EDUCATION
Science Is Part of All Human Activity Courses ought to prepare students to judge research in economic and social terms as well as in purely scientific terms The explosive rise in recent years of economic and defense utilization of research has changed the responsibilities of those who do research. Scientists, whether in industrial or institutional laboratories, increasingly face the need to judge their work in economic and social terms as well as in purely scientific terms. The conjunction of chemical research with business and government makes it desirable that chemical education prepare students adequately to make such judgments. Some changes now being tried in scholastic programs were described during the Symposium on New Curriculums for Chemistry at the Southeastern Regional ACS meeting of local sections, at Charleston, W.Va. Two of the speakers—one from an industrial research department, the other from a university faculty—examined several shortcomings in traditional curriculums and suggested changes to better fit education to current research needs. Dr. W. H. C. Rueggeberg, vice president and director of research and development for Atlas Chemical Industries (Wilmington, Del.), said that the idea behind a research projectits intent, goal, and promise—is the key ingredient in either industrial or academic work. He recommended a shift of emphasis in education to produce more "externalists": chemists who see their science as an integral part of all human activity. He also suggested that current notions of what constitutes "basic" and "applied" research be reexamined. Dr. R. H. Crist, visiting professor of chemistry at Dickinson College (Carlisle, Pa.), suggested that texts and classroom presentations often play down historical and technical developments in chemistry, shunning examples of practical applications and their social implications. He pointed out that many of the problems with which chemists and engineers deal, such as water pollution and pesticide and drug regulation, arise from the 60
C&EN
OCT. 2 6, 1964
Dr. W. H. C Rueggeberg
Dr. R. H. Crist impact of science on the rest of man's world. The need is equally great, he added, to improve science survey courses offered to nonscience students. These are the people who must be able to appreciate science and the reasons for its impact on society without, in fact, knowing science. Paucity. "In the field of chemistry in recent times," Dr. Rueggeberg says, "there has been a paucity of daring new ideas. Instead, there is . . . a great deal of detailed elabora-
tion of subjects already fairly well known. These activities . . . do not offer the promise of meeting important economic, sociological, or other human needs." Chemical progress, he says, can and should combine opportunities for fundamental research with socially valuable goals. "What do we really know about biological processes from a fundamental standpoint? How about protein food sources in the future? Can macromolecular chemistry help in staving off . . . future shortages in natural raw materials? These questions, and others like them, will assume increasing importance as the population spirals upward at an ever-increasing rate." He concludes that they would likely not be answered simply by the continual polishing of old concepts. The goal of industrial research is economic utilization of its results. Pursuit of this goal may require very basic work in areas not previously explored in academic research. Education, Dr. Rueggeberg feels, doesn't expose the science student sufficiently to the existence of and need for the externalist type of chemist. It tends, he says, to favor the development of "internalists"—those who work alone or in small groups, on problems of immediate personal interest, and who address their results primarily to other scientists. "My experience has taught me," he adds, "that it would be most desirable to include in the teaching of chemistry more of the applications side of science." Estranged. Dr. Crist questions whether the usual classroom presentation methods are adequate to trigger a student's creative imagination. "We see chemistry today," he says, "as a highly organized science where deduction from general principles provides a great economy of description. Though the logic of today's physical theories provides an obvious economy in instruction, this in itself tends to
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exclude from textbooks and classroom discussions matters that relate to historical and technical developments, and to the social and cultural implications of science as well. We must recognize this and . . . effect changes to keep these within the student's experience, thus moving toward the goal of maturing science in respect to its growing social responsibilities. There is no need for our young scientists to be estranged from the real world as were the monks in their day/' The teaching of chemistry, he went on, should emphasize the inductive process, where anomalies, hypotheses, and conflict of opinion have generated crucial issues to be resolved by the operational technique. The directness essential to a deductive, highly mathematical approach to instruction tends to exclude important considerations that exhibit the evolution of ideas. The experience of Dickinson College, Dr. Crist says, is that freshmen are capable of handling work based primarily on atomic and molecular structure and on the principles of chemical equilibrium. Emphasis is also placed, however, on certain integrated industrial developments, such as the plastics and metals industries, the pesticide problem, and specific physical property utilization in transistors, lasers, and catalyst applications. Topics. Looking at science survey courses, Dr. Crist points to a serious inadequacy in understanding of science by nonscience majors. Survey courses, he says, too often present science in all its logical purity, devoid of cultural connotations. "It's too much to expect of a nonscience student to learn the bare ABC's of science with some kind of artificial enthusiasm and then literally on his own initiative interpret its nature and its impact on society/' A new second-year course in Dickinson's two-year science requirement for nonscience majors exemplifies the new approach. "Topics in Contemporary Science" selects its materials primarily from the physical sciences, with some attention to the behavioral sciences and mathematics. Discussions are planned on subjects such as the world's food and fuel problems, the philosophical implications of Einstein relativity, and legislative problems associated with atomic energy, pesticides, and space. The school hopes to have outside speakers to cover a number of these topics.
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