Secondary School Feature Articles

* Integrating High School Chemistry with Environmental Studies and Research, by Randall, p 1409

* A Discussion of Water Pollution in the United States and Mexico; with High School Laboratory Activities for Analysis of Lead, Atrazine, and Nitrate, by Kelter, Grundman, Hage, Carr, and Castro-Acuña, p 1413 Chemistry and the Environment

This issue is a rich source of information about environmental chemistry. Please read ";In This Issue"; in order to realize the scope and depth of coverage of this topic. Although many of the articles are targeted primarily to post-secondary situations, you may be interested in one or several that not marked with the high school logo. I encourage you to scan all the titles in the Table of Contents.

Two of the environmental chemistry articles were written especially for high school teachers. The first article is a ";View from My Classroom"; feature written by Jack Randall, who teaches high school chemistry in Michigan. His entertaining first-person account of how students in his classes become ";immersed"; in obtaining and analyzing environmental data provides insight into how chemical concepts can be applied to understanding natural systems. Your initial response may be ";his approach won't work in our school situation";: large class size, school liability policies, transportation cost, and limited access to sampling sites all may mitigate against an extensive field-based approach. Randall's account can be a challenge, though, to help all of us think about how student-conducted research that is relevant to our student's environment can be incorporated into first- or second-year chemistry courses.

In the second article, Kelter et al. provide three laboratory activities for the analysis of significant pollutants. The discussion preceding each activity explains current practice used in environmental analysis. The article also serves as a primer to understanding some of the social, economic, political, and historical factors that make water pollution a difficult problem to solve, in both the United States and Mexico. I recommend adding the reference to this article to your notes or file on environmental chemistry so that you can it find quickly when needed.