Peter Coad and Raylene Adams Coad
Chapman College Orange, California
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Summer Science Training for High School Students at a Small Liberal Arts College
Twenty-one high-ability chemistry students from six states were selected from numerous applications to participate in a nine-week summer program of instruction and research participation at Chapman College. Each student had completed high school chemistry with distinction and had demonstrated exceptional scientific interest and aptitude. The program was sponsored by the NSF and was aided by scholarship funds provided by the Nutrilite Foundation, the Townsend Company (Cherry Rivet Division), and Chapman College (see Editor's Note). The staff for this program consisted of two fulltime professors and four advanced undergraduate students who served in various capacities. One professor served as director and lecturer, the second professor was in charge of the laboratories and served as a research group leader, two seniors who had conducted similar research work as undergraduates served as research group leaders, and two students sewed as dormitory counselors and assisted in the laboratories. The program for the participants included three weeks of preparation for research and six weeks for laboratory research experience. During the preparation period, lectures were given for three hours each morning to provide the students with sufficient background in organic chemistry to participate in research in a very limited portion of this vast field. Three afternoons each week were devoted to instruction and practice of necessary laboratory techniques. Each laboratory session began with a brief lab lecture, and then the group was divided into three groups of seven, each with a group leader, to work in separate laboratories using lab manuals prepared especially for
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EDITOR'S NOTE: A varietv of Droerams for hieh-abilitv hieh " school students is in existence. Some have been noted in these pages; see SILBER,R. L., J. CHEM.EDUC.,37, 319 (1960); J. K., AND BRIGGS, T. S., J. CAEM.EDUC.,38, 47 (1061); OROLD, R. F.,AND OVERBEEGER, C. G., J. CHEM.EDUC.,38, and RILEY, 425 (1961). This paper discusses still mother typical possibility, research participation at a. small college laboratory.
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the program. Two afternoons each week mere designated for library assignments, emphasizing the use of primary and secondary chemical literature. During the six weeks of research that followed, each group leader and his seven students served as a research team to work on an assigned project, such as the multi-step synthesis of a hitherto unknown substituted pyridazine compound. Although the members of the team started out on the same project, synthesizing the first intermediate compound in the suggested synthetic route using various conditions, it soon became apparent that individuals within the group were becoming involved in separate projects. For example, one student sought the optimum conditions for yield in the reaction; another became involved in the kinetics of the initial reaction; another devised an improved method of sublimation for isolation of the product; others sought to study techniques for subsequent steps along the planned synthetic route and to apply these techniques to the specific compounds involved. By the end of the six-week period, all seven students under a group leader were involved in different, yet somewhat related, investigation~. The laboratory experience of these high school students would be classed as true research, not the performance of standard laboratory preparations. Of course, no projects could be completed in six weeks, but the many fragments of this work will be put together in publishable form by the director. Weekly seminars, research group meetings, and individual research conferences were conducted by the director throughout the research period. Certificates were awarded to students on completion of the nine-week session (which included final mitten reports and evaluation questionnaires). Student participants were highly enthusiastic about the program. The staff felt satisfied that the goal of the NSF had been achieved: high-ability chemistry students had been identified and had learned much concerning t,heir personal interests, abilities, and limit,at,ions in the field of chemistry.
