from Erica Jacobsen, JCE High School Editor

A 4,000 mile round-trip in a car can get a little boring. When I was a child, summers typically included a drive from our home in Arizona to visit relatives scattered across Minnesota and Wisconsin. The license plate game was a favorite way to pass the time. We began with a simple form: trying to find a license plate from each of the 50 states (Hawaii, anyone?). After that became old hat, we tried to fill three categories—semi, car, and truck—for each of the states. Sighting vanity license plates always added a little spice to the proceedings. Some were easy to figure out, even for a child. Some even stumped the adults.

A Volkswagen Beetle sped by as I drove on the Interstate the other day. A glimpse of the license plate showed “BTLE JCE”. I’ll admit my point of view has been influenced by my place of work for the past decade. Show me “JCE” and the first thing to spring to mind is the Journal of Chemical Education. So my initial puzzled thought of “beetle JCE” was not correct. Some time ago, I did see the movie, Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keaton. That made more sense.

Our thoughts on a subject are influenced by our prior knowledge and experiences. As the license plate example shows, this is true outside the classroom. As chemical education research shows, it is definitely true inside the classroom as well. In their article in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education Tan and Taber state “Students attempt to make sense of what they are being taught based on their prior knowledge and if they cannot make any links to the new concepts taught, they may ‘bend’ what is taught to fit somewhere, thus giving rise to alternative conceptions.” Their article looks one step back in the process; they studied the understanding pre-service teachers had of concepts related to ionization energy and their alternative conceptions. They found “The prevalence of alternative conceptions among the pre-service teachers was similar to that previously found among high school students…”. A teacher’s point of view can influence a student’s point of view.

We can also be influenced by the behavior of those around us. In the May issue, McKean describes a children’s picture book where a boy and his father construct an elaborate sand castle on a beach. Afterward, even as their castle is washed away by the water, they see that others observed their activity and decided to do the same. McKean complements the book with science activities appropriate for preschool and elementary-aged students. Children compare the properties of ordinary sand and Magic Sand. Can one build a castle with each kind of sand?

ACS and the Hach Scientific Foundation

Terri Taylor shares exciting news of a new partnership between the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Hach Scientific Foundation. The Foundation recently gave the ACS a gift of $33 million. The ACS will now continue the programs previously run by the Foundation, particularly three that directly benefit both current high school educators and those studying to become one. High school teachers unfamiliar with the programs will want to access the ACS Web site to find out about the High School Chemistry Grant Program. The program provides up to $1,500 to pay for resources “to support and enhance student learning and development.” Unfortunately, the April 1, 2009, deadline will have passed by the time this column appears. However, teachers should file away information on this valuable opportunity and apply next year.

Laura’s Take on the Issue

from Laura Slocum, JCE High School Associate Editor

Corn crops and ethanol fuels are big topics of conversation in Indiana—corn is a major crop and ethanol plants have sprung up (1). Students want to know if using ethanol as a fuel will really make a difference in terms of air pollution and oil consumption. They also want to know how much it will cost to produce ethanol fuel and how much corn we would need to grow to fuel cars with ethanol. I told them there was an article coming in the Journal that would help them to answer these questions. The article is in this issue and I am excited. Pietro proposes five considerations to determine how much “Corn-Area-per-Car” would be needed. I am looking forward to having my AP Chemistry students try this, and then having them weigh in on potential sources of errors and the impact of those errors. Along with the background information I found (1), Pietro’s article may help them find answers to their questions. Isn’t this what teaching and learning is all about?

Literature Cited

1. Indiana grows about 884 million acres of corn/year, not including sweet corn. The state has 11 ethanol plants and two more under construction (both sites accessed Mar 2009). When completed, their combined production will exceed 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol/year, using approximately 423 million bushels of corn.

JCE High School Chemed Learning Information Center (CLIC)