Lab Partner & Lab Master Dave Masterman. P.O. Box 731. Jackson. WY 83001 Hardware: Components:
Level and Subject: Cwt:
Apple II. ProDos Compatible 1 disk, reference manual. tutorial Graphical Data Analysis 1 disk, reference Manual, Experimenter's Guide Lab Partner 8 Lab Master High School 8 College C3aphIcal Data Manipulation Lab Partner 599.00lLab Master 5149.00
Summary Ratlngs: Category Program Wcumenlatlm: ~ardwpyoocumenfah: Educallonal Value:
Excellent Excellent Excellent
The hasic program is the same for all three programs. Lab Partner has all of the program features of Lab Master without the direct interfacing capabilities. The advantages of the upgraded version include Apple Works style "help functions" as an option on eachof the menu-driven sections, loading of the complete program eliminating disk access time, and Apple ImageWriter printer options. The Experimenter's Guide provides 20+ experiments that make use of the program's graphic capabilities. I have not seen a program with more graphing capabilities. The graphing functions available start with simple linear functions and include log, natural log, exponential, and trig functions. Once the data are entered, the student can use the program to test different functions of the data graphically, and see the statistical results even if helahe doesn't understand how to calculate the statistics. Students no longer must first try a linear graph, then maybe a log-log graph until they get one that "looks" right.
The statistical analysis also gives the students immediate feedback on the sizes of errors in the data and a guide to "throwing out" data points. My students were excited about getting graphs from the computer and with the many functions were mare willing to try different relationships for their data. By testing some other possible relationships. I think that they havea better understanding of the experiment. I would recommend this program to anyone using a laboratory based approach with students finding relationships. If your idea of lab is to tell students the relationship and then direct them to verify it in lab, I don't think that you will get the full use of the program. The program is easy for students to use. With less than 10 min of direction students were testing relationships in ways that I have not seen before from high school students. The only complaint that I have is the limited number of printers that the program supports. The new version has added the ImageWriter along with the NEC and Epson. If you have a different printer, you could spend a lot of time and effort in trying the get printouts. Arlyn DeBruyckere Hutchinson High Schwl Robem Road
Hutchinson. MN 55353
The Top Fltty lndustrlal Chemlcals Raymond Chang and Wayne Tikkanen. Random House: New York, 1988. vi 191 pp. Figs. and tables. 18.8 X 23.4 cm. $8.00.
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T o a person who has heen stressing (to all those who would listen) the importance of descriptive chemistry (particularly descriptive Inorganic Chemistry) in introductory chemistry courses, the arrival of this book initially was a pleasant surprise. Readers of this Journal will likely recognize the name Raymond Chang as the author of a well-
--Reviewed in This Issue
received General Chemistry text, the third edition of which was reviewed here oreviously 11989,lX, A1021. While nor expkrtly stated, the work reviewed here would seem to be a compana,n/wpplrrnent to that larger work. The authors have gathered information together in one place about the 50 chemicals produced in the greatest quantity annually hy the US. chemical industry. The hook's 50 chapters average about three pages in length and include sections titled "Background," "Preparation," "Properties," "Uses," and "Production and Price". (A seven-page appendix titled "The Petroleum Industry," a second appendix giving production of these 50 chemicals in the years 198086, and a short (three-page) index round out the hook.) None of the information here is new: it is mostlv eathered from recent "Kev
source of the information, and I plan to use it as a personal reference hook for the various courses I teach. There is much to be learned here, for student and instructor alike. Very few of us in academia ever learn about the industrial processes for synthesizing and purifying common materials such as methanol, cumene, vinyl acetate, sodium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, or carbon black, nor do we learn (or teach) much about the most common uses of these materials in commercial applications. As a means of bridging this knowledge gap, this hook is an excellent idea. and I commend the authors far it. I do ha& some reservations about the book, however. My first reservation is a result of my own inability to figure out how to use the hook as anything other than a personal reference source. There is too much Organic Chemistry knowledge assumed to make this auseful student supplement far a General Chemistry course, and not enough detailed Organic Chemistry to make it truly useful for a student in Organic. My second reservation comes from the exeeutionofthe bookitself. Presumably in the (Continued on page A116)
Revlewar
Computer Learning Package Dave Masterman, Lab Partner & Lab Master
Arlyn DeBruyckere
A114
Alan J. Pribula
A114
George B. Kauffman
A116
George B. Kauffman
A116 A117 A118 A119
Books Raymond Chang and Wayne Tikkanen, The Top Fifty Industrial Chemicals Committee on the Conduct of Science. National Academy of Sciences, On Being a Scientist John Neu, editor, lsis Cumulative Bibliography 1976-1985 New Volumes in Continuing Series Titles of Interest Monographs
A114
Journal of Chemical Educatlon
