Chemical Education Today
Editorial
Reaching Out In the United States, National Chemistry Week is Nosite. Outreach activities described in this Journal include provember 7–13. (For more NCW information, go to http:// grams in which high school, college, or graduate students visit www.acs.org/ncw/.) NCW’s theme, celebrating polymers, is schools and work with children and teachers, events in which echoed in this issue (pages 1497–1501, 1512–1513, 1521– participants compete to carry out chemical tasks, programs 1540). Almost certainly there will be chemists in your area aimed at women and minorities, van programs in which spending a great deal of their time on outreach activities for chemicals and instruments are transported throughout broad children and the general public during NCW. Chances are geographical areas to support teachers and students, chemisgood that many Journal readers like you will be among them. try summer camps, and many others. The International And there are probably many more outreach programs that Chemistry Olympiad (see report on page 1480) involves large you or your acquaintances lead during the rest of the year. numbers of students and ACS local sections—and more than This month of NCW seems an appropriate time to reflect 50 countries. Outreach to outreach leaders is provided by the on the tremendous benefits that outreach programs provide. Institute for Chemical Education, which distributes booklets Early examples of outreach inthat explain how to organize and volved books, public lectures, and carry out programs (http:// chemical demonstrations. In 1800 …we should extend hearty thanks to the ice.chem.wisc.edu/ice/). Count Rumford collaborated with myriad chemists and teachers whose time, The concept that the public influential Londoners to establish energy, and expertise contribute to helping is interested in science and can the Royal Institution as a means of benefit from learning about scithe public recognize how important and providing lectures on science and ence has expanded far beyond technology to help working people what Count Rumford could have interesting chemistry is. to improve their lot. Humphry imagined. Today we have books, Davy, Michael Faraday, and many others continued the tramagazines, videos, television programs, museums, theme dition. Faraday’s own interest in science was sparked in part parks, Web sites, and many other venues that include sciby Jane Marcet’s book Conversations in Chemistry, whose ence. However, I always have a twinge of disappointment friendly style made its contents accessible and fascinating to when I look at the shelves in our local bookstore and find the young, highly intelligent bookbinder’s apprentice. In the that there are far more titles in other sciences than in chemUnited States, Benjamin Silliman, first professor of chemisistry. Are other sciences inherently more interesting—or their try at Yale, became widely known for his textbooks on geolpractitioners inherently more literate? ogy and chemistry and for his ability as a popular lecturer. I think not. Popularizing chemistry is more dependent Silliman’s lecture tours took him as far from New Haven as on human interaction than is popularizing many other sciSt. Louis and New Orleans. ences. People deal with devices that approximate Newtonian By the mid-1800s societies for the advancement of sciphysics every day. The stars, moon, and planets are there evence and of chemistry were being set up in Europe. In 1876 ery night, and their vast number and regular motions inspire American chemists who gathered at Priestley’s grave in awe. Living systems are familiar to everyone, and we can obNorthumberland, Pennsylvania, to commemorate the censerve their behavior and classify them. But chemistry is oftennial of the discovery of oxygen saw the need for a permaten hidden or complicated. Cooking food changes the food nent organization and founded the American Chemical Sochemically, but both initial and final versions, like most other ciety. By the beginning of the 20th century these societies substances we encounter daily, are complicated mixtures. were supporting education and public awareness of science. Chemists’ atomic-scale models are not accessible to our senses. The first issue of this Journal described an outreach effort to In order for chemistry not to be magic, someone needs to place portraits of great American chemists in schools throughselect simple, interesting, relevant examples, demonstrate out the country, and a 1925 article dealt with “Educating them or help the average person work with them, and then the Public in the Use of the Metric System”. A search of the relate those examples to everyday life. JCE Online Index reveals many articles about chemistry and Participating in and supporting National Chemistry the public, with the number per year increasing steadily. Week and other outreach programs is crucial to the health During the last decade, for example, there have been 16 arof our discipline. Without chemists who donate their time ticles whose titles include “outreach” and many more that and expertise to helping people understand and become fadescribe programs and resources for the general public. miliar with chemistry, our fascinating subject is likely to seem Current outreach efforts include a much broader range dull—or even scary. During National Chemistry Week, and of activities and media. Hands-on science has become very during every other week of the year, we should extend hearty popular, but so has virtual science on the World Wide Web. thanks to the myriad chemists and teachers whose time, enA combination of the two, which is aimed at K–8 children, ergy, and expertise contribute to helping the public recogcan be found at the ACS Education Division’s WonderNet nize how important and interesting chemistry is. site (http://www.acs.org/wondernet/). For older children there is Your Virtual Chemistry Club (http://www.acs.org/vc2/). Many more ACS outreach materials are described at their Web JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 76 No. 11 November 1999 • Journal of Chemical Education
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