Chemical Education Today
ACS Presidential Election
Statement on Education: Education in Action by Alan Schriesheim I am delighted to have this opportunity to discuss with members of the American Chemical Society my thoughts on educational initiatives. I am well aware of the excellent ACS programs in chemical education. As ACS president, I would emphasize existing and new dynamic, highly visible initiatives which further key Society objectives. •
Programs tailored to reach and excite students early;
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Programs aimed at enriching undergraduate and graduate students’ chemical education;
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Programs targeted to attracting persons from underrepresented groups into chemistry; and
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Programs focused on educating the public and key Washington constituencies.
This portfolio of initiatives has its roots in my extensive experience as a research executive with Exxon Research and Engineering Company, as Director and Chief Executive Officer of Argonne National Laboratory, and as a member of the University of Chicago faculty. This richness of experience has allowed me to interact with an exceptionally diverse population, including professional women and minorities, students at all grade levels, high-level executives, the lay public, and politicians at the national, state, and local levels. Educating Students and Their Teachers My experience and my almost 50 years as part of the American Chemical Society tell me that the ACS must initiate new programs and strengthen dynamic programs already in place to attract bright young students to chemistry. We must cultivate promising candidates from all segments of the population and identify what now causes students to avoid chemistry or to leave chemistry. Our collective goal must be to engender a sense of the excitement and the opportunities that a career in chemistry can offer. We must reinforce our commitment to train pre-college teachers so that they can effectively teach chemistry and motivate their students. The Society should support and nurture programs such as: •
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Local Alliances for Minority Participation, which encourage more young women and persons from underrepresented groups into chemistry and sciencerelated careers; Innovative training programs such as microscale chemistry which broaden the number of students who can be exposed to chemistry; Teaching-the-teachers seminars, and hands-on visits and workshops at state-of-the-art chemistry labs operated by corporations, universities, and government; Business principles programs, such as the one I initiated at the University of Chicago Business School in which MBA candidates work together with candidates for Ph.D.’s in the physical sciences to solve actual commercial problems, which would greatly benefit our young chemists and which also could be tailored to undergraduate curricula.
Educating Our Agencies and Political Leaders Increased support from Washington and the public is vital in today’s climate of limited resources and critical environmental issues. As a participant in the Pimentel Committee and its “Report on Opportunities in Chemistry”, I accompanied George to Washington for high-level discussions with political leaders and thus learned firsthand that such increased support is possible. In pursuit of this support, I would work with the Society staff and the local sections to define a set of educational workshops on specific topics that involve the government, industry, academe, and the press where possible. These would be few in number but important enough to attract high-level attention. My experience with federal and state government has shown me that a few well-conceived and well-executed meetings with specific action plans can produce outstanding results. Embracing the Communication Revolution The Society must embrace the communication revolution as an opportunity to expand the Society’s reach and influence: •
To bring quality chemistry resources to a more diverse population;
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To improve electronic communication among university faculty and students at all levels and in all institutions of higher education;
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To expand the positive portrayal of chemists and chemistry using multimedia opportunities; and
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To stimulate the usefulness of innovative Internet resources to spread knowledge of chemistry.
As just one example of what can be done with these communications tools—during my tenure at Argonne we instituted the “Ask a Scientist” Internet program. This national electronic bulletin board provides K–12 students and teachers a place to practice telecommunications, retrieve information on a wide variety of subjects, contact research scientists from all over the world, and open communications among geographically distant classrooms. Multimedia and the Internet offer the opportunity to interact with a wide public audience and expose them to the good things that chemistry does. They also afford the ACS a golden opportunity to expand our work with students and with chemists just starting their careers through “distance mentoring”. I intend to focus a major part of my presidency on these educational initiatives. Alan Schriesheim is Director Emeritus at Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439-4832; email:
[email protected]; WWW: http://www.schriesheim.org
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 76 No. 9 September 1999 • Journal of Chemical Education
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