Report on the WPI-NEACT Conference: "Perceptions of Chemistry" H. Beall and L. H. Berka Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Worcester, MA 01609 In recent years, chemists have watched with dismay as the perceptions of their science held by the public and, particularly, students have appeared to have become increasingly negative. This result has occurred in spite of impressive advances in medicinal chemistry and remarkable new polymers. Teachers of chemistry have the best opportunity for beginning to change the perceptions of chemistry that are currently held. The media can only present anecdotal information ahout science. A skilled science teacher can teach about science while conveying the joy of doing science and the realization that chemicals are available for the service of mankind's best interests. Thus, the responsibility for improving the perceptions of chemistry rests strongly on chemistrv teachers a t all levels. o n March 4. 1989, a conference at Worcester Polytechnic Institute broueht toeether hieh srhool. rolleee. and university chemistry teachers for lec&res hythreekiperts on perceptions of chemistry followed hv extensive discussion. The conference was sponsored by thd Department of Chemistry of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in cooperation with the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers. (The first conference in this series, "The Chemistry Laboratory and its Future", was held a t WPI on March 7, 19811.) The speakers were F r a n k H. Westheimer of Harvard University, J o h n L. Burmeister of the Universitv of Delaware. and Henrv A. Bent i f the University of ~ i t k h u r g~. p e n i d gremarks were made hv Miles Pickerine of Princeton Universitv. ~ i c k e r i n gdescribed a traditional distrust of science related to a perceived ability of science to perform magic. A population that cannot understand the "miracles" that science can accomplish will tend to distrust science. An understanding of science that will lead t o a trusting of science must begin in the classroom. Pickering stressed that science teaching must present science proiesses as well as science facts and that science teachers must choose their topics carefully to convince students that learning science is worthwhile. He feels that chemistry teaching has shown little advancement in its intellectual asoects in the last 15 vears and identified the speakers a t ;his conference as Leing amone those who have examined chemistr~teaching- in the most probing ways. Westheimer stated that the perception of science held by nonscientists is dismal. The general public would he shocked to learn that everything that they eat is composed of chemicals and that without svnthetic fertilizers somethine like one-half of the world would starve. Most of the pub& helieves that nylon is a chemical whereas silk is not. Much recent data has proven dramatically that the level of understanding of science among nonscientists in this country is very poor. Thus, it is a major responsibility of scientists to educate nonscientists so that they can appreciate it. In order to understand the difficulties faced by nonscientists in understanding science it is important to recognize
' Pickering, M. J. Chem. Educ. 1988, 65, 449-450.
that learning in science is "vertical." That is, you cannot come into science at some advanced level without all of the reouired orevious knowledee. This is in contrast to the humanities where the learning is horizontal with no obvious startine ooint and the suhiect can be heaun with anv tooic. Thus, &order to understand science as it.develops, a bas&of knowledee is reauired. Westheimer stressed the point that neither 6orizontal nor vertical learning is bette; than the other. They are simply different. He then-described ;he standard situation in which scientists in rolleee take a much hither fraction of courses in the humanities than nonscientists-take in the sciences. In addition, science courses taken by nonscientists are usually simplified courses that cannot be taken for credit by scientists, whereas scientists take the same humanities courses as humanities majors. Furthermore, science majors usually take humanities courses above and beyond their requirements, while nonscientists take only the minimum number of science courses required. Nonscientists often claim that they do not take science classes because thev are uninteresting. and thus it is important that science teachers show that their subiects are tied to each other and to the important aspects of life. However, Westheimer feels that the vertical nature of science instruction forms the principal harrier to nonscientists in pursuing science subjects. Thus, they cannot jump into a topic of special interest to them without a long list of prerequisites. Westheimer gave data to show that science requirements a t major universities have dropped from about 25% of the curriculum in the 1850's to about 6% now. This drop has occurred in spite of the fact that science assumes a much larger part of life now than it did in the last century. A comparison with the current situation in the United States was made with the prosperous and advanred culture of 15th-century China. Naval defeat at the hands of technulogically advanced western nations led to a precipitous cultural decline. We are now at the point where we are being defeated in the technological marketplace by countries producing products superior to our own. A similar decline could be in store for us if current trends in science awareness are not reversed. We need to have industrial managers that can disruas technical problems with their technical staff. A curriculum in science fur nonscientists was proposed. This would be a 2%-year sequence including a marhematicsphysics course, genera[ chemistry-organic chemistry course, and a biology-molecular biology course. Such a program would provide a hackground for further learning. I t is important t o note that learning in science is an ongoing oroiect. Part of the science that it will he needed to know in 30 ;ears has not been discovered yet. The proposed curriculum would provide the basis needed for this future learning. A problem with current courses in general chemistry is that topics like quantum mechanics are covered without the background needed for their appreciation. Other more suitable topics like the periodic table and dynamic equilibrium have been displaced. Breadth in our general chemistry courses will tend to reach out to nonscientish. For example,
