Secondary School Feature Articles

* Why Do Alcoholic Beverages Have "Legs"?, by Todd P. Silverstein, p 723.

* Audience-Appropriate Analogies: Collision Theory, by Kent W. Piepgrass, p 724.

* Using Balls from Different Sports To Model the Variation of Atomic Sizes, by Gabriel Pinto, p 725.

* The Convergent Evolution of a Chemistry Project: Using Laboratory Posters as a Platform for Web Page Construction, by Sally Rigeman, p 727.

* Process Development in the Teaching Laboratory, by Leonard C. Klein and Susanne M. Dana, p 745.

Second-Year and Advanced Placement Feature Debuts

Many of our readers teach an advanced high school chemistry course and now JCE includes a feature that is focused on the special challenges and opportunities of teaching these courses. Well qualified for his new responsibility and eager to work with authors, feature editor John Fischer is introduced on page 746. In his note John shares his vision for the feature and invites you to share your innovations and successful practices by writing articles, or by sending ideas if you don't have time to prepare a manuscript. John's email and postal addresses appear at the bottom of the note. I hope he will hear from you.

Also New for You

Steve Long, Rogers High School, Arkansas, introduces a new feature on pages 663-664, which summarizes articles of special interest that appeared recently in The Science Teacher (TST). In addition to interesting annotations, Steve has included references to related JCE articles. Among his many honors, Steve was a recipient of the 1996 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. Active in presentations at NSTA and Chem Ed conferences, Steve also is a recently named member of TST's Advisory Board.

Edie Anderson, South Eugene High School, Eugene, Oregon, developed an innovative approach to fund raising in order to purchase laboratory instrumentation. On page 662 you can read about her creative approach as the result of an interview conducted by Caren Daniel, JCE High School Chemistry editorial assistant.

High School Program at the Dallas ACS Meeting

Highlights of the meeting, pages 669-670, include a summary of the outstanding High School Program. Congratulations and thanks go to George Hague for organizing the program, which included a lucid, cutting-edge presentation by Daniel Colbert on "buckytubes" and their potential for application in molecular electronics and other materials. The buckytube research is an outgrowth of the discovery of buckminsterfullerene and Colbert is laboratory director for Richard Smalley, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for the discovery of fullerenes. Among the fine presentations by high school teachers, Borislaw Bilash and John Koob provided an enjoyable look at examples from A Demo A Day and Rose Robarger concluded the day with a fascinating historical glimpse of the human side of men and women in science through caricatures and anecdotes. When a National ACS Meeting comes to your area, plan to attend the High School Program. The next national meeting will be held in Boston, August 23-28. Watch the pages of this Journal for the specific date of the High School Program.

NSTA Convention at Las Vegas

Thank you to each reader who stopped by the JCE booth at the NSTA exhibits or participated in the JCE workshop, "It's Your Journal, What Do You Want It To Be?" In next month's column I plan to include a report of the workshop discussion. Thank you John Fischer (Second Year and Advanced Placement), David Byrum (View from My Classroom), and John T. Moore (Chemistry for Kids) for helping staff the booth and share information about JCE with approximately 950 visitors. There were many great sessions presented by high school chemistry teachers. If you were a presenter, please consider whether you have something that should be shared through a JCE article.

Congratulations

The 1998 Responsible Care Catalyst Award Winners are listed in Announcements, page 660. Special congratulations are in order to the regional high school teacher recipients, Micheal J. Bannon (NY), Michael Gantz (ID), William Rees Gettys (SC), and Alan Slater (ON) and to the national recipient Bette Anne Bridges (Bridgewater-Raynham High School, MA). Well known to many of our readers, Bette also chairs the High School Committee of the Division of Chemical Education and she is co-organizer of the High School Program of the Boston ACS meeting.

Special congratulations also to the 1998 Conant Award recipient, Maria Walsh (Pike High School, Indianapolis, IN). She gave an inspiring and insightful award address at the Dallas ACS meeting. The high school chemistry community can justifiably be proud of this year's award winners.

Now Is the Time To Write

For most readers the 1997-98 school year is or soon will be over. If you have been thinking about sharing your teaching ideas through the pages of the Journal of Chemical Education why not do it now? David Byrum, Feature Editor of "View from My Classroom", requested that I mention that now is a good time to write. I agree and so do our other Secondary School Chemistry feature editors. If you have questions about developing an article please contact us.