Chemical Education Today
Report: New England Association of Chemistry Teachers
One-Hundredth Anniversary of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers by Madeline P. Goodstein
On February 19, 1998, the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers became 100 years old. Of its beginning, Lyman C. Newell, a charter member and first president of the association, wrote, “Men of kindred tastes and aims have always sought inspiration in union. This principle is especially applicable to scientists. It is not unusual, therefore, that the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers should have come into existence through the desire of several teachers of chemistry to have an organization.” (1) Sixteen teachers, including two women, became the charter members. From the very beginning, the members were interested in advances in both chemistry and chemistry teaching. Current topics in chemistry have been a feature of the regular meetings and the summer conferences. With respect to teaching, Roy Upham, who was curator of the association for 20 years, reported on the concerns of teachers in the first years of the organization. They may look familiar to you. They included: •
• • •
What should be taught in a grammar school course in chemistry? In a high school course in chemistry? In a second year of high school chemistry? How much background should the college teacher expect from the high school courses? What mathematics courses should be required? How much time should be allowed for lecture? For laboratory work (2)?
Even in those days, teachers complained about the lecture method, too many pupils per teacher, the inability of students to perform simple calculations and to write without blunders, and exhaustive topic coverage. In 1907, Professor Arthur Hopkins of Amherst College said at a NEACT meeting at M.I.T., “Science teaching in the U.S. is a mile wide and an inch deep.” (3)
The 25th anniversary photograph of NEACT participants taken in Malden, MA on March 15, 1924. (Reprinted by permission of NEACT.)
Initially, all of the members came from the Boston area. It took only a few years after its formation to inaugurate excursions to nearby chemical plants. While some members may have used electric cars in those days, members traveled by train, trolley, and other public transportation to the chemical plants. In 1905, for example, trips were made to the Merrimac Chemical Works (sulfuric acid); the departments of mineralogy, crystallography, petrography and metallurgy at Harvard University; and the Boylston Brewery (4). Today, such trips are a regular feature of many of the meetings and conferences. Many prominent chemists and educators have been elected to honorary membership in the association. These include four Nobel Prize winners: Theodore W. Richards, Svante August Arrhenius, Marie Curie, and Wilhelm Ostwald. Both Richards and Arrhenius spoke to the members on the occasion of receiving the honorary memberships. As a result of World War I anti-German feelings, both the American Chemical Society and the Association expelled Ostwald from membership (5). The teachers were also very interested in updating their knowledge of theoretical and applied chemistry, and every meeting had a speaker on an aspect of the latest chemical knowledge. By 1921, the current four divisions of the organization covering all of New England were in place. In addition to meetings held in each of these divisions annually, there is one meeting of the entire association held each May in Massachusetts. Annual 5-day summer conferences were initiated in 1939 with resounding success and have been held each year since then at various locations in New England. From its fourth meeting in January 1899 until its 216th meeting in May 1942, the association published The N.E.A.C.T. Report which included official business, papers presented at meetings, book reviews, and other material; even an occasional poem. By the 1940s, it was a 50-page booklet published four times a year with many advertisements. In 1941, the association accepted an offer from the Journal of Chemical Education to publish two pages of The Report and another two pages of NEACT papers. The Journal benefited from the gain in subscribers, and our members received a regular subscription at a special rate. In announcing this in its October 1942 issue, the Journal of Chemical Education wrote of the association, “Its membership includes both college and secondary school teachers, and it has probably done more than any other one agency in establishing and promoting relations between these two groups.” (6) This arrangement ceased sometime after 1975 when articles were no longer being printed by the Journal for various reasons, one being space limitations and the various costs. As a result, the NEACT Journal has been published by the association since 1980. It now appears twice yearly and features papers by
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 7 July 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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Chemical Education Today
Report: New England Association of Chemistry Teachers members and other contributors on topics of chemical and educational interest. In 1972, the John A. Timm Award was established to be given to a person who has made exceptional contributions to the education of young people in chemistry. A total of 22 recipients have been honored (7). This summer, the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers will proudly celebrate its 100th anniversary at its annual summer conference on August 3 to 7 at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire. Its topic, chosen to celebrate the centennial of the association, is “One Hundred Years of Education: Past, Present, and Future”. Further information may be obtained from the NEACT Web site at http://www.keene.edu/resources/neact or by contacting Steve Stepenuck, Jr., Department of Chemistry, Keene State College, Keene, NH 03435-2001; phone: 603/358-2560; fax:
816
603/358-2897; e-mail:
[email protected]. Literature Cited 1. Newell, L. C. History of the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers from the First to the Fiftieth Meeting. Report N.E.A.C.T. Fiftieth Meeting, April 25, 1914. 2. Upham, R. NEACT J. 1991, 9 (1), 13. 3. Upham, R. NEACT J. 1997, 15 (2), 4. 4. Upham, R. NEACT J. 1995, 13 (2), 16. 5. Upham, R. NEACT J. 1991, 10 (1), 28–32. 6. Upham, R. NEACT J. 1992, 10 (2), 25. 7. Swistak, J. In A Centennial Tribute 1898–1998 New England Association of Chemistry Teachers, Amesbury, MA, 1998, p.45.
Madeline P. Goodstein is Professor Emeritus, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT 06050;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 7 July 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
