News from Journal House

Sherlock Holmes Readers Rejoice!

By popular request JCE has gathered all 15 stories into a single volume. The formatting has been standardized so that there is consistency among all stories, making it easier for educators to make photocopies for students that include only the stories and not the solutions. The volume uses a spiral binding for convenient photocopying.

The 15 stories, while vastly different in content and the chemistry they illustrate, share common threads. A text box at the beginning of each story shares information on the chemical themes of each story. For example, the first story, “Sherlock Holmes and the Yellow Prisms”, provides a problem in organic and inorganic qualitative analysis, while the final story, “Autopsy in Blue”, emphasizes qualitative inorganic analysis, forensic chemistry, and medicinal substances. The story itself then follows the box and ends with a stop sign, asking readers “Can You Solve the Mystery?” A gray text box presents questions that prompt readers to consider the relevant points of the story in their quest for the solution. Sherlock Holmes’s solution begins on a separate page; it may include explanatory calculations, reactions, and diagrams.

The Chemical Adventure stories are popular for their education as well as entertainment value. Copies may be ordered from JCE for $19.95 (U.S.), $29.95 (non-U.S.) including shipping and handling.

Special News for 18th BCCE Attendees

If you are attending the 18th BCCE this summer at Iowa State University and you like ice cream, then you won’t want to miss the Ice Cream Social. This popular event, sponsored by 2YC₃ and the Journal of Chemical Education, will take place Wednesday evening at 8:10, following the closing ceremonies. For more information about this CHED-sponsored conference, see the April 2004 issue of JCE or go to the Web site (accessed Mar 2004).

Attention! Classroom Activity Fans

If the JCE Classroom Activity is a favorite feature, note that after this issue (May) the Activity goes on its usual summer break, to return with renewed vigor in the September issue.

The publication of “Determining Rate of Flow through a Funnel” in this issue brings the collection of Classroom Activities to a total of 63. That means there are 63 tried and tested, ready-to-use activities that can become part of your repertoire. Subscribers can access this entire collection on JCE Online.

When you go to this online collection, it is possible to retrieve by reverse chronological order or by topic (sorted by nine topics, from analytical chemistry through solid-state chemistry). Classroom Activities may be reproduced for use in a subscriber’s classroom.

If you have activities that you use with your students or ideas for activities that we might develop, let us hear from you. Get in touch with Erica Jacobsen, the Classroom Activities feature editor at 209 N. Brooks St., Madison, WI 53715-1116.

Donating JCE Collections, Locating JCE Collections

Many JCE readers and institutional libraries are on the lookout for collections of JCE issues that become available due to retirements or other reasons. Do you know of such a collection? If so, we can try to find a good home for it. Please contact Elizabeth Moore or Erica Jacobsen with details of the collection, including the years that it covers, whether any individual issues are missing, and where the donor is located. JCE will be happy to run an announcement in an upcoming issue and correspond with interested readers, or contact a reader on our current “looking for back issues” list. Recipients are always asked to pay any shipping costs. Donors will receive information from JCE about the value of their donated collection that they can use for income tax purposes.

Let us help your collection find a good home!

Summer Reading Coming Next Month

Whether or not you are ready for summer, it is coming soon. To help you get ready, JCE’s popular Summer Reading will return next month in the June issue. Hal Harris, Dick Pagni, Brian Coppola, and Jeff Kovac will suggest another eclectic collection of books to take on vacation.

New JCE Forms for Accepted Manuscripts

Authors of accepted manuscripts will now receive a set of newly revised forms to help guide manuscripts to smooth publication. With every acceptance letter will be three forms:

• Instructions for Final Manuscript Preparation (buff) will guide you through four important steps: the preparation, checking, saving, and printing of the text, tables, structures, reaction schemes, figures, graphs, photographs, and supplementary materials that comprise your manuscript.
• Electronic Submission Form (green) is where you list and describe each file you have prepared.
• Keyword List 2004 (blue) is a revised and updated keyword list that has more detail than the previous form, making it more comprehensive and useful. The list has been evaluated by a select group of JCE reviewers, whose suggestions were incorporated. It has been divided into categories, it contains a greater total number of keywords than the earlier list, and some of the earlier keywords have been eliminated. The new keywords will be used in the JCE Index online and in the retrieval system of the National Science Digital Library.

Award Deadlines

High School Invention Grants

The Lemelson-MIT program has announced the competition for their 2004 InvenTeams High School Invention Grants that provide grant support to teams—composed of students, their teachers, and mentors from industry—that are formed for the purpose of inventing something useful that solves a problem they’ve identified. Fifteen grants of up to $10,000 each are available for the period October 2004—June 2005 to high school science, math, and technology teachers at public, private, and vocational schools. The deadline for applications is May 7, 2004. More information is available at the Web site (accessed Mar 2004).

Awards Announced

Welch Foundation’s Hackerman Award

The Welch Foundation, a private foundation for basic research in chemistry, has selected Jianpeng Ma, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University, as the recipient of the 2004 Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research. The $100,000 award is presented annually to honor young, up-and-coming scientists at Texas institutions. Recipients are recognized for expanding the frontiers of chemistry through their innovative research endeavors. Ma’s research explores the relationship between structure and function in biological molecules and uses computer simulation as one tool to explore this connection. One of his major breakthroughs occurred when Ma found a way to simulate protein motion without knowing the exact coordinates and amino-acid sequences of protein structures.

