Speaking of history, in 1897, J. J. Thomson discovered the electron, which is being celebrated by the Science Museum London with an on-line exhibition called "Life, the universe, and the electron" (http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/electron/). Prepare yourself for a 1934 audio recording of J. J. Thomson, video files that reenact the original experiment, great graphics, interactive animations, and a section called "What is an electron?" (http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/on-line/electron/section1/). This well-designed site is a fine resource for teachers and a friendly learning environment for students. Unfortunately the on-line exhibition will last only until April 5, 1998.

We also hear from England on the issue of bringing visualizations to our students, with the goal of improving learning for all students. Look at the image: Simulation of the movement of gas phase argon atoms above a solid surface (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97/Paper6mirror/fig5.gif). Read the paper by Hugh M. Cartwright of Oxford University (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97/Paper6mirror/Cartwright.html) titled "Nature Doesn't Solve Equations, So Why Should We? Mathematically-lean simulations in Chemistry". This thought-provoking paper is part of the ChemConf '97 Summer On-Line Conference on Chemical Education (found at http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97/). This important international on-line conference is sponsored by the Division of Chemical Education of ACS and organized by Donald Rosenthal, Clarkson University, and Tom O'Haver, The University of Maryland at College Park.

Simulations are made possible by using computers, which leads to another issue covered in ChemConf '97, "What Every Chemist Should Know About Computers, II" (http://www.niagara.edu/~tjz/conf97/draft.htm) by Mary L. Swift, College Of Medicine, Howard University, and Theresa Julia Zielinski, Niagara University. What computer skills do our students need for success? From this thought comes the question of what creative teaching can we do if our students possess better computer skills? Look at a great HomePage by Theresa Julia Zielinski (http://www.niagara.edu/~tjz/) about using MathCad documents for teaching Physical Chemistry. If you have access to Mathcad_6.0_Plus, go to this site for a repository of documents written by several authors in the spirit of revitalizing the chemistry curriculum.

Eleven excellent papers and references are part of ChemConf '97. These are archived, along with the abstracts, discussion archives, and other information at the ChemConf '97 site.

ChemConf '97 is also the site for information about 1997-1998 School Year Online Sessions (http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Chemistry/ChemConference/ChemConf97). The fall semester session will occur between September 5 and November 26, 1997. The spring semester session will occur between January 30 and May 1, 1998. You and your students can attend a conference, without travel and registration expenses, and exchange ideas with faculty and students from other locations..

"Time + Creativity (with WWW as a Catalyst) yields Learning Opportunities" is the motto for The Catalyst (http://home.fuse.net/thecatalyst/). Michael Geyer maintains The Catalyst as a site for chemistry resources for the secondary education teacher on the WWW. The classy logo (http://home.fuse.net/thecatalyst/clogo2.gif) introduces this collection of nicely-arranged sites, which includes a very useful historical category. One of the links is to History of Chemistry - 1992 Woodrow Wilson Summer Institute in Chemistry (http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/chemistry/modules/1992/).

And speaking of historical events, I cannot leave this commentary without noting that over 100 million hits/day were tallied on the collective mirror sites of the Mars Pathfinder mission (http://www.nasa.gov/) in July, 1997. The NASA image of Sojourner on Mars (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/img/81008b.jpg) is familiar to all of us and reminds us that 100 million hits a day means that interest in science is alive and well.