MODERN METHODS OF TEACHING ELECTROCHEMISTRY* ROYI,. DORRANCB, QWHN'S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, CANADA An educational institution may be looked upon as a manufacturing establishment, whose finished product is a developed mind; and since trained and developed minds are the greatest asset of the world, the educational institutions are turning out the highest type of finished product. The problem which confronts the teacher of electrochemistry is, therefore, two-fold; he must develop the minds of those who attend his classes, and in particular along the l i e s of electrochemistry. In view of the relatively small number of students in attendance a t courses of electrochemistry who find employment in electrochemical industries, it would follow that the chief duty of the teacher is to develop the student's mind through the medium of electrochemistry. There is a distinct difference in the character of undergraduate and postgraduate instruction, due to the diversity of subjects studied by the undergraduate and the specialization by the graduate student. In engineering colleges, the student attends lectures in all branches of engineering, prior to graduation, but if he returns for graduate study he specializes in one particular branch of one line of engineering. Thus, a student who plans to graduate in chemistry receives instruction not only in inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry, but also in other branches of engineering and allied subjects, such as mathematics and physics, but if be returns to proceed to a graduate degree, he specializes h o n e particular field of chemistry, and considers the other fields as "minors," ujjually to the neglect of all other branches of engineering, outside of chemistry. The teacher of electrochemistry must then develop his students' minds, so that they will be able to think, and also have sufficient information to enable them to carry on investigational work, if they desire to specialize in electrochemistry, either in postgraduate or industrial work. As a medium through which the student's mind may be developed, cbemistry is one of the fittest subjects, since i t has an interesting and logical historical development and is, above all, an exact science. The subject matter, which should be included in any course of electrochemistry, must be left to the discretion of the teacher. No uniform practice is followed in Canadian and American colleges in planning courses of study, and various instructors have students in attendance a t their lectures, who have not bad the same preliminary trainmg. A t Queen's University, the course in electrochemistry is given as part of the general instrnction in physical chemistry, and is attended by students in their senior year, who are graduating as chemists, metallurgical engineers, and chemi* Presented before the Fifty-fifth General Meeting of the American Electrochemical Sodety. held at Toronto, Canada, M a y 27.28, and 29, 1929. 25
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cal engineers. The teacher then must arrange his lectures so that each student will be benefited. A course in electrochemistry ought to include the history of eledrochemistry, with special emphasis on the theories advanced by various experimenters, and show, when new facts were discovered, that the older theories failed to meet them and new theories were advanced, giving way in their turn to still newer theories. In this development the student will become familiar with the great chemists of the past, Galvani, Volta, Davy, Faraday, and many others. He ought to realize the amazing results they achieved with the apparatus they used, limited both as to quantity and sensibility. The student of today is often too prone to blame an incorrect result of his experiment on the fact that his ammeter was not finely enough calibrated. The subsequent subject matter usually discussed includes Faraday's laws, migration or transport numbers, conductivities and electromotive force with its many ramifications, electromotive series, polarization, overvoltage, decomposition voltage, etc. The lectures will include the methods of measuring the quantities discussed, and their application in industrial chemistry. In this connection I would like to express my appreciation of the valuable aid I have received from the catalogs, bulletins, etc., published and so willingly given by the manufacturers. The student ought to be familiar with the literature of the subject,
Transactions of the American Electrochemical Society, Transactions of the Faraday Society, Zeitschrift fur Elektrochemie, etc., and the various textbooks on electrochemistry, both theoreti~aland applied. If his instruction has been proper he will be able to read them intelligently. In this way he will also become familiar with the men who are engaged in electrochemical work. How this subject matter should be presented, so that the student will be most benefited, is the problem of every teacher. Some teachers have called to their aid developments in contemporary science, such as the "movie." Personally, I have had no experience with the moving picture film as a teaching medium, and I am prejudiced against its use. In my opinion the use of a film would cause the lecture period to degenerate into an entertainment hour, with the consequent decrease of mental activity on the student's part. Furthermore, if it is the teacher's aim to impart principles, this can best be done by the use of blackboard and chalk. If the film is used i t must be carefully prepared, and not be like some of the movies, as is the case when certain popular books have been adapted for the screen, the only resemblance often being the title and the names of the characters. I do not hold the same opinion of the presentation of slides and pictures by the lantern, for the reproduction of actual apparatus and results. Thus in the discussion of the hydrogen electrode, its use and applications, i t is
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much better to show the apparatus as listed in a text or catalog, as well as the various types of curves obtained in the titrations, than to attempt to reproduce these on the blackboard. The reproductions are much superior, and save the teacher's time. To my mind the principles taught can be impressed on the student in the best way by the use of problems. The student thus learns the real meaning of the terms discussed in the lectures, and he has to think to be able to solve the problems. Professor Daniels1 a t the symposium on "The Teaching of Physical Chemistry," Swampscott, Mass., September, 1928, emphasized the mathematical requirements for students specializing in chemistry while Professor Shemll,a a t the same symposium, stressed the problem method of teaching physical chemistry. These two go hand in hand. A student must use his mathematics to solve problems. I know of no text which specializes in problems in electrochemistry, but such texts as Partington and Tweedy, Prideaux, Noyes and Sherrill, Knox, Getman, and other texts in physical chemistry, usually contain a number of problems in electrochemistry. THISJOURNAL, 6, 254-9 web., 1929) Ibid.. pp. 260-2.
