Morris Goran has even written a hook entitled Science and Anti-Science (9),and the stereotvprd image i t the scientist in our society must he very had u,hen thesympathetic portrayal ofa scientist-oceanopr a ~ h e~r o o n e r ~the i u motion~icture"Jaws"-is rare enouch an event to be the occasion for an editorial by sociologist iudicious inteeration of historv into Amitai Etzioni (10). . . A. beginning chemistry courses can do much to counteract the "bad nress" that science has been receiving lately. ~ c c o r d i nto~Bailar, a student
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Thus a student's knowledge and appreciation of history can be(lirectl\.a~~licablr to hisown researchefforts. Asa casein point, when kayleigh encountered discrepancies between the densitv of atmospheric nitrogen and that of nitrogen prepared from comp&nds, he sought suggestions from the readers of the journal Nature (12). William Ramsay (13) suggested that Rayleigh read Henry Cavendish's paper (14) of 1785 on nitrogen, which more than a century earlier had predicted the presence of an unknown gas in the atmosphere. Together, in 1894, Ramsay and Rayleigh went on to discover the first of the inert gases, argon, thereby uncovering the existence of a completely unsuspected periodic group of elements-and the rest. as thev . sav, . is history. 'I'here are, oiroursr, many other advantage* that the historv of chemistrs can offer to the student umishing to become a sEientifica11~literate citizen: for example, encouragement for the novice researcher who will view the great men of science no longer as intellectual giants but as human beings with human strengths and weaknesses similar to his own; a badly needed liuk'oetween the sciences and the humanities as the student learns that the creative scientist has much in common with the creative artist: a better recomition of and insight into his own rreati\.r abilities as he lrarns that intuition as well as loeir is a leeitimate method of problem solvtypes of reing and that there are dyfferent searchers; and an appreciation for the international character of science as he learns that no country has amonopoly on discovery. Most of the goals that I have considered have been characterized by vague words such as attitude, appreciation, iusight, recognition and the like-often difficult to measure on tests but certainly extremely important elements in aliberal education. In fact, bits of history, judiciously introduced into any chemistry course, will, like lecture demonstrations, often be remembered by students long after they have forgotten the technical details of the course. Hiswry is not absolutely necessary for the production of whut Thomas Kuhn calls "normal" rcientists as opposed to creative scientists who overturn the accepted paradigms and inmtute new unrs (15). Indeed, there may he litrle practical transfer of learning from a knowledge of history to prarriral Iahoratory pruhlems, yet the edurstion of a chemist without some inclusion of history remains somehow unliatislactory and incomplete. As Aaron Ihde once told me, ~
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Whik it is possible 1,) train a rhemirol icrhnol~,#isl without giviux him a knc,wledgcufthchistory ofchcmistry,it is difficult to c,durolr, n c r r o r i r ~rhrrnirt u,irho!u such kwwlrdge , l 6 , 171. Llterature Cited
4. Galloway, G.L.J. Chem. Educ. 1977.54.84. 5. Rent, H. A. J. Cham. Educ 1917.54.462. 6. Carsebaum, H.: Ksuffman, G.B. Isis 1971,62,314.
10. ~t~i~~LA.Scienee 1976,191, 247. 11. Bailar. J. C.. Jr. InKauffmsn, G. B. Alfred Werner Founder o/CoordinalionChemist r y : Springer-Verlag: New Yark, 1966; p VII. 12. Rayleigh, Lord. Nature 1892,46,512. Is. Tilden. W. A. Sir Wiliiom Ramav. K. C. R..P R. S..Memorids of. hisLife . and Work ~ a e h l s nLondon, : 191R;p 2:; 14. Cauendish, H. Phil. Trans. Ray. Soc London 1786.75.372. 15. Kuhn. T. S. The Stmcture o/Scienfi/ie Reuolurions. 2nd ed.; University of Chicago: ~
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cannot really understand or appreciate the present position of science unless he knows something of the slow and tortuous steps
Volume 64 Number 11 November 1987
933
