The STP team’s report is available on the ACS Web site. Click on Educators and Students near the top of the screen. Next choose ACS Education and International Activities Division Homepage part way down the screen. Finally scroll down to Recommendations for Content from the American Chemical Society for the Subject of Chemistry. Click on that link to bring up the report in PDF format. I strongly recommend that you read the report and act on it.

In addition to drawing on its own broad experience and expertise, the STP team developed the background for its recommendations by studying the National Science Education Standards (1), the AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy (2), and the revised ACS-CPT guidelines for undergraduate chemistry programs (3). Of particular interest is the fact that ACS-CPT has modified the criteria for the chemistry education option by introducing a minor in chemistry education (3, pp 12–13).

The STP team made recommendations for content preparation of teachers at three levels: elementary generalists, elementary specialists/middle-level generalists, and secondary science teachers. The recommendations provide the detail needed to make concrete and clear the intentions of the team. For example, two items that elementary generalist teachers are expected to know and understand are

• “Properties can be measured using tools, such as rulers, balances, and thermometers. Measurements have error and uncertainty associated with them.”
• “Substances react chemically in characteristic ways with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different characteristic properties. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved.”

These recommendations are intended to enable teachers to introduce science as an experimental endeavor. Teachers are expected to know things about science that will not be introduced to their students. Some of these (such as the particulate nature of matter) are not appropriate for students to learn at a given level (elementary school), but they embody important background knowledge that will help teachers understand science and thereby be better prepared to help their students learn through inquiry.

According to the STP team, “It would be most helpful if teachers learned chemistry in the context of well-designed, inquiry-based courses”. In many colleges and universities, this is not the way science is taught to teachers now. Phelps and Lee document this, using direct quotes from students who are studying to become teachers. Phelps and Lee conclude that teachers will teach as they are taught, and that most of us could better model the pedagogy the STP team recommends.

The STP team’s report is especially important now. A large number of excellent, experienced teachers are reaching or will soon reach retirement age. It would be tragic for science in this country if they were not replaced by teachers well trained in science—particularly chemistry—but this could well happen. Given the fiscal problems of most states and the general reluctance of citizens to support education through taxation, the desirability of a career teaching science in public schools is not high. This is reflected in high turnover of new teachers. Coupled with retirements and the lack of sufficient, well-trained new teachers, school districts are sorely tempted to relax standards to ensure that there will be someone in the classroom, well trained or not.

What can we do? Start by reading the STP team’s report. Then interact with local schools to find out what criteria they set for teachers of science and chemistry. Do your best to help your district set high standards. If you teach undergraduates who plan to become teachers, consider the methods you use and try to bring them more in line with the inquiry-oriented goals of the National Science Education Standards. Work with others in your department and institution to set up either a Chemistry Education Major or a Chemistry Education Minor patterned on the ACS-CPT guidelines. Make certain that your students learn how to design and conduct laboratory experiments, store and dispose of chemicals and apparatus, deal with chemical safety issues, and use the literature of chemical education. Suggest that students subscribe to JCE. Develop a chemistry education methods course of the sort described by the ACS-CPT and encourage your students to take it.

Improving K–12 science teaching is not just the job of the schools or of the education establishment. All of us need to participate in and contribute to a very strong effort to maintain and improve the quality of science education.

Literature Cited

1. National Research Council. National Science Education Standards; National Academy Press: Washington, DC, 1996.
2. AAAS, Project 2061. Benchmarks for Science Literacy; Oxford University Press: New York, 1993.
3. Committee on Professional Training. Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2003.