from Laura Slocum, JCE High School Associate Editor

All of us have had students whose passion for chemistry has both surprised us and encouraged us. There is almost nothing more rewarding than having students we have taught go on to study chemistry. This is especially important to me as I hear more about the comparison between the number of chemists retiring and the number coming into the workforce. Unfortunately, the number retiring is larger. However, it is the students with a strong interest in music that have always intrigued me. The question both they and I have wondered about is, “What does chemistry have to do with music?” Nothing, is the usual answer we finally agree upon. But is that really true?

Chemistry and Music

I thought a lot about those discussions as I read Kumbar’s Musical Chemistry article in the Dec 2007 issue of JCE. The connections he shares between the two disciplines had never crossed my mind. Throughout the entire article all I could think about were the various students that I have taught who had a strong passion for music and also fell in love with chemistry. I just could never figure out “Why?” As their teacher, I always chalked it up to just being lucky.

In the past three years, two of these students really touched my life and continue to remind me about the important role we play in our students’ lives. One of them, a music theatre major, continues to remain in very close contact with me. The other is an opera major in Texas and continued to take some chemistry classes in college. Both of these students were passionate about their study of chemistry and were my students in a variety of courses over their last three years of high school.

For both of them, their strongest connections to chemistry came in the Introduction to Organic Chemistry class, and we often talked about why that would be so, but never settled on a “real” reason. The only thing we agreed on was all the nomenclature “patterns”, but the students thought that did not seem strong enough. When I read the Musical Chemistry article and shared it with the student who just graduated, he said, “WOW, maybe we finally know why I liked the material in your class so much and I became so connected to chemistry. He [the author] even has musical properties on the periodic table.” In his introduction, Kumbar hooked me to this article by his list of commonalties between music and chemistry—“use fundamental units as building blocks (chemical elements in chemistry and musical notes in music); …time dimensions that are meaningful; …find expression in the language of mathematics.” I am also looking forward to hearing the sound files that are part of the Supplemental Material for this article.

Science Writing Heuristic

In Laura’s Take in the August 2007 column in JCE, I noted that I would be using information gleaned from the Science Writing Heuristic article (1) to help me set up several of my inquiry labs this year. The teacher template that Poock, et al. shared in that issue has been particularly helpful to me and in the Dec 2007 issue of JCE, Rudd, et al. discuss specific ways to use the Science Writing Heuristic to Improve Students’ Understanding of General Equilibrium. I know that many of my students, probably yours too, either really like equilibrium or they just want it to end. I am looking forward to trying some of the ideas Rudd shares here in my class when I teach equilibrium this coming spring semester to see whether my students find equilibrium less difficult. I especially liked the sample lecture exam question that they shared in Figure 1. It helped me to think of other places—thermochemistry and kinetics—that I could use a similar type of question on my exams. I believe that the students’ previous exposure to the Science Writing Heuristic ideas that they used this fall will be beneficial for them. I’ll keep you posted!

Experimenting with Experiments

The experimental descriptions and guided discussion ideas that Correia and Torres share in their Dec 2007 JCE article on protein structure and synthesis really intrigued me. I have been looking for a different lab activity to use with this topic in my Introduction to Biochemistry class next semester and this one closely meets my needs. It will help students see the bigger picture view of proteins. It is not just about the actual atoms involved in the bond formation, but it is also the overall structure and shape of the protein that allows it to have its particular function. My students always want a hands-on approach rather than a picture approach. Correia and Torres’ ideas allow the students to see that it is more about the whole protein and its formation, rather than just the individual atoms that make up the protein.

Just as I have gleaned some encouraging ideas for the spring semester from the articles in this issue, I know you will too. I also know that each of you have some wonderful ideas that you have found that work well in your classroom. Please share them with us. The Journal is a GREAT place to start, and Erica and I are here to help you share your ideas in any way we can. Just ask!!!

Erica’s Take on the Issue

from Erica K. Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor

One weekend each month brings a new stack of papers to my desk, the preview version of another JCE issue. Laura and I read it through to decide which articles to mark with a triangle in the table of contents as being of interest to high school educators, to brainstorm for this column, and perhaps to do a bit of proofreading along the way. As I near the bottom of the stack, I tend to take a quick peek at the final page number to figure out how many pages there are left to read. My surprise for this December issue? That number breaks 2000, a new achievement for JCE. The huge quantity of material doesn’t sacrifice quality, either. As Laura says, you’ll find useful ideas. Congratulations to our published authors and thank you to everyone on the JCE staff—they work hard to put together each issue. Carter’s Dec 07 JCE article on the development of effective permanent paper hits home too. He states “A student pointed out to me that some of my papers published in this Journal were already starting to turn yellow.” I know that’s true as I leaf through my collection of back issues. However, I take heart in the fact that this year’s pages, along with all JCE issues, also live on in an additional format, as scanned PDF files on JCE Online.

Occasionally, last minute additions for the issue arrive and find their place in the stack. One of those appears on this page. I was previously unaware of the Hach Scientific Foundation and its strong support of K–12 chemistry education. On p 1896 of JCE’s Dec 2007 issue, Hach describes two scholarship programs, one for chemistry majors pursuing education at land grant universities across the U.S., the other for degreed chemists who wish to pursue chemistry teaching as a second career. Profiles of scholarship winners are on the Hach Web site under “Universities/Scholars”. I enjoyed reading several scholars’ comments and know that they will be a welcome addition to the profession. There are even two scholars at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the home base of the Journal. Information on other opportunities for high school chemistry educators and students is in JCE’s Dec 2007 News & Announcements. These include the Einstein Fellows program, the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Awards, and Chemistry Olympiad mentors. Take advantage of them!

Literature Cited

1. Poock, J. R.; Burke, K. A.; Greenbowe, T. J.; Hand, B. M. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 1371–1379.

JCE High School Chemed Learning Information Center (CLIC)