The First Day of Class-The G.E.M. Approach Bruce G. Smith
Appleton Public Schwls Appleton. WI I am not a chemist. I am a chemistry instructor. The two professions require two distinct sets of skills. The skills of one, although useful, are not a reauirement of the other. A good chemist may ormay not make a good teacher of chem&ry. The converse is also true. A high school chemistry instructor, in particular, must be very skillful in the teaching of chemistry although he or she may not require the technical background that a skilled chemist would. One of the most important set of teaching skills required by a successful chemistry instructor are those used during the first class meeting in an introductory course in high school chemistrv. This entrv course mav. in larze Dart. determine the success k and attit;de toward chemisir< he introductory chemistry class is often the first science class elected by students. The nature of their experience in the course will affect the life-long attitude they have toward chemistry, and indeed science. I t is, therefore, of tantamount concern to all science educators and society as a whole that these students have a positive experience. The first class meeting sets the process into motion. it is h o ~ e din . the rieht direction. During this relat⪙ short of time, the instructor must attempt to set the proper tone for the course, detect misplaced individuals, lower chemistry/science anxiety, motivate, and encourage the student along with handline reauisite bookkeeping activities. One approach to meetini this challenge is what I refer to as the C.K.M. a n ~ r o a c h(Greet. ~ v a l u a i eand , Motivate). Let's look a t thegoals and somd possible methods involved in each Dart of the a~oroach. Greet: The objective here is to set a positiv~,~upportive atmosphere in the classroom setting. This should he done immediately and overtly. Many students are apprehensive about taking chemistry. They should be made to feel welcome and cared about. Meet them at the door, say "Hi," shake their bands, introduce yourself personally! In short, start them on the way to feeling part of the room, as a place to work, make mistake, try, fail, succeed, and learn. A student will learn best in such an environment. Evaluate: There is a need for the teacher upon meeting his or her students for the first time to obtain an immediate and .-~.objective "read3'on each of them. Students are a t times misDlaced in a chemistm class. either in a level below their DOtential or they may begetting in aver their heads. The longer this situation goes undetected the more frustrated hoth the student and the teacher will become. Further, the mechanics of transferring the student to a more aooro~riateclass mav become incre&ingly more difficult the ionger one waits. FO; these reasons teachers should d e v e l o ~some instrument that can be used in their classroom which &I be used to survey the students earlv in the course. as earlv as the first dav. The instrument should he simple, easy to administer and score. I t should screen for general aptitude and readiness for the study of science as opposed to a test of specific knowledge or skills. Some teachers, aware of the importance of math operations in chemistry, will use a simple math scrrening test for this purpose. A simple essay on why. they decided to take chemistry may give the teacher a sample of the students' writing and organizational skills. I have developed a cloze reading test from the course text materials to he used for the purpose of prescreening students in my chemistry classes. I have found this instrument to be most useful and reliable. In fad, in a three-year study, the test was found to be statistically valid in helping predict those students who may or may not be successful in a high school chemistry course. More information on this techniaue mav be obtained from various sources on reading or from this author. The point is that the teacher should develon some techniaue for obtaining information about potentiai chemistry students in additionUtopast ~
records andlor subjective evaluation. Both the student and the teacher will twnefit from the information. Motivate: This is without adoubt the most important part of the entire ap~roach.You have hefore vou on the first dav of class a groupof people who for the most part do not know why they took chemistry or are taking it for the wrong reasons Tell them why they took chemistry! First, however, ask yourself: Why am I teaching chemistry? Why do Ithink taking chemistry is important? The reasons may involve your love of foul smells or large explosions. They mav revolve around the importance of science in society. lierhaps the symmetry of nature is the drawing card for you. Whawver it is, tell your students why you feel it is important. Do not expert all of your students to approach the same level of enthusiasm as you on the first dav. but before vou can evrr hone that science will be important t o your students you have to convince them that it is important to vou! share with them the excitement, challenge, applications, heautv, and fun that vou see in chemistrv. This can be done with dimonstrations, hands-on inquiry o;exploration, slides, or posters. Remember that lastinr! imoressions are often made eaily. This may he the time to pill obt your best demonstration, or a simple, colorful lab exercise. You can get to the technical explanations later in the course, for right now just let them wonder! Have a set of slides made up of various classroom situations that occur throughout th' year. Show your new students that people just like them have taken chemistry before and lived. In fact they had a bit of fun. One technique that I have found successful is to read to mv classes comments made by students about the class during ihe endof-the-year evaluations. Of course, I edit them, hut at least you can show that other students have found that it is possiblk to enjoy a class that is hoth difficult and challenging. I have found that the first day of class is the day where you can hook them, get them on your side, set them up for the whole year, and, anyway, the world will not stop if you do not hand out this or collect that until day two. First things first! ~
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My First Day in a First Course in Chemistry Henry A. Bent NO* Carolina State University Raleigh. NC 27695
What am I striving to do for my students in a first course in chemistry? Increasingly I'm convinced that my major goal should be to contribute to the students' general education-to their development as observant, expressive, thoughtful, knowledgeable, and imaginative individuals. Two questions arise. Is a chemistry course an appropriate place to acauire-or to beein. or to continue to acauire--a general education? And if ci;eiistry is a good place fo; it, how does one eo about it? The hil lo son her Alfred North Whitehead hasanswered both q;estioni. "ITlhere is not one course of studv which merelv eives general culture, and another which special knowieige," writes Whitehead in "The Aims of Education." "The subjects pursued for the sake of a general education," continues Whitehead, "are suecia1 subjects sueciallv studied" (emnhasis added). ~. A path to general education is chemistry deeply studied. 'I'he Tao is hidden in the depths of all things. 'I'he depths of chemistry lie in chemical transformations descrihed as chemisrs descrihe them and imagined it* chemists imagine them. Huth the things described and the things imagined can be-with Bohr, one would say must be-described in ordinary language. Briefly put, what I am striving for for my students is chemical literacy. When they see, e.g., a demonstration of
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Volume 62 Number 7 July 1965
603
