For many teachers, August marks the beginning of a new school year. The layperson's concept of 9 months of teaching and 3 months of vacation has probably never been true for high school teachers, but it certainly is not true today with schedules stretching over a ten-month period. Cutting into the remaining 2 months are professional activities such as workshops, conferences, laboratory preparation. Thank you for your dedication to the students whom you teach. I wish you a successful and satisfying 1997-98 school year. Articles in this month's issue contain several ideas that can be used at various times during the school year. Also contained in this issue are several articles that provide content background that can increase the depth and breadth of understanding of topics encountered in first or second year chemistry.

Research

Implications for curriculum development based on the findings of educational research are explored by Tsaparlis in the article "Atomic and Molecular Structure in Chemical Education: A Critical Analysis from Various Perspectives of Science Education". Ochiai describes how members of the biosphere contribute to global geocycling of elements in the article titled "Global Metabolism of Elements". Although the article may be overly detailed for direct use in many high school chemistry courses, it should be a valuable teacher resource for relating aspects of biology, chemistry, earth, and environmental science.

The difference between "Buffer Index and Buffer Capacity for a Simple Buffer Solution" is explained by Chiriac and Balea. This article may be of interest as a reference for teachers of second-year courses in which chemistry and biology are integrated. "The Determination of DH for Reactions of the Born-Haber Cycle", written by Treptow, provides information about methods used to determine the various steps of the cycle. The depth of the explanation goes beyond what would be used in a first- or second-year chemistry course, but it does provide useful background for the teacher.

In the Classroom

"Why and How To Teach Acid-Base Reactions without Equilibrium" is explained by Carlton. Relative acid strengths are employed in a stepwise method to predict which reactions occur when two solutions are mixed. The article "Experimenting with Interdisciplinary Science" by Ramsey, Radford, and Deese describes a course for preservice teachers. The approaches used by the authors can also be applied in middle and high school science courses.

In "Chemical Behavior", Jasien describes an analogy from the observation of human behavior that can be used to help students understand why the varied behaviors of substances such as CFCs and ozone depend on their surroundings.

The "Sodium Rainbow" is a colorful demonstration of the reaction of sodium with water in the presence of acid-base indicators. Author Proksa describes the preparation, the procedure, and safety precautions that must be observed strictly. It is not a demonstration to be done on the spur of the moment but it does have considerable potentialfor helping students learn several concepts pertaining to reactions in aqueous solution.

Chemistry Everyday for Everyone

One of the articles that provide content background is "Why Don't Things Go Wrong More Often? Activation Energies: Maxwell's Angels, Obstacles to Murphy's Law". Author Lambert explains why reactions that are energetically favored are not kinetically instantaneous.

In the Laboratory

A commonly used laboratory activity has been expanded by Mauldin into a discovery experiment, "Introducing Scientific Reasoning with the Penny Lab". In carrying out the experiment, students learn about scientific research and experimental design while they are determining the density of pennies.

Bindel and Fochi describe how investigating heat transfer in various metals can provide experience in designing experiments, collecting data, using graphical analysis, and hypothesizing. The experiment "Guided Discovery: Law of Specific Heats" leads students to discover the law of Dulong and Petit. Shevlin et al. describe how to make a "Low-Cost Constant-Temperature Heating Block". If you have the need to maintain constant temperature conditions, this device is a low-cost alternative to water baths. Readily available tools and materials, basic mechanical and electronic techniques, and time to accomplish the assembly are required.

See You in Minneapolis

We hope you will attend the Chem Ed 97 workshop "The Rewards of Sharing through the Pages of the Journal of Chemical Education", which will be held August 3, 1:00-2:50 p.m. Meet with teachers who have published in the Journal to discuss how to write for publication, why you should consider sharing with others by this means, and what are the professional and personal rewards for doing so. Learn about nonprint publication through JCE Online and JCE Software. You also will have the opportunity to express your suggestions for making JCE more useful to you. Additionally, be sure to visit the JCE booth in the exposition area sometime during the conference. Examine materials that you can use in your teaching, and visit with members of the JCE staff. We look forward to seeing you there.

National Mole Day

"We Dig Chemistry" is the 1997 theme. If you are not familiar with this important and enjoyable annual festival beginning at 6:02 a.m. and concluding at 6:02 p.m., October 23 - 6.02 x 10²³check out the website http://gamstcweb.gisd.k12.mi.us/~nmdr, request information by email: mole@icsbbs.com, or call 608/326-6036. The mailing address is 1220 South 5th Street, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821. Don't miss the fun for both you and your students.