News from Journal House

JCE Buyers Guide

The September 2003 edition of the JCE Buyers Guide was shipped with this issue of JCE. Broader coverage characterizes this publication: it now lists interfaced experiments, laboratory manuals, laboratory notebooks, models, reference books, and software in addition to books.

The print edition of the Buyers Guide appears twice each year—with the February and September issues of JCE—and is the most comprehensive listing of its kind. Access to the same information is always available on JCE Online. The online version has all the same information as in print, plus more—it is searchable, linked to textbook reviews and publisher's sites, and is current.

CHED News and Notices
Fall 2003 ACS Meeting

Technical Sessions and Committee Meeting Rooms

Technical Sessions and Committee Meetings of the ACS Division of Chemical Education (CHED) at the Fall 2003 ACS Meeting in New York City will be at the Hotel Pennsylvania (7th Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets). The schedule for the committee meetings appears below. (Exception: the High School Program and the High School/College Interface Luncheon will be at Cathedral High School, 350 East 56th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues).

• Saturday, September 6, 2003

  7:30–8 a.m.: Executive Committee Meeting, Executive Session, Penntop North

  8 a.m.–1:15 p.m.: Executive Committee Meeting, Open Session, Penntop North

  1:30–6 p.m: Board of Publication, Penntop North

  2 p.m.–4 p.m.: Program Committee, Paris

  6 p.m.–8:30 p.m.: CHED Banquet, $52. Carmine’s Restaurant, 200 West 44th Street; phone: 212/221-3800 (Tickets must be ordered in advance from ACS, Event #102)

• Sunday, September 7, 2003

  12–1:30 p.m.: High School/College Interface Luncheon, $20. Cathedral High School, 350 East 56th Street, the location of the High School Workshop. (Tickets must be ordered in advance from ACS, Event #103)

  1:30–5:30 p.m.: Examinations Institute Board of Trustees, Bombay

  2–3 p.m.: Editors, Chemical Education Research feature, Journal of Chemical Education, Penntop Center

• Monday, September 8, 2003

  1–2:30 p.m.: Long Range Planning Committee, Schuyler

  3–4:30 p.m.: Chemical Education Research Committee, Madison

  8–10 p.m.: Social hour cash bar; Monday night poster session

• Tuesday, September 9, 2003

  5:05–5:30 p.m.: CHED Business Meeting, Section A of CHED technical sessions

Awards Announced

Nyholm Lecturer Award

The Council of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, has selected Zafra M. Lerman, head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication, Columbia College, Chicago, to deliver the next Nyholm Lecture during the 2004–05 academic session. Over the course of two weeks, she will deliver her lecture in a number of centers throughout Britain.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

PITTCON 2004

The 55th Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy will convene in Chicago, IL, from March 7–12, 2004, at McCormick Place. Information about the technical program, short courses, the exposition, conference preview, and Science Week (special programs for science teachers/educators in chemistry, physics, biology, and general science in the Chicago area) is available online.

Council on Undergraduate Research News

Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill

The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) invites undergraduate research students and their faculty mentors to apply to participate in the Spring 2004 “Undergraduate Research Posters on the Hill” event. Following an orientation session and student and faculty visits to the offices of U.S. Congressional Representatives and Senators, 60 competitively selected student posters will be displayed on the U.S. Capitol during a late afternoon reception. For more information and for application procedures, visit the CUR Web site. The deadline for applications is October 31, 2003.

Undergraduate Student Travel Award

The Chemistry Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) encourages its members to nominate their undergraduate students for a CUR chemistry travel award for the presentation of their research results at the Spring 2004 American Chemical Society Meeting in Anaheim (March 28–April 1, 2004). Four travel awards of $250 each are available. A complete description of the student travel award as well as an application form may be found on the CUR Web site. Applications must be received by November 21, 2003.

ACS News: Reinventing Chemistry Education

The chemistry education community has two new opportunities to help the ACS Society Committee on Education (SOCED) develop a vision of chemical education that reflects the content and practices of modern chemistry, the central (but not only!) molecular science.

SOCED recently hosted an invitational conference to explore a vision of the essential content that must be learned by future chemical scientists. The premise of the conference, titled Exploring the Molecular Vision, was that most undergraduate and graduate chemistry courses present chemistry as a set of vertically integrated sub-disciplines (analytical, inorganic, organic, physical chemistry, and many others). New material has been added to these courses as scientific understanding has developed, but their content rarely has been pruned or reorganized to take advantage of the new directions and exciting research that chemists are pursuing.

