DtidWw o& CHEMICAL
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EDUCATION
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Report to the Membership EDWARD C. FULLER Immediate Past Chairman
T h e Executive Committee, consisting of the Officers and Councilors of the Division, has been concerned during the past several years with making the Division of greater value to secondary school teachers of chemistry in this country and to ehemistrv teachers at all levels in other countries. This activitv
scribe to the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION when they join the Division as Affiliates and are involved full-time in secondary or elementary education, part of the cost of their subscription is carried by the Division. Funds fram the Division are also being used to pay for sending the JOURNAL to various foreign university libraries. It also subsidizes completely 50 subscriptions to Peace Corps Volunteers teaching chemistry. Plans also are underway for support of UNESCO programs. The Executive Committee feels that whenever opportunity arises, income from the JOURNAL should be spent to improve chemical education in any way which looks like a good investment. The Division has alsa helped in a small way to finance the highly suocessful annual Junior College Chemistry Roundtable CmLferences under the able leadership of W. T. Mooney of El Camino College. In 1961 the first Roundtable was held in Chicago; during the past three years these Roundtables have been held in connection with each ACS spring meeting. They have been enthusiastically attended by junior college chemistry teachers from a. large area around the city serving as host far the spring meeting. Ninety-one teachers fram 15 states attended the Roundtable in Philadelphia. this year. Plans are now under way for a Roundtable at Henry Ford Junior College in Dearbarn, Michigan, just prior to the 1965 spring meeting of the Society in Detroit. Since rapidly increasing numbers of students are being taught chemistry in two-year colleges, the Executive Committee looks upon these Roundtables as a. very important activity of the Division and hopes that this program will continue to flourish. Divisional funds heve also been contributed toward the cost of showing instructional films in chemistry as a part of the Division's activities at national ACS meetings. Samuel Scbrage, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, has taken the full responsibility for planning and running these shows. Having worked actively to initiate and support the projects culminating in the CBA m d CHEMS progrrtms for secondary school chemistry, the Division is now cooperating in the improvement of ehemistry teaching in elementary schools by working with the AAAS Committee on Science in the Elementary Schools. Through its Cuwiculz~mCmnmittee, under the leadership of William B. Cook of Montana State College, the Division is working with the Advisory Council on College Chemistry in various phases of the Council's programs. The Curriculum Committee ia currently engaged in an extensive study of experimental curricula, in chemistry in all colleges from which data, can be obtained. Studies are being made of curricular problema arising from pressures to include more and more subject matter
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in program for chemistry majors. Another activity is the development of a manual for new instructors to help them improve their effectiveness as teachers. The Committee is concerned with better preparation of high school teachers and better articulation between secondary school and college chemistry. Members of the Committee are keeping in touch with the activities of the Commission on College Physics, which is working an the develop ment of oaurses combining physics and chemistry for college students not majoring in science. The Committee is promoting a summer conferenre to enable faculty from small colleges to identify the strengths and weaheases of their programs in chemistry and to develop means for improving instruction. The publication of a paperback book on research problems for undergraduates in chemistry is also being considered. The Commitlee on the Teacher and His Work, under the chairmanship of Robbin Anderson of the University of Texas, is studying ways of promoting summer conferences to h r h college teachers to keep abreast of developments in particular aspects of chemistry. The Committee is alsa working toward providing reviews of instructional films in chemistry. A Suheommittee, with H. A. Neidie of Lebanon Vallev Colleee as chairman. is
for junior college chemistry teachers. A subcommittee is arranging far revising and republishing the Handbook for Grsdurute Assistants; the first edition appeared in 1952 under t,he aegis of the Division. The high quality of work done by the Program Committee is attested by the very large attendance a t the Division's sessions a t every national meeting. Standing room only has been available at many of these sessions. Any further statement about this Committee's work would be redundant. F. B. Dutton of Michigan State University has served as chairman of this Committee during the past year. Samuel F. Clark of the University af Florida at Boca Ratan is arrmging the progrems far the meetinga in Detroit and Atlantic City in 1965. The Committee on Liaison with other erouos concerned with
newly developing countries. A roster of names of persons interested in teaching in other countries is being assembled by Arild Miller of the Institute of Paper Chemistry, the chairman of this Committee. The Cmnmittee on Visiting Seimtists has continued its threephase program of visits to universities by chemists of international renown fram abroad, to colleges by university and college prafessors of this country, and to high schools by ehemistry teachers both from colleges and from secondary schools. About 150 visits are made to colleges each year; in 1963-64, 296 visits were made to high schools grouped around various ACS Local Sections, which make all the arrangements for a given area. These
three phases of the progrrtm were administered laat year by M. Kent Wilson of Tufts University, D. J. Cook of DePauw University, and J. D. Danforth of Grinnell College. The work of this Committee bas contributed greatly to the stimulation of improvements in chemical education d l over our country. Though there has been some indication that the National Science Foundation may reduce its financial support for foreign visitors and far visits arranged to high schools by professional societies such as the ACS, the Executive Committee is doing d l it can to convince the Foundation that these programs as administered by the Division me performing services which are so fruitful that they should not be discontinued. The largest committee of the Division is the Emminations Cornmiltee. T. A. Ashford of the University of South Florida is the stimulating chairman of the entire Committee, with many able men as chairmen of the fourteen subcommittees composed of dozens of members too numerous to he mentioned in this brief
report; many new examinations are being created, norms are being established, and plans are being laid for developing new instruments for evaluating students' progress in chemistry. The Committee estimates that about 340,000 students in some 2500 universities, colleges, and secondsry schools took our tests in 1963-64. More detailed reports on the activities of this very important committee are given from time to time in the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION.A pamphlet giving full information about tests now available may he obtained by writing to Dr. Ashford a t Tampa. The effectiveness of the Division in promoting the improvement of chemical education is due entirely to the work of its members who are willing to devote their time and talents to this cause. Any chemistry teacher who has an ides, concerning ways and means of increasing the effectiveness of the Division in this enterprise is urged to write to the Chairman of the Division, Luke E. Steiner of Oberlin College, or to the chairman of any Committee which might develop the idea.
Volume 41, Number 12, December 1964
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