Secondary School Feature Articles

* Thermal Physics (and Some Chemistry) of the Atmosphere, by Stephen K. Lower, p 837.

* Chemical Etching of Group III-V Semiconductors, by Najah J. Kadhim, Stuart H. Laurie, and D. Mukherjee, p 840. NSTA at Las Vegas

Although the convention occurred in April, this is our first opportunity to thank each reader who visited the JCE booth at the NSTA Exhibition. Feature editors John Fischer (Second Year and Advanced Placement Chemistry), David Byrum (View from My Classroom), and John T. Moore (Chemistry for Kids), Editorial Assistant Caren Daniel, and I enjoyed visiting with you, and we hope that you found the information to be interesting and helpful. The three winners of drawings were Sundra Jordan, Chula Vista, CA-winner of a JCE T-shirt; Jason DeWitte, Albuquerque, NM-winner of the General Chemistry Collection (Student Version) CD-ROM; and Kathleen Iler, Sparks, NV-winner of a one-year subscription to the Journal.

There were many excellent presentations about chemistry teaching and learning by high school chemistry teachers. Two that I attended were "Creating and Teaching a Continuous Progress Chemistry and Physics Course" by David Byrum and "Putting Chemical Demonstrations to Music: Demonstrations Your Students Will Never Forget!" by Jeff Bracken. Presentations John Fischer especially enjoyed were "Hot Topics in Polymers" by the Polymer Ambassadors (J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 521), "Going beyond the Classroom with the CBL" by Sylvia Perez-Fasano and Katie Snider, "Demonstrations Guaranteed to Get Ooohs and Ahhhs" by Steve Spangler, and the demonstrations at the Flinn Chemistry Night. Limited time prevented us from attending many other fine presentations. Congratulations to readers who shared their experience and ideas by making a presentation at NSTA.

Readers Speak Out

Thank you, also, to each teacher who attended the JCE workshop: "It's Your Journal of Chemical Education. What Would You Like It To Be?" Discussion was lively and stimulating. The addition of the JCE Activity Sheet series (#1-9, September 1997-May 1998) was cited as the most useful addition for the benefit of high school teachers that has been made to the Journal. Two members of the audience mentioned that they are preparing an Activity Sheet to be submitted for consideration. (Reader's will want to watch for the series to resume with the September 1998 issue). The advent of the "Second Year and Advanced Placement Chemistry" feature (J. Chem. Educ. 1998, 75, 746) was also cited by those attending as an important contribution to the usefulness of the Journal. The first request, which appeared to be a shared concern among those present, was for articles that interpret research in a way that can be used by high school teachers. Many JCE articles cover topics that are of interest to teachers but require additional explanation to be understood by the non-specialist. An accompanying article providing background information, supplementary material available online, and tested laboratory experiments centered on the topic are some ways of making these topics accessible. Several other suggestions were made for making the Journal more useful to high school and pre-high school teachers: more activities available for access via JCE Online, including activities that can be used in K­8 classrooms; reworking items from Tested Demonstrations in General Chemistry to reflect current understanding of safety and health concerns; more contributions from K­8 teachers; brief notes on teaching ideas and techniques; and activities that can be readily used by new teachers who have been licensed through alternate routes. An interest was expressed for more information about how to write for publication in JCE and for access to mentors who have published previously. Those in attendance also expressed enthusiasm for an online high school community, operated by JCE, through which information and ideas could be exchanged and answers to questions could be obtained. At least one of these ideas already is in effect: mentoring is available for high school teachers who wish to author an article. Others are in the planning stage but require resources of time and voluntary effort to bring it into being. We would appreciate hearing from other readers who were not able to attend the session. Send your comments by email to j.e.howell@usm.edu or by correspondence to J. Emory Howell, JCE Secondary School Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS, 19406-5043.

Forthcoming Conventions

JCE will be represented at the 15th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education (BCCE) in Waterloo, Ontario from August 9­13, and at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, August 23­28. The 75th anniversary of JCE will be observed at both. Two JCE workshops for high school teachers will be presented at BCCE: "Laboratory Activities for High School Chemistry from the Pages of the Journal of Chemical Education" and "High School Teachers Writing for Publication: Why? How?" We hope that you will attend these sessions. Information about the 15th BCCE may be obtained on their website at http://sciborg.uwaterloo.ca/bcce or by requesting information by email at bcce@uwaterloo.ca, or by telephone at 519/747-1915.

Applications and Analogies Video

In the May 1998 column, I mentioned that Ron DeLorenzo's video presentation was available from the Georgia State Teachers Association. In a subsequent message, he stated that the cost is $8.95 plus $2.30 for shipping and handling. Ron's newspaper articles can be viewed at http://www.educationcenter.org through the sponsorship of the Greenwich (Connecticut) Science Education Center.