Gordon A. Parker University of Toledo Toledo, Ohio 43606
Student Use of the Chemical Literature
The practice of assigning questions each week from an article appearing in the current chemical literature has proved fruitful as a means of introducing upper division students to contemporary chemical literature sources. The procedure is used in a two-quarter instrumental analysis course taken by junior and senior chemistry majors. The first quarter of this sequence is a general survey of the more common instrumental techniques. Because of its broad scope it can draw from a wide background of material including electrochemical, spectroscopic, magnetic, thermal, and radiochemical studies. An article is chosen each week illustrating the topic currently under discussion, and two or three questions are asked, the answers to which can be found by reading the article. At the beginnine of the course articles are chosen from readilv available journals. Some of the students, being student memhers of the American Chemical Societv. mav subscribe to these journals themselves. As the course proceeds, articles are taken from journals published outside the United States. Still further into the course, assignments are made from multilanguage journals, although utilizing articles written in English. I t is fortunate from an educational viewpoint that many European journals have English indexes and many foreign language journals have articles written in English. The second quarter of this sequence presents a more detailed study of selected topics introduced in the previous quarter. Greater liberties are taken in assigning literature articles. If the student has had training in a foreign language, articles in this language may he assigned. Even if the student is not trained in a particular language questions based upon numerical data, manhs. and Enelish summaries provide suitable factual material. ~ e c a G eof the frequent similarity of many chemical terms in various lanpuages there can often be some insight on the part of the student concerning the content of a foreign language article even though the language of that article is unfamiliar.' Some assignments are made from holdings not on file a t the University lihrary. With available transportation in a metropolitan area, it seems reasonable to request students to use the facilities of the public lihrary and of the libraries of nearby universities. A variation of this procedure is to arrange for questions from a journal available only through the personal subscription of another faculty member. Obviously, one should first check with the faculty member for his permission. Assignments based upon ahstracts of obscure journals force the student to become familiar with various abstractinn. publications. Assim. ments referring to government publications serve to acauaint the student with an entire field of chemical literature which he might otherwise overlook. In addition, as many government publications are available only on microfilm or microfiche, knowledge of these literature storage forms and of the use of the corresponding readers will be gained. There is, perhaps, something to be learned in just progressing through the mechanism employed in a large university library for gaining access to holdings of this type. Assignments to the patent literature and assignments related to chemical topics in journals from other disciplines should be included in any introductory acquaintance with chemical literature. Valuable information 606 /Journal of Chemical Education
on environmental topics is to be found, for example, in publications of societies which are not primarily chemically oriented. Another related topic pertains to electronics, and knowledge of articles in electronics publications discussing the construction, modification, and maintenance of ;nstrumentation used by chemists has become a necessity in the education of chemistry majors. Occasionally articles are assigned from the very early chemical literature. There is, perhaps, aesthetic appreciation to be gained from the reading of such articles and in exposing students to some of the classical works upon which our modern chemical theories are based. Manufacturers' brochures and serial publications provide another excellent source of chemical information. Questions concerning specific chemical compounds can be posed using not the chemical name but the Chemical Abstract registry number or the Wiswesser line-formula notation.= With this approach students are forced to acquire some uudentandine of these concepts before they can go ahead and answer the assigned questions. s o m i assienments should utilize available audio cassette recordings-of society meetings and/or various topical material now available from several commercial suppliers. Films and filmstrip material are availahle on many chemical topics and can he used as a source for assigning questions, as a source of supplementary material to augment information nreviouslv discussed in class. or as a means of introducing topics which, for various reasons, have not been introduced in renular class discussions. It mieht he nossible to arrange ;f a student interview with another chemistry faculty member, with a faculty member in another discipline who uses chemical means for study within his own area of interest, or with a local industrial chemist. The student would then he expected to report on some aspect of the interview. Permission for these interviews would, of course, have to he obtained beforehand, Promams utilizine comnuter assisted instruction. if available. can he eitherwassigned or offered as additional optional sources of information.3 One assienment is made reauirine preparation of a purchase order for necessary reagents and apparatus to conduct a particular experiment. The student must prepare a list of specific catalog items and prices of suitable and necessary equipment. A related assignment requires the ordering of electronic components to build or modify an instmment which is used in studying chemical systems. For each assignment, whether it be from a readily available journal or from a source available only after some searching bv the student. the reference eiven is stated using the ~ i e m i c a~l b s t r a c t sabbreviation-for the journal title. The student is asked to nrovide the comnlete name and country of origin for the publication. Articles from foreign language journals are cited with the page number as it appears in the original publication. If the journal is -
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'Reid, E. E., "Chemistry Through the Language Barrier," The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1970. 2Smith, E. G., "The Wiswesser Line-Formula Chemical Notation," McGraw-Hill Book Ca., Ine., New Yark, 1968. 3Davis, L. N., and Macero, D. J., J. CHEM. EDUC., 49, 758 (1972).
available in English translation, it is the student's responsibility to determine this and find the article as i t appears in English. The type of assignment and the type of question vary. An article illustrating a previously discussed technique can serve as a source of numerical data for calculating some value of interest. In an analysis course this often takes the form of finding the percent composition of a contrived unknown using the procedure and reagent concentrations found in the article cited. Articles describing new or unique instruments or adaptations of existing instmments provide the student, hopefully, with the realization that techniques and experimental design are not static and that different chemists carry out related studies using different approaches. Articles can he chosen illustrating application of chemical principles to the solution of problems outside the area of chemistry. Articles which present new topics serve as a supplement to existing course material and expose the student to information which insufficient class time may otherwise prevent him from acquiring. In summary, the practice of assigning questions from different publications each week as part of a student's regular homework provides not only for increased exposure
to factual knowledge but, in addition, experience in using various and varied literature sources. On the negative side, this practice requires an expenditure of time from the instructor. It is his responsibility to find appropriate articles, arrange for interviews, and forewarn librarians of sudden increases in the use of certain reference material. It is possible that the student's understanding of the suhject matter could he less complete due to differing levels of presentation and differing emphases from different authors. A more logical and consistent presentation, in the style of the instructor to which the student is presumably accustomed, may result in better pedagogy. I t seems, however, that the increased experience of finding, reading, and understanding material from a variety of sources and with varied emphases is also a worthy goal in the training of young chemists. Perhaps the habit of regularly surveying the literature will remain with the student after his formal training has ended. At least his ability to do so constructively will have been tested and, hopefully, improved. Copies of questions used in the two quarter instmmental analysis sequence a t the University of Toledo over the past few years are availahle to interested readers upon request.
Volume 50, Number 9. September 1973 / 607
