J. E. Bundschuh, A. A. El-Awady, B. G. Hughes, and J. W. Kirkpatrick Western lllino~sUnivers~ty Macomb, Illinois 61455
I I
Weekend Course for High School Chemistry Teachers
During the past two years we have developed a program for the continuing education of high school ~ h e m i s &teachers. ~ For one quarter-hour of graduate credit, teachers spend Friday evening and all day Saturday taking a special topics course. Typically, a class begins on Friday evening a t 7:00 p.m. and continues until 10:W o m . It reconvenes earlv on Saturdav morning continuing until 4:00 p.m. Courses are arranged through the Continuing Education Office, and hence a minimum credit hour charge is assessed and no subsequent fees need to he paid. Althoueh overniaht accommodations are available in hotels and motels, dormitories provide the most inexpensive rates. Grades are assigned on the basis of oerformanre on takr-home examinatick which are rerurncd vi;, normal mail. l'ht. rationale fur oflerinr werkend courses is that although most high school chemistr;teachers continue t h e i ~ education beyond the bachelor's level, only a small Dercentaae actually enroll in graduate-level chemistry courses.lso, state requirements for teaching high school chemistry are not particularly stringent. For example, in order to teach chemistry in most school districts in Illinois, a high school teacher must have completed 24 semester hours of physical science of which only 10 semester hours must he chemistry. Recently, the American Chemical Society drafted recommendations concerning the preparation of high school chemistry teachers.' These recommendations are presented in Tahle 1. Finallv. even weU-prepared high schooiteachers need to continue the;; education in chemistrv in order to strenethen their background.; and t o keep up with the demand& modern dewlupmen1 iin the field of chenktrv. Western Illinois L'nivrrsitv is situated in a predominantly-rural region in west-centri Illinois where high schools are scattered throughout a relatively large area, meaning that participants must travel as many as 80 mi in order to take a graduate course. Scheduling on the weekend has solved the problem of daily or weekly travel necessitated by normal course offerings. The concentrated one-credit-hour course requires only one trip and easily fits into the crowded schedules of high school teachers even during the academic year. Topics chosen for weekend courses fall under one of two general headings and include A. Basic Principles of Chemistry 1) Chemical Calculations 2) Oxidation-ReductionReactions 3) Atomic and Molecular Structure 4) The Periodic Table B. General Interest Topics I) Toxic Inorganic Substances 2) Energy 3) Lecture Demonstrations Ample time is made available for questions and discussion. In some instances, the interaction amona the hiah school teachers themselves has proved to be a very viable learning experience. Enrollments have raneed from 6 to 16 with the co&es offered during the summer heing the most popular.
An outline of the course entitled Chemical Calculations is listed in Tahle 2. More courses are planned inkhe future with some emphasis on remedial work. Hieh school teachers who have taken the courses have responhed very favorably in course evaluation questionnaires and in practically every instance would like to enroll in future offerings. So far, 25 different high school teachers have taken weekend chemistrv courses. Certainly this activity will eventually improve thk science preparation of entering college freshmen. Not surprisingly, the program increases the-rapport between the University chemistry faculty and regional high school chemistry teachers and serves as an excellent medium for recruiting potentially good chemistry majors. Presented to the Midwestern American Chemical Society Meeting in Kansas Citv. Missouri. on October 28.1976. '~uidelines-forthe Preparation and Continuing Education of High School Chemistry Teachers, Second Draft, May 1976,by the Amencan Chemical Society. Table 1. Professional Components Recommended for All High School Chemistry Teacher. by the American Chemical Society Academic Preoarorion
28 semester h o u r s in othe;&p&imental science or sciences a n d 20 semester h o u r s i n chemistry. Professional Tmining 1 Professional preparation for teaching in general a n d for teaching laboratory-centered science, including formal certification. 2 Ploferrional rerponribiiity for continuins education durins a teachino career Table 2. Chemical Calculations Schedule Friday Evening 7:OO7:30-
7:30 pm 8:30 pm
Registlation
Review of some useful mathematical notations a n d operations; ryrtemr of units (particularly 5 . 1.1 ~ir&rrion Chemical F o r m u l a s a n d Equations: Volume, Mass. Density, and Specific Gravity; A t o m i c a n d Molecular weigntr, the ram- tom a n d t h e Mole Concept. Concentration U n i t s ; Percent Comporition. Mole Fraction, MoiaritY. Normality, Molality. e+r~ DiSCUIIion
Molecular Weights; Formulas of Compounds. Discu~sion Lunch Calculations involving garer DiscuIIion CaIc~Iati0n9involving liquids a n d solutions Empirical a n d
DilCUIIiO"
"Guidelines for the Preparation and Continuing Education of Secondary School Teachers of Chemistry" During the Fall of 1977 the ACS will distribute a set of "Guidelines for the Preparation and Continuing Education of Secondary School Teachers of Chemistry", prepared by a taskforce of educators from all levels, to all superintendentsof schools, colleges of education, departments of chemistry,professional organizations concerned with the teaching of chemistry at the secondary level in the United States, and local sections of the American Chemical Society. They will also be distributed to other interested persons on request to Dr. M. Passer, Director, Education Office, American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Volume 54, Number 11, November 1977 1 693
