Thanks, Ruth,
I think we need a practical program on basic bench chemistry with common
reagents for inexperienced teachers, and for researchers who have limited bench
experience other than that small area in which they have worked.
Better safety comes with more knowledge and experience.
Maybe have teachers perform some common lab-experiments?
Generate some gases?
Do some separations?
Perform and characterize some syntheses?
Calculate some Ksp values?
Do a series of titrations?
I actually ran such a program at Phillips Exeter for the Anja Greer teacher
summer conferences several times.
Best,
Cary
-----Original Message-----
From: Tanner, Ruth <Ruth_Tanner@xxxxxxx>
To: neact <neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, May 14, 2018 10:29 am
Subject: [neact] Re: Some follow-up to 17 students
Cary,
Possibly NEACT and NESACS could help with a practical program on safety.
Ruth
Sent from my iPhone
On May 14, 2018, at 9:08 AM, Cary Kilner <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This has been ongoing since I began teaching in the early 1980s.
I have a collection of articles inJCE, The College Science Teacher, The
Chronicle of Higher Ed, et al. that have rued this trend.
And what's the result?
You see it still.
Chemistry teachers with no even rudimentary knowledge of descriptive chemistry!
JCE presently publishes few articles on laboratory experiments and descriptive
chemistry.
New teachers cannot even find guidance there.
What's to be done?
Too few BS, BA chemistry teachers; too many schools!
Can the American Association of Chemistry Teachers and NEACT help?
WCK
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles J McDonald <cjmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: neact <neact@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, May 14, 2018 8:58 am
Subject: [neact] Re: Some follow-up to 17 students
I see a lot more of these lab accident oriented stories of late.
Are they actually increasing of is it just the reporting that is increasing?
In order to teach Chemistry in Mass and RI - and I would hope all states - you
need a BS in Chemistry at the minimum.
I know that’s not true everywhere and as the shortage of science teachers
grows, could the use of Teach-for-America and other similar teacher-replacement
programs exacerbate this problem?
I’m concerned that the erosion of the teaching profession, in general, is going
to severely impact science education in this country.
— Chuck