At the conference, three panels and related breakout sessions provided a context to develop a new vision. Participants sought to identify the practitioners of chemistry and their educational needs; to understand how the content of chemistry education is being changed at present; and to examine the new frontiers and interfaces of chemistry that impact upon the discipline. The culmination of the conference was an exploration of the irreducible minimum of chemistry (content, experiences, and skills) that students need to be effective chemists.

A new Web site (accessed July 2003) has been set up at that provides a record of materials presented at the conference, including the conference agenda, background readings, and presentations. A report on the conference will be posted in the near future. Visitors to the site can provide feedback directly to SOCED by sending an email message to education@acs.org.

People attending the ACS National Meeting in New York City can share their views with the conference organizers at a symposium from 2–5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 in the New York Hilton. SOCED and the Division of Chemical Education are cosponsoring the event. The program features introductory remarks by ACS President Elsa Reichmanis and an overview of the conference by SOCED Chair Daryle Busch. Members of the conference organizing committee will summarize the panel and related breakout group discussions. Following these presentations, the audience will have an opportunity to offer additional insights that the committee will consider as it develops its final report.

MID Project Workshop Invitation

Are you interested in exploring ways to: Help your students learn to reason through problems rather than relying on algorithmic solutions? Help students make connections between the concepts of chemistry and real-world phenomena? Get students actively involved in discovery and inquiry rather than just attempting to “learn for the exams”? Introduce students to the process of doing science/chemistry so that they recognize its strengths and limitations? Engage students in learning to speak and write the “language” of chemistry/science?

If so, participation in one of the NSF-funded Multi-Initiative Dissemination (MID) Project Workshops is an opportunity you won’t want to miss! The following workshops have been scheduled.

• September 19–20, 2003
  University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

• October 17–18, 2003
  Denver University, Denver, CO

• November 7–8, 2003
  City College of New York, New York, NY

There is no registration fee, and both materials and meals are provided; participants pay personal travel expenses. Registration is online. Contact Eileen Lewis to obtain paper registration materials or if you have questions; phone: 510/642-3746.

Call for Papers
Hawaii International Conference on Education

The 2004 Hawaii International Conference on Education will be held from Saturday, January 3, through Tuesday, January 6, 2004, at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. Submissions from a broad range of topic areas in education are invited, including Counselor Education; Curriculum, Research, and Development; Educational Administration; Educational Foundations; Educational Technology; Special Education; Science Education; Secondary Education; and Distance Education. Submission may be in the form of research papers, abstracts, student papers, poster sessions/research tables, work-in-progress reports, and panel discussions. Workshop proposals are invited.

For more information contact Hawaii International Conference on Education, P.O. Box 75036, Honolulu, HI 96836; phone: 808/949-1455; fax: 808/947-2420; Web site (accessed July 2003).

Symposium on Chemical Education and Research

A three-day International Symposium on Chemical Education and Research (ISCER-2004) will be held January 4–7, 2004, at Loyola College (Autonomous) Chennai, India. The Symposium will commemorate the contributions of the late Rev. Fr. Yeddanapalli, SJ (1904–1970), on the centenary of his birth. Symposium sessions will include current trends in chemical education and research, advances in catalysis, and progress in organic and bioorganic chemistry. Workshops are proposed on green chemistry, chemistry of the Browning reaction, and computers in chemical education; an exhibition of technical books, scientific instruments, chemicals, and products from chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries is also proposed.

For additional details about this symposium contact the Secretary-General of ISCER-2004, Department of Chemistry, Loyola College, Chennai-600 034 TN, India.

Materials Available

Strange Matter Exhibition and Web Site

The Materials Research Society (MRS) announces the launch of Strange Matter, a touring exhibition and accompanying Web site designed to illustrate the principles and concepts behind materials science to a target audience of 5th through 8th grade students. The exhibition features 5000 square feet of interactive elements where users enter the fascinating, practical, occasionally bizarre, and often beautiful world of materials science through more than a dozen hands-on experiences.

The Strange Matter exhibition opened in June, 2003, at the Ontario Science Centre. It will begin a three-year tour to major science centers in February, 2004. The accompanying Web site provides a stand-alone experience that illustrates the fascinating world of materials science through a series of highly interactive experiences, in which users subject various materials to simulated experiments similar to those employed by materials scientists—such as zooming down to the atomic level of an aluminum can, pitting different materials against each other in virtual stress tests, and exploring how cutting-edge materials can change the world. A Strange Matter teacher curriculum and activity guide is also available.

For further information about Strange Matter or MRS, contact Anita Miller at MRS, 506 Keystone Drive, Warrendale, PA 15086; phone: 724/779-3004, ext 551.