Chemical Education Today
Be sure to examine this entire section for announcement such as the upcoming California Association of Chemistry Teachers conference, articles about current topics, book reviews, and other interesting items. Two articles on cooperative learning, "Cooperative Learning: A Bibliography" by Robinson and "A View of the Science Education Research Literature" by Nurrenbern and Robinson, provide useful information that can be applied both in high school and college settings.

Symposium
A section of this month's Journal is devoted to an Inorganic Chemistry Symposium that took place at the Fall 1996 ACS Convention in Orlando. These articles probably will not be directly useful in most high school settings, but scan the titles nevertheless to see if there is a topic you might want to follow up on.

Chemistry Everyday for Everyone
The article in this section is a Products of Chemistry feature edited by George Kauffman specifically to provide background and supplementary information for high school chemistry and introductory college chemistry teachers. The timely topic addressed by Lewis and Wallace is "Communicative Polymers: The Basis for Development of Intelligent Materials".

In The Classroom
In "Housing Electrons: Relating Quantum Numbers, Energy Levels, and Electron Configurations", high school teacher Garofalo describes an interesting visual analogy that can be constructed economically from readily accessible materials. Making laboratory participation possible for students with special needs often requires innovative approaches. One need is addressed by Ratliff in "Chemistry for the Visually Impaired". Have you ever wondered how to facilitate learning when you perform a demonstration? Bowen and Phelps describe how in the article "Demonstration-Based Cooperative Testing in General Chemistry: A Broader Assessment-of-Learning Technique". In a report on "Using Cooperative Learning To Enhance Performance In General Chemistry", Kogut describes how group learning was used for both normal homework and critical thinking assignments. Modifications would be necessary for application to the high school classroom.

Research
To better understand, or review, the many analogs of the ammonium ion you may wish to read "The Onium Compounds" by Slaveykova et al. The authors point out that many onium salts are found in nature, including inorganic ammonium salts, organic derivatives such as amino acids and salts of biogenic amines and alkaloids, and oxonium salts such as anthocyans, which are plant pigments.

Teachers Speak Out at National Meetings

I enjoyed talking to a large number of chemistry teachers at the National Science Teachers Association meeting in New Orleans and the ACS meeting in San Francisco. At the ACS High School Day approximately 60 teachers shared their views with John Moore and me in an hour-long session. The impact on the chemistry curriculum of new state testing programs was cited as a concern. Several participants mentioned that they would like to know more about resources that are available from ACS and they would like to see announcements for new programs where there are field testing opportunities. More emphasis on precollege chemistry at all grade levels is needed. The greatest concern, however, was the need for articles dealing with chemical literacy for the public. It was noted that most students taking first year chemistry go on to nonscience careers. Additionally, many districts are now truly multicultural, so that issues that cut across cultural lines and are relevant to the everyday experiences of all students are a necessity. Some topics cited were new fuels for automobiles, the chemistry of paints and mordants, pesticides and herbicides, immunology, and chemical synergism. What do you think? What would help you the most? Please let us know.

At the NSTA Convention
A truly interdisciplinary approach has been achieved by Mark Alber and Rena Patton through creative writing about chemistry in an AP English class. Annis Hapkiewicz shared methods and results from helping students develop an understanding of matter at the atomic and molecular levels. Several teachers presented innovative student-centered approaches in a session sponsored by the Institute for Chemical Education. Steve Long and Jeff Heburn organized a session on activities for AP chemistry. Knight Roddy used hands-on workshops to explain how his students relate the elements to substances they encounter every day.

At the ACS Convention High School Day
Peggy Carlock explained, with help from some of her students, how advanced students can assume a functional teaching role in the first year course while fulfilling service learning requirements. Carolyn Abbot described how she conducts research in her classroom and uses the results to make changes in her instruction. Susan Gleason discussed a two-year interdisciplinary science course that is organized around themes.

Coming Soon: Chem Ed '97, Minneapolis, Aug. 2­6

Information and registration forms can be obtained from http://www.cee.umn.edu/pdcs/ChemEdReg.html or

Chem Ed '97
Professional Development and Conference Services
University of Minnesota, 214 Nolte Center
315 Pillsbury Drive S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0139.

There will be an opportunity for discussion about what you would like to see in JCE at the session "The Rewards of Sharing through the Pages of the Journal of Chemical Education", which will be held at 1-2:50 p.m. on Sunday, August 3. In addition, time will be devoted to helping participants begin writing about ideas and experiences they would like to share.