An update - ACS Publications

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curriculum report An Update

NorthwesternHigh School Hyansuiile, Maryland 20782

Publisher

Grace Flscher McGulfie

Title

Author

Advanced Placement

Northwestern High School Hyansvllle, MD 20782

Before thought of the "Reader Survey" which appeared in 57, 596) is lost to memory, it this column (this JOCJRNAL, would be worthwhile to report the results and interesting to coniecture a t directions for the future. Though the "Survey," in no way, resemhlts a sciwtific system of data collection, nor was it intended to du so, thv nerds and ideas communicated by the secondary chemistry teachers who responded can be useful to all of us. To the date of this writine (less than a month after the "Survey" appeared), 43 persons have responded. This is less than overwhelming, to he sure, but the quality of the responses are very encouraging. There appears to he a need felt, among the secondary teachers, for a vehicle of communication. This may be related to the fact that 69%of the teachers reporting also teach classes in other content areas: mathematics, physics, biology, life science, health, earth science, oceanography, photography. In addition, most report responsibility for school publications or clubs. One teacher has five different classes in five different content areas and responsibility for the school newsoaoer. Obviouslv. the time available for orofessional deveiopkent becomes limited in such situakons. Five of the respondents expressed gratitude for encouragement of reader participation in this and other columns in the Secondary School Section, and the fact that 43 persons responded fully also speaks to this need. T o summarize the responses, the table from the "Survey" appears below. The resuks have been grouped by percentages into three catepories. This was done because ten of the respondents circlbd t w o ritnhs ior mnng of the items, and when the results were ~ h u l x e dtlierr , nlwcured clusters of adjacent scores at three regims: t , x t n , ~ ~ w luseful, y midrange, and c,f little use. In fart, uithc. rlwiw items, four had no selections for #4.

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Summary of Survey Repller The following items represent generailred topics which can be addressed in mls hLmL.B. Plea= rank acmrding to usefulness to yauasa teacher or lmerened c4rerver; X I = extremeh. useful. #5 = of linie w no use.

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em. 1. topics and depth of presentation in the high school chemistry curriculum 2. mastery of material by high school chemistry students 3. the order of presenting topics in a course 4, the place of chemistry in the school program 5. ways of relating chemistry to the real world of students 6. types of textbooks to be used 7. reading and scientific literacy 8. mainstreaminghandicapped students 9. what type of studems shwldldo studv ChemiStw 10. new or unique ways to presem certain topics 11. padagqical material specifically designed far chemistry

GRACEFISHERMCGUFF~E

W. 8. Saunders Company "Chemical Principles" McGraw-Hill Book Company"Chemica1 Principles and Properties" D. C. Heath and Co. "General Chemistry" Prentic%Hall. Inc.

"Chemistry: Experimental Foundations"

Masterton, Slowinski Sienko, Plane

Nebergali, Holtzclaw. Robinson Parry, Dietz. Tellefson. Steiner

Chemistry Holt. Rinehart and Winston Charles E. Menill H a r ~ eand r Row

Holt. Rinehart and Winston 0. C. Heath and CO.

Holt. Rinshart and Winston Harcourt, Brace. JwaOwiCh Houghton-MiWlin Gompany Silver Blsdene Co. W. 8. Saundem Company W. B. Saunders Company John Wilev & Sons. 1nc.

"Madern Chemisby"

Metcaif. Williams. Castka Smoot, Price. Smith

"Chemistry. A Modern Course" Chemistry Associates "interdisciplinary of Maryland Approaches to Chemistry (IAC)" Toon, Ellis "Foundations d Chemistry" "Chemistry: Experiments O'Connor, Davis Haenisch. MacNab. and Principles" McClellan Bolton. Lamphers. "Action Chemistry" Menesinl "Concepts in Chemistry" Greenstone. Harris Conon. Darlington, "Chemisby: An InvestigativeApproach' ' Lynch Choppin. Summeriin "Chmnistry" Peters "ktrodmtion to Chemical Principles" Masterton. Slowinski "Chemistry" Baumgarten "Organic Chemistry"

In addition, numerous requests were made for information on: Simple demonstrations Teaching problem salving Teaching scientific thinking Funding sources The chemical "baggage" necessary to enter ANY college or university A calendar of events useful to chemistry teachers Career planning Utilization of time in class and preparation This feature investigates aspects of the Secondary schmi chemistry curriculumand reiatea top cr hew d e w opmants wol oe m l r W ~ C 8 ( 1and erlao shad tecnnwes crnt olea Conlrloa.ons are we come Grace Flscher McGunie Holds a B.A. degree from Gwynedd-Mercy College and a MA oogree from The Catnollc ~n uerslt) of Amer u Sne s c.rren,) o m . ng a PnOat m e .nwers tv 01 Mar, an0 In additiohto teaching at the secondary ~~~

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pervised Student teachers and planned seminars for lhem and cooperating teachers. In 1975, she was named an "Outstanding Secondary Educatm ot America." and she has been therecipient of IFCA scholarships and of NSF institutes.

Volume 58 Number 2

February I981

191

Disposal of wastes Experiments Uses of computers in high school classes Importance of the laboratory Motivating studen&to take chemistry Course outlines, particularly of innovative courses (e.g., "Introduction to Forensic Science," this JOURNAL, 57,599.) Several of these are now appearing elsewhere in THIS JOURNALas regular features. Others will be addressed in future editions in this column. An attempt will he made, in future columns, to address those issues which are considered to be extremely useful by the respondents. The editor encourages readers to submit all ideas, short or lengthy in expression, which may he helpful to others. The "Survey" also requested the name of the textbook used. This list will serve as the nucleus of subsequent reviews in this column. The textbooks in the following list are presented in

192

Journal of Chemical Education

order of frequency used; the most frequently used appears first and the least frequently used appears last. Teachers using these andlor other texts are requested to send reviews of them to the column editor. Please include: Publisher Title Author Copyright A short content description Unioue features ~ppiicabilityto high school use Readability Stronglweak points And please continue t o . . . S h a r e Your Ideas with Your Chemical Colleagues.