It Was Nice to See You

It was great to meet and talk to so many high school chemistry teachers who attended the High School Program at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco or attended the NSTA National Convention in Orlando. Thank you to every teacher who visited the JCE Booth at either meeting and to the approximately 100 individuals who attended the JCE workshop early Monday morning at the ACS. At the NSTA meeting, the Mole Day Breakfast was a special occasion that was made very enjoyable by National Mole Day Foundation leaders Art Logan and Maury Oehler and the enthusiasm and camaraderie of the audience. For more about NMDF activities check out the website http://gamstcweb.gisd.k12.mi.us/~nmdf.

Bringing Quality Visualization into the Classroom

Turn to page 799 of this issue to learn about the release of Chemistry Comes Alive! Volume 4. The Chemistry Comes Alive! series of CD-ROMs are packed with Quicktime movies and still photos depicting chemical reactions, many of which are too hazardous or expensive to carry out in the classroom or laboratory. Many of the demonstrations are accompanied by background information, and they are also correlated with popular chemistry textbooks. An innovation appearing in Volume 4 is an interactive section on reactions in aqueous solution. Among the appealing features of the CCA! series is the ability to incorporate QuickTime movies of these demonstrations into your own presentations.

The Reprise of Chemical Principles Revisited

I am very pleased that Cary Kilner has agreed to edit the Chemical Principles Revisited feature. Please read his Mission Statement below. If you have an idea for a manuscript that fits this feature, now is the time to take action either by discussing it with Cary or by submitting a manuscript for review. This feature has the potential to be very useful to teachers, but it can reach its potential only through your suggestions and submissions. Let us hear from you soon.

Scenes from High School Day at the ACS meeting in San Francisco. (Top photo, left to right) Carolyn Abbott, chair of the program, with Michael Tinnesand and Mare Taagepera. (Bottom photo) Michael Tinnesand speaking at the Luncheon. Photo by Morton Z. Hoffman.

Mission Statement for Chemical Principles Revisited

W. Cary Kilner, Feature Editor

Exeter High School, 7 Salmon Street, Newmarket, NH 03857; 603/659-6825; CaryPQ@aol.com

Through this feature, teachers are invited to share how they introduce and present a specific chemical principle, how students investigate the principle or its applications in the laboratory, and how student understanding of this principle is assessed.

In most cases the principle would be one that is difficult for students to learn or apply, or one in which chemical research has led to a new understanding that has not yet appeared in textbooks. Discussion of content underlying the principle should provide insight that goes beyond the treatment of high school or general chemistry texts, providing depth that will enable the teacher to become confident in his or her understanding.

The account may be a brief vignette that will inspire the reader to try something new and that can be easily implemented. Alternatively, it may be a longer discussion of phenomena that have been neglected or misinterpreted and to which a fresh, reflective, and informed view is provided.

An example of a brief article is "The Disappearing Act: Teaching Students to Expect the Unexpected" (J. Chem. Educ. 1987, 64, 155). An example of a longer article is "Studying the Activity Series of Metals" (J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 51), although a current submission should also include discussion of assessment and actual outcomes whenever possible.

Teachers who have an idea for an article that fits this mission may contact the feature editor if they have questions.