Newspapers as Confidence Builders Susan R. Fahrenholtz Science and Mathematics Division. Fordham College at Lincoln Center, New York, NY 10023 In my 17years of teaching chemistry to nonscience majors, .one thing has not changed: most students begin with a fear of science and mathematics. They only take chemistry because they are forced to complete a college requirement and chemistry sounds easier than physics. Those who have taken high school chemistry are terrified that I will expect them to remember any of it, and they are no more confident than those who have not. Lack of confidence leads students to avoid science, and leads them to he vulnerable to userfriendly pseudoauthority figures such as astrologers. Adults are newspaper readers, hut they ignore most articles dealing with science. The wonderful science writers who can improve the puhlic's information about chemistry have no effect on the citizens who do not read their articles. T o get students reading, and thinking about what they are reading, their first assignment is to read any article about science in a recent newspaper or newsmagazine and speculate in writing why the article was published at that time. I point out that once in a while there is an advance worthy of being released to the general public immediately, but that many science articles are printed for more prosaic reasons. For example, politicians want to show how concerned they are about the environment, or corporations want to show how technologically advanced they are, or a scientific society is in town, or a project needs more public funding, or the weather is unusually hot, etc. The article may he a regular science feature to increase the public's knowledge about science, or a filler to fit an empty spot. Or i t may indeed be straight news. I ask students not to summarize what is in the article, since that can often be done without thinking. Sometimes I have posed other questions for the students to answer about their article, hut the specific question is not as important as that the students will draw some original conclusions about what they are reading. This assignment has many unexpected benefits. I t can be done at any level and promotes discussion by all levels of students, very important for a heterogeneously prepared class. I t starts students reading about science using sources that will always be available, gives them positive, individual reinforcement, builds interest, and helps them think more critically about what they read. AlthoughIfind it very well suited for the first assignment, i t would fit anywhere in the class schedule. I first gave this assignment when i t was normal a t my school that a third of the class did not know where they should he until the second class period (since corrected). Therefore, the first class re-
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Journal of Chemical Education
quired a lesson that would not handicap the later-arriving students in their logical progression of chemical understanding. I overcome science avoidance expressed as procrastination, which must be controlled as soon as possible, by announcing that this paper will not be graded, but that it will count a few percentage points of the final grade. Once in a while I have to ask a student t o rewrite his or her assignment, hut soon everybody receives full credit. Another confidence-building tactic is t o write short positive comments on every student's paper before I return them. Of course some papers have more positive features than others, but all have something that can and should be praised. I refer some of the writers of the weaker papers to special workshops, hut even those papers receive full credit and have praiseworthy features to mark. I t is possible to give encouragement while keeping appropriate standards. Everyone knows about the importance of positive reinforcement in theory, hut i t is especially important to apply it to nonscience students. The existence,of minor mistakes in newsoaner articles is an advantage in increasing the confidence bf'my students. Thev become comfortable with chemistrv when thev can see the errors of professional science writers. A find-the-error question on the final exam shows students how much they know now. The latest example is from an article about tunneling-microscope pictures of benzene from p C10 of the August 16,1988 New York Times. "When six carbon atoms arranged i n a straight line arejoined hy singlevalence bonds, eight bonds are left over as vacant attachment points. If each is linked to a hydrogen atom, the formula of the resulting chain. called 'hexane'. is CaHa!' In another article. adenine has been called an amino a c i d . " ~ e t t i nstudents ~ find errors is another wav of makine them comfortable b.v ~ u t t i n them e in control. One result of increased student confidence is that I have steadily lowered the drop-out rate until all or almost all students complete the class. I t has been years since I had to give an incomplete grade for any reason. Most of the reasons are procrastination in disguise, hut if they start out well they aremore likely to get into the habit of doing every assignment on time. Students have come up to me several years after the class was over to tellme how useful they have found i t and that they still read the science articles in the press. One way to make every week "Chemistry Week," for the general public, is to make i t comfortable for them to use the newspapers and magazines that are already out there.
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