Courses, Seminars, Meetings, Opportunities

Cosmos in the Classroom 2004

A three-day hands-on symposium on teaching introductory astronomy for non-science majors will be held July 16–18, 2004, on the campus of Tufts University near Boston, MA. The meeting is sponsored by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and NASA’s New England Space Science Initiative in Education, with co-sponsorship from the American Astronomical Society.

The program includes components for veteran instructors who seek to reinvigorate their teaching as well as for new instructors nervously approaching their first classes. Much of the conference will involve panel discussions and small-group workshops with mentor instructors from around the country. Participants will also share information and resources via poster papers and a share-a-thon. The meeting is open to teachers of high school level astronomy courses.

The conference will focus on how new results from research into student learning can be applied in the real world of our classrooms, on alternatives to lecturing and multiple-choice tests, on new resources for teachers and students, and on how to address the needs of under-served groups. Scholarships to attend the meeting are available for community college instructors with support from NASA/JPL’s Navigator Program. For more information and registration instructions consult the meeting Web site (accessed Mar 2004).

Summer Conference: Integrating Science and Mathematics Education Research into Teaching

The 2004 national summer conference, “Integrating Science and Mathematics Education Research into Teaching” will be held June 20–25, 2004 at the University of Maine, Orono, ME. The meeting is co-sponsored by Maine Mathematics and Science Teaching Excellence Collaborative (MMSTEC) and The University of Maine Center for Science and Mathematics Education Research (The Center). After its opening on Sunday, June 20, there will be two days of talks and workshops hosted by The Center followed by three days of MMSTEC’s Summer Academy.
Invited and contributed talks and poster presentations will reflect these interests: recent findings from science and mathematics education research; applying education research to instruction; workshops on developing education research projects and the use of various methods and instruments; and workshops on making research-based modifications to instruction. Consult the conference Web site for further information (accessed Mar 2004).

MERLOT International Conference

The 4th Annual MERLOT International Conference will be held in Costa Mesa, CA, August 3–6, 2004. (MERLOT is the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.) This year’s conference theme is Online Resources: Sharing the Future. The conference is hosted by the California Virtual Campus and the California State University System.

The conference provides forums for learning about shared content, peer reviews, learning objects, standards, and online communities. Individuals are not required to be affiliated with the MERLOT institution to attend or make a presentation. The conference themes are geared toward these audiences: faculty; instructional designers; provosts, deans, department chairs; technical support specialists; librarians; faculty development professionals; MERLOT users and potential partners; authors of digital learning materials; student services professionals. Program activities include keynote and invited speakers and workshop leaders; pre-conference workshops; interactive sessions; demonstrations and poster sessions; roundtable discussions; learning objects fair. More information may be found at this Web site (accessed Mar 2004).

NRC Committee on Gender Differences

The National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Gender Differences in Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty had its first meeting on January 29–30, 2004 in Washington, DC. The project has been set up to assess gender differences in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty, focusing on four-year institutions of higher education that award Bachelor’s and graduate degrees. The study will build on the previous work of the Committee on Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE) of the National Research Council, and examine issues such as faculty hiring, promotion, tenure, and allocation of institutional resources including laboratory space.

The NRC has assembled an expert committee with various levels of scientific, engineering, and mathematics expertise, encompassing a wide variety of backgrounds and viewpoints within academia and industry. The members have expertise in their chosen fields as well as demonstrated accomplishment in issues pertaining to gender, faculty, science, engineering, and math. A final report will be issued in approximately 18 months at the end of the project. More information is available at the Web site (accessed Mar 2004).

Publications

A Guide to Proposal Writing

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education has recently published a new edition of their publication, A Guide to Proposal Writing, publication nsf04016. The Guide is available online at this Web site in either HTML or PDF format (accessed Mar 2004).

Proposal Deadlines National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) The following NSF deadlines have been established or are anticipated. National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Formal Proposals: April 14 2004 Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Letters of Intent (optional): April 21, 2004 Formal Proposals: October 8, 2004 Official deadline dates for proposals will be specified in the new program solicitation for each program, to be published at least three months before the relevant deadline date. Other Funding Opportunities for STEM Education are available. Program solicitations are available electronically through NSF's Online Document System and through the NSF DUE site; phone: 703/292-8670; email. The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: November 11, 2004 Faculty Start-Up Grants for Undergraduate Institutions: May 13, 2004 Henry Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Awards Program: June 24, 2004 New Faculty Awards Program: May 13, 2004 Postdoctoral Program in Environmental Chemistry: February 24, 2005 Scholar/Fellow Program for Undergraduate Institutions: Program discontinued. Senior Scientist Mentor: August 26, 2004 Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences: Preliminary Proposals: June 17, 2004 Completed Proposals: August 26, 2004 Further information and confirmation of the above deadlines may be obtained from The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., 555 Madison Avenue, Suite 1305, New York, NY 10022-3301; phone: 212/753-1760; email; WWW. Research Corporation Cottrell College Science Awards: May 15 and November 15 Cottrell Scholars: September 1, 2004 Research Innovation Awards: suspended 2004-2005 Research Opportunity Awards: May 1 and October 1 Further information may be obtained from Research Corporation, 101 North Wilmot Road, Suite 250, Tucson, AZ 85711; phone: 520/571-1111; fax: 520/571-1119; email; WWW.