Report on the 12th ICCE Seven high school and 17 college/university educators represented the United States as participants in the 12th International Conference on Chemical Education (ICCE) held this past year in Bangkok, Thailand, December 17-21, 1992. The American attendees, funded by an NSF grant solicited and coordinated by Sylvia Ware, Director, Education Division, ACS, joined more than 350 educators from 36 countries. The 12th ICCE's theme, "Chemistry in Transition", was portrayed throughout the five Plenary Lectures, 22 Symposia, 12 Workshops, and over 120 Poster Sessions on both chemistry and biochemistry. Innovative programs created and manaeed hv ACS: FACETS. Foundations and Challenees to Encouraee ~echnoloev-basedScience (Middle
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pants were kept informed by a timely and chemically challenging SMILE Daily Newsletter, which recapped t h e previous day's events and provided Conference-related, chemically oriented tidbits. A tour of the nearby Horwang School, rated as one of the best Thai high schools, provided an excellent insight to the Thai secondary level chemistryhiology education program. Like many in schools throughout t h e world, Horwang School students attended class over eight hours each day and four hours on Saturday! Amore appropriate theme for the 12th ICCE could have been "Chemical Education in Transition" a s i t was obvious that a preponderance of the material presented fmused on restructuring chemical education to include more studentcentered methodolories., aoolications-based curricula. ind u s t r y a n d community linkages, a n d chemistry's importance to environmental issues.
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Developing countries are becoming increasingly aware of the need for responsible and proactive chemical education programs. Indeed, in many of these countries, compulsory education ends much sooner than in the United States so the need for ~ractical. chemical education . nublic-oriented . programs, especially in the primary grades, is becoming increasingly important. Although the 12th ICCE was extremely well-organized, I missed the opportunity ta converse with other educators during and after the Conference's daily activities. As most educators know, the real meaningful exchanges concerning education (both teachine and learninel often mcur durine ~nforrnaldsrussmns Conferenw partrcipanti werp h o u i ~ d In three dtffcrent hotels mahng 11 difficult to meet except during scheduled events. There were opportunities to more infm&+lly discuss chemical education-&nds and happenings during the two poster sessions. I would have also liked more topieslaetivities related to secondary and middle school programs, a desire voiced by many of the non-collegelevel, Southeast Asia area teachers. I was able to present three poster sessions a t this Conference and had lengthy discussions with several teachers concerning my presentations. All in all,I found the 12th ICCE enjoyable a s well a s educational and I now have more global contacts with which to share my personal philosophies concerning the restructuring of chemical education.
Robert Zafran Monta Vista HS 21840 McClellan Rd Cupertino, CA 95014
Volume 70 Number 3 March 1993
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