CEC/78: Chemical Education Conference

Abstract

The chemical education conference, CECl78, held at Beaver College on August [21][22][23][24][25]1978, was modeled after and inspired by the Canadian chemical education conferences a t Waterlooin 1973Waterlooin ,1975Waterlooin and 1977. But CECi78 was unique in a number of significant ways. As Arthur Breyer, chairman of the chemistry and physics departments of Beaver College and ca-director of the conference, stated in his remarks during the opening general session, the major goalof CEC/78 was to "present aprogram of current ideas, methods and materials which teachers of the various sciences can find immediately useful in their Classroom". He stressed that the conference was not programmed solely for high school chemistry teachers but also far junior college, college, and university teachers and that the program included topics relevant to the other sciences at all levels. In fad, two of the five general sessions featured Jearl Walker, professor of physics at Cleveland State University. One of these was a multiple-~mage, multi-media show using ten projectors

First annual workshop at the interface of high school and college chemistry

“…Activities sponsored by colleges and universities for the benefit and continuing education of high school chemistry teachers have been reported (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). Several national and international chemical education conferences have emphasized the importance of the role of the high school teacher in the training of chemists and society at large (9)(10)(11)(12)(13). The American Chemical Society's Office of High School Chemistry ( 14) and High School Chemistry Committee (15 and references therein) have greatly strengthened the Society's and DIVCHED's programs geared to secondary school teachers.…”

High school chemistry for the "general student" in the 80's

“…Chemicals touch upon all aspects of modern life. I think that a student who has completed a high school chemistry course should have some understanding of (1) how chemists approach problems, (2) what chemists and chemical engineers do to solve problems, (3) what some common chemical products manufactured by the chemical industry are, and (4) how some common chemical consumer products function.…”

“…The 1973 IAC Modules include a number of topics not usually taught in CHEM Study type courses: (1) colloids: hand lotion, sterno; (2) synthesis of coordination compounds: lab experiment uses suction filtration technique; (3) ligands and their uses: Lewis Acid-base theory; (4) bioinorganic lab and text topics; (5) organic and biomolecular solubilities and solvent chemistry; (6) organic synthesis: esters, aspirin, and Nylon-66;…”