There Once was a Teacher from Tech
...
The Use of Chemical Limericks in the Classroom Fredrick D. Williams Michigan Technological University, 1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI, 49931
Teiichcrs are admonished to abandon the formal lecture a s a means of delivering information. Students retain about 70'i of the first 10 minutei ofn lecturc hut rctcntlon falls to about 20% for the last 10 minutes. ( 1 )Nevertheless, the lecture h a s not been abandoned and remains a t most public universities a s the most common method of presenting freshman chemist^. Teachers attemut to make their courses interesting but as a typical freshman chemistry student put it,
-
I think that most students agree. We really don't like chemistry. Homework.....there's tons. And these seats hurt my buns And we'd rather he watching TV. Avarietv of methods are used to modifv and enliven the 50 minut;! lecture including lecture demonstrations ( 2 ) , comuuter simulations (3) a n d ureuared videotaues or wdebd~scsr 3 . A mid-penod joke'evin has been s u k e s t e d 141 Smce not evervone ran . vroverlv . "tell a "ioke.. I mudified this latter suggestion to reading chemical limericks written bv the freshman students. At the beginning of our winter q;arter, when the rules of t h e course were explained, t h e students were asked to voluntarily write a limerick which dealt with the chemistry being covered. If i t was considered by the teacher to be good enough to be read in class, the student would be given favorable consideration if she were on a border between grades a t term end. During the 10-week term 516 limericks were submitted by the 554 students in the class. Eighty nine, about three per class period, were read i n class. Both t h e process and the limericks were worthwhile.Below i s a sample of the limericks read in class. Gas Laws There once were two chemists with zeal. These guys, Boyle and Charles were for real. They comhined their gas laws, Which we know to have flaws 'Cause their gases weren't really ideal. Solutions There once was a man named Raoult Who combined some water and salt. And depression was his sad result. T h e biblical m o t e "But t h e fearful a n d unbelieving...shall have t&ir part i n the lake which burneth of fire and brimstone.", Revelations 21:8, was mentioned to suggest the existence of sulfur lakes in Hell. When the maximum temuerature of Hell was uredicted to be no meater t h a n the boiling point of sulf&, the following correction was submitted. Our teacher last lecture did tell 'The mmimum temperature ofIIrll I h r ndd ~innrrato sultiw .Zud lhe boihtlg point will alrrr
Calligatively Hell would he hatter to dwell Kinetics Ray Axshun was starting to cry Mount Ea was simply too high! But when he sat on the grass He saw Catalyst Pass And then crossed to the opposite side Equilibria Le Chatelier's life was a mess. All his actions were under duress. He thought, "I must Make the system adjust To get rid of some external stress." Thermodynamics When entropy I tried to measure, I said, "Oh! What a sweet pleasure. This disorder is great. It's neatness I hate. With this concept, I've found dle a treasure. Thermodynamics was not considered by all students to be interesting. In ~ r i s a nthere once was a riot ~ n the b warden wondrrrd how to get by it. Our rhrm. Prof wo5 brought by. "Thermodynamm!" he itched. And soon all the prisoners were quiet. Electrochemistry The Ode sisters were employed in a cell. Ann and Cathy, I knew those names well. But as they got old Ann Ode did corrode And their galvanic potential fell. Organic chemistry I t was suggested to the class t h a t there should be many limericks t h a t start "There once was a man named ....."followed by, say, A1 Kane or A1 Cohol. This produced many responses; a typical one is below. Al Cohd is a guy w i t h no pridr Wirh his nomr hr was not siltisfied So with no trepidation Underwent oxidation And then was renamed A1 de Hyde It was interesting, but not surprising, that the average made of successful limenck writwx was 12 ' i higher than
