This issue of the Journal is full of wonderful ideas for making your classroom teaching less mundane. Have you ever considered what got you hooked on chemistry? In a recent article, 15 academic scientists living in Texas were interviewed for a human-interest article in The Dallas Morning News (1). Each of them was asked to identify a gift that sparked his or her interest in science. Their present occupations ranged from chemist to archeologist to geologist. Of the 15, 40% identified a chemistry gift. Richard Smalley, who won the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry, cited a distillation flask given to him by his aunt; four acknowledged the receipt of a chemistry set; and another cited the advice of his father, who had encouraged him to study biochemistry. Two of the scientists interviewed named an academic as the gift giver. One person credited a chance meeting in Death Valley: he needed a lift and was given a ride by a couple of geologists who introduced him to fossil collecting. Another credited a Christmas gift from a professor. The majority of gifts (ten) were given by family members.

Well, maybe Gilbert Chemistry Sets are for the most part no-no's today, but there are things that we can do to make life in chemistry class fun. Rybolt and Waddell (2) have provided an excellent Sherlock Holmes mystery based on chemical and physical properties of three metals. It can be presented to your class in two parts--one that presents the evidence and then the next that allows you to have good class discussions and inquiry into the possibilities before giving them the rest of the story.

Other fun things in this issue include three Quote Boxes by Olney (3) that will allow your students to engage in deductive reasoning to solve the puzzles. Kelkar (4) presents a slightly more difficult but very clever mystery element game; it provides clues to element symbols that all fit into a single matrix. Ibanez's game (5) lists popular sayings or proverbs and the student's job is to match each with an analogous chemical phenomenon. As always, answers are provided. For the more sophisticated among us, there is Who Wants to Be a Chemist Extraordinaire? devised by Campbell and Muzyka (6), who describe their use of online chemistry game shows patterned on popular TV programs. Examples of the HTML files with sample questions are available through JCE Online. These are just some of the many suggestions that can be found in this issue of JCE. Try a few, you might like them!

Literature Cited

1. Gifts of wonder: Scientists reflect on things that sparked their quest for knowledge; The Dallas Morning News, Dec 24, 2001, pp C1-2.
2. Rybolt, Thomas R.; Waddell, Thomas G. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 448-453.
3. Olney, Dave. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 447, 455, 464.
4. Kelkar, V. D. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 456-457.
5. Ibanez, Jorge G. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 454-455.
6. Campbell, Susan; Muzyda, Jennifer. J. Chem. Educ. 2002, 79, 458.