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a discussion of the fabrication of ancient bronze implements teaches about oxidation-reduction as well as about history. The fear of taking science courses among nonscientists is a result of the vertical nature of science learning. Any gap in their knowledge produces a barrier to further study. One of our iohs as science teachers is to find and fill these gaps. ~Lrmeisterstarted his presentation by showing graphs of the drops in enrollments in chemistry and chemical enginoorine a-~~ t the ....----~-~~Universitv of Delaware. (It was noted that chemistry gave the lowest grades of any department a t the universitv.) In addition. those graduating in chemistry are ~~-~~ going less graduate sehools &d laboratory jobs than formerlv. Technical sales was given as a popular new desired occupation by chemistry majors. 0the; evidence of the downward trends in US. science was shown in comparisons between science and mathematics enrollments in the United States and the Soviet Union where US. figures are far inferior. In the United States, high school chemistry and physics are not required for admission to most colleges, and 50% of high schools do not have chemistry laboratories. A principal problem in our high schools is that homework has essentiallv disanoeared as an important aspect of learn.. ing as a result uf overemployment of high srhuol students. Thus. these students come to university with inferior knowledge and inferior study habits. Some of the oroblems of science teaching in United States universities reiate to the low emphasis i n undergraduate instruction resulting from the preoccupation with research and graduate study. Burmeister believes in the idea of the "professor" as a blend of teacher and discoverer of new knowledge but feels that this ideal has all but disappeared. Recently universities have been hiring "teaching specialists" to instruct in their introductory chemistry courses, and often these individuals teach exceptionally well. However, the teachine of the teaching- specialist is not followed up in . subsequent courses, and usually the teaching specialist is not accorded the rank and prestige of a regular faculty member. This conveys a clear message to the-students as t o the value that the department places on their instruction in the beginning subject. Burmeister argued for a change in chemistry curricula that stressed th'relationship between chemistry and economics as a way of engaging student interest. He pleaded with high school teachers to give less theory and more descriptive chemistry. Examples of topics that he would delete from the high school course are molecular orbitals, hybridization, and free energy. In general chemistry courses in colleges and universities he would prefer to give facts first and theories later. His own preference is for a course in which one class per week concentrates on descriptive chemistry and demonkrations. Burmeister gave his test for inclusion of a descriptive fact in a course: ( I j ~ o e irs provide the basis for advanced understanding? (2) Does it reinforce a previously covered concept? (:]) Is it of practical importance'! (41 1)oes it affect the quality of life? ( 5 )Does it open new vistas? (61Is it interestind! He clo~edwith a "lea for more mentorine.ofstudents by -~~ teachers who love teaching science and doing research and are able to impart this. ~
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Bent summarized the most important points made by the earlier speakers. He explained science as being just an extension of language wherein new names are made up to describe new concepts as they are discovered. Thus, in the 19th century the names element and compound were invented to describe pure substances, and in the 20thcentury names like 2s and 3p were invented to describe pure states. He stated that the rule for general chemistry should be to keep the content simple but cover this content in a sophisticated manner. He also reminded chemistry teachers to remember that it is natural for students to forget. He examined the perceptions of chemistry in terms of the source of these perceptions. Thus, perceptions resulting from lectures. laboratories. research. industrv. etc.. will all he different. He stated that'the public's opinion thatahemistrv can cause nroblems shows that the public does feel that chemistry is ihportant. That is, if the knowledge can be a ~ ~ l i ethen d . the a ~ ~ l i c a t i oofnthe knowledge will result in c k c i s m . I t is als'irue that chemists prodice substances, but the public buys "things", that is, combinations of substances. Thus, chemists tend to take the blame for "things" that cause problems without achieving the principal financial reward for their manufacture. The present tendencies in general chemistry textbooks were discussed. Current books fail in that they have no introductions and are merely manuals for multiple-choice exams. Too much stress is placed on using units for solving problems, with not enough emphasis on the logical use of aleebra. Bent stated that the major joy of chemistry is the possibilitv of using inductive logic to explain the nature of the atom and the mkecule. He prefers this to assuming that the atom and molecule exist and then deducing how they ought to behave. Chemistry should be explained in terms of what chemists actually do. Taught in this fashion, chemistry becomes a vehicle for general instruction of the public in logic and reason. A number of points came out in the discussion that followed. Among t6ese were: University teachers must not discouraee eood students from -eoine into hiah school teaching. ~ o o d s t i d e n t sshould be encouraged to come back to their former institutions as role models. All aspects of high school teaching, not only the money, must 6e improved before young- people will be anxious to enter that profession. The . . has invested a disproportionate amount of money into universities for research compared to that invested for teachine. We must not confuse ends and means: national security is :means of ensuring our ability to do science and not vice versa. We should work to keep alive the enthusiasm for science that is felt by students up to about age 12. Westheimer summed u p an important aspect of the conference in the statement, "We have put too much material and not enough fun in our teaching of science."
Acknowledgment
We are grateful to the WPI Educational Development Council for financial support of this conference.
