According to Scerri, who wrote this month’s “Commentary”, there is a very interesting (and argumentative) discussion on what those of us interested in chemical education research experience. He points out that “Mainstream chemists understandably view such activities [chemical education research] as superficial busy-work” (p 468). I bet many of you can relate to this statement. He points out that chemical education research pays more attention to theory and less to discovering new ideas. In his opinion “… chemical education is currently too simplistic in its underlying ideas” (p 475). He challenges us to think about our role in the broader aspects of chemistry. This is really a must-read for any of you who are interested in entering a graduate program highlighting chemical education research. If you want to know more about the graduate programs that exist across the U.S., please check out the DivCHED Committee on Chemical Education Research Web site and click on the link to the Graduate Programs. Also, in this commentary Scerri presents many very useful definitions of various educational learning theories like constructivism, behaviorism, and relativism.

The next section you might want to peruse is Chemical Education Today. In this section you will find CLIP (Chemical Laboratory Information Profile) entries, with different CLIPs appearing every month. All of these are prepared by Jay Young who does a marvelous job of keeping us informed about a spectrum of compounds. The announcements in this section include the award for high school teachers from across the nation, and upcoming conferences (like ChemEd 2003 that will be at Auburn University this summer). Don’t miss the review by Hal Harris of Chemical Misconceptions—Prevention, Diagnosis and Cure. This two-volume set would be an excellent resource for any chemical education researcher.

In the Chemistry for Everyone section there are lots of interesting accounts of how chemistry affects our daily lives. Lykknes and Kvittingen report on how arsenic has been used both for evil and medicinal purposes over history. The authors do an excellent report not only on the historical uses of arsenic, but also describing how its use has affected the development of some drugs. Those who teach secondary students might like a game that combines facts about specific elements and drawing a picture. Bruton presents information regarding an ethics course that has been well received by both faculty and students at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Shachter gives us some insights into how her summer undergraduate research program has incorporated the study of ethics into the program at Santa Clara University.

In sections of In the Classroom and In the Laboratory, you can find many ideas to help you update your classroom and how you teach. These sections usually present a variety of activities appropriate for many academic levels. Check out the “Overhead Projector Demonstrations” by Zingales (one, two), and as usual make sure you look at the JCE Classroom Activity, “Out of the Blue”. The activity this month gives you some ideas on how to reimagine the classic Blue Bottle demonstration. On the following pages, Wellman (who did this demonstration as a high school student) and her co-authors give us suggestions on how to “green” the Blue Bottle. Some of the lab activities published in the Journal are for high school use and some are for the more advanced level. It is usually easy to identify the difference, but don’t forget to check out the Supplemental Materials that are online. Some authors (for instance Sowa and Kondo) will put separate instructions for different levels of students and give some ideas for guided-inquiry lessons online.

Chemical Education Research manuscripts are published in most issues. If you are interested in obtaining a graduate degree in chemical education, look towards the end of each JCE issue. Not only will you get some ideas on what “ChemEd” research is currently being done, but you might also get some ideas on a question you would like to answer—isn’t that what all research is based on? In this issue you might want to read the research articles regarding gender differences and regarding a longitudinal study in college chemistry.

This issue has so many interesting articles that it is hard to mention each one. Where else could you find such breadth, depth, and strength of chemical education in just one place?

Literature Cited

1. American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Education, Committee on Chemical Education Research (accessed Mar 2003).