Ofto M. Smith,' Otis C. Dermer, and Thomas E. Moore Oklahoma State University Stillwater
Speeding the Training of Chemists
Until recently, there has been little effort on the part of college and university instructors and administrators to recognize that gifted and superior students can accomplish the usual college work in far less time than the average student, and to make satisfactory regulations and schedule arrangements so that these talented students may move as fast as their abilities and desires permit. Speeding the training of the college student taking college general chemistry is more than just shortening the time required for the completion of this course. I t is training the student t o utilize the knowledge and skills gained in high school science courses and from personal reading, to acquire better study habits and use study time more effectively. This article discribes a program for the freshmen who have above average ability and who have high school chemistry. It is based on 24 vears of ex~erience.~ Presented before the Division of Chemical Education at the 133rd Meeting of the American Chemical Society, San Francisco, April, 1958. Present address: Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, Kansas. 33, 539 (1956). SMITH, OTTOM., J. CHEM.EDUC.,
At Oklahoma State University (A & M College), 2200 students have satisfactorily completed in one semester of four credit hours the same material in college general chemistry as is usually taught in the t w e semester class. This plan is based on the following principles: (1) General chemistry is a course designed for any collegecaliber student who wishes or needs the fundamental knowledge resented therein.
essentially the same material, except the laboratory, as the twosemester class. (3) One objective is to avoid the development of poor study habit8 bv gifted students. These are challeneed, stimulated. encouraged, &d forced to exercise their mental ibikties and capaeities toward greater accomplishments. They have crtpacities which, in many eases, have never been fully challenged. So the plan is to make assignments of sufficient length and diffioulty to make all the members of the class work and to keep them working a t a high tempo throughout the semester. (4) College students expect and should receive recognition and emoluments for a semester of good work. No practice has proved sa essential toward the success of a class of superior and gifted students as the assurance of fair competition for grades.
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It is through good grades that students are placed on the honor rolls and receive bids from honor societies, from fraternities or sororities. Scholarships are offered to them, and many other honors are bestawed upon the high-ranking students. ( 5 ) Students in the one-semester class m e not penalized for trying, should they be unable to make the desired progress. They are not failed, but, rather transferred at appropriate periods to a slower moving two-semester clasa. (6) Four hours of college credit in general chemistry are given to those students who demonstrate by written and oral examinations that they have as good a knowledge and laboratory technique as the freshman students have at the close of the tx-osemester class. Selection and Administration
Since 1928, all entering freshmen who are required to have a course in college general chemistry and who have had high school chemistry have taken the Iowa Training Test in Chemistry; some of the better prepared also take the ACS General College Chemistry Test. Forty to 50% of these high school students make a score of 80 or above in the Iowa Chemistry Training Tests and thus are sufficiently prepared for and are scheduled in the rapid, one-semester class. Some, of course, object and want to take the easier and Ionger path. Nevertheless, they are urged to remain in the class until mid-term; then, if they still want t o change, they may transfer to the two-semester class. I n most cases, the better students respond and elect to remain. Those who do not make satisfactory progress are transferred to the two-semester class. Parallel schedules are provided to simplify the transfer. Over the twenty-four years, this class has varied from 55 to 159 students per year, or from 5.8 to 17.6% of the entire freshman general chemistry class. This one-semester class is largely made up of engineers, premedics, and science majors. The one-semester class is conducted like most classes, except that considerable emphasis is placed upon the necessity that the student utilize the knowledge and skills gained in high school. Of course, the assignments, are much longer than is customarily given to the two-semester class. After a little training and conditioning, the student finds that he can "take it" and usually does excellent work. Until recently, the same textbook and laboratory text manuals were used. In conducting a class for the more talented students, no other factor is as important as that of assigning grades. Throughout the semester the students are assigned rank position while treating the one-semester class as a unit, but when the Enal grades are given, the grades are assigned as if this select one-semester class were a part of the entire group of freshmen taking general chemistry. To obtain a basis of comparison
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between the performance of the one-semester group and the two-semester group, a form of the ACS General College Chemistry Test is administered as part of the final examination. This same or a similar test had been given to the previous year two-semester class of students, thus it is possible to obtain a relationship between the grades to be awarded and the percentile score made on the ACS test. In this way, the professor can estimate with fair accuracy the probable grade the student would have made if he had been a member of the twosemester group. In most cases a t the end of the semester the student is given higher grades than he expected to receive, and, naturally, he is very pleased. Since the studeuts of this class are a select group, they should be expected to receive a large number of high grades. For example, during the past nine years, the A and.B grades varied from 46% to 66y0 of grades assigned each year in the one-semester class. Results
In looking back over the twenty-four years, the chen~istryfaculty of the university are convinced that these 2200 students have done as well in their work in other subjects and subsequent chemistry classes as the regular students. There is considerable evidence that they have done even better. How has the university profited? About one-third of a professor's time during one semester may he used for other work. More than the value of the time gained is the good will of the more energetic, talented, and capable students. By using this plan, the university has enabled these 2200 students to each have four credit hours of additional work, an over-all total of 8800 credit hours. This is equivalent to the work which 73 students would complete in four years, and has a high monetary value. The student has benefited by completing in foursemester hours a course that usually requires eight hours, thus gaining four hours to use for an additional course of his choice or in his major field of study. He has learned to study effectively and to use what he has learned in high school and elsewhere. He is challenged to do his best work in order to keep up with the other students of exceptional ability. He can make a grade as high as that which he would make when placed in competition with the lesser prepared students. He encounters no risk of receiving a low or failing grade and his chances for receiving honors or election to honor societies are not impaired. He has everything to gain and nothiug to lose.
