Dec
24
24
Education
More Holiday-Related Chemistry Fun
Posted by Lauren Wolf on December 24, 2009 in Education
In November, I wrote a Newscripts about Diane Bunce’s public lecture and demonstration of the chemical principles of Thanksgiving dinner.
Well, she’s at again. This time, she taught her students a thing or two about making holiday crafts in the lab. Check out this video, also available at the ACS podcast “ByteSizeScience,” for tips on making your own snow globe, bouncy “snow balls,” and marbled Christmas cards. Follow it up by making some chemical Christmas ornaments, and you’ve got yourself a holiday schedule full of geeky goodness.
Thanks again to the wizards in the ACS Office of Public Affairs for sharing their footage.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
Revisiting The Premed Curriculum
Nov
2
2
Posted by Celia Arnaud on November 2, 2009 in Education
In today’s issue of C&EN, I have a story about a report called “Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians” from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Association of American Medical Colleges. The report lays out the basic science that premed students should learn at the undergraduate level. Rather than mandating that aspiring physicians take specific college courses, the report proposes that premeds learn a specific set of competencies, opening the door to more flexibility in the undergraduate curriculum.
Last year, Jules Dienstag, a member of the HHMI/AAMC committee and the dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, wrote a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine in which which he asked whether students really need a full year of organic chemistry. That question sparked responses at such outlets as the Wall Street Journal’s health blog, Wired, The Chem Blog, Chemiotics II, and here at C&ENtral Science.
Although this summer’s report doesn’t say that students should take a class specifically called organic chemistry, it does require them to learn organic chemistry. The report gives educators the freedom to be more innovative in their approach to undergraduate science education.
For the story, I talked to Gregory Petsko, a member of the committee that wrote the report and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Brandeis University. He had a radical suggestion for teaching the introductory-level chemistry classes (including organic):
“I’d divide the students into groups of 50 and assign each group to a single chemistry faculty member for two years. For two years, that faculty member would teach those 50 students general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry,” he says. The faculty member would have free rein to organize the course any way he or she saw fit, as long as the necessary information was included at some point. At the end of the two-year cycle, the professor would have a year off.
Petsko acknowledges, however, that such an approach would require too many faculty resources to be affordable.
Here’s my question to you, taking a page from Petsko: If resources (financial, people, etc.) were not an issue, how would you teach general chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry in a way that was appropriate for all students–premeds and future lab rats alike?
Cal/OSHA Investigates UCLA, Again
Aug
27
27
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on August 27, 2009 in Chemistry in the News, Education, Safety
(Post updated at end.)
The University of California, Los Angeles, is still under the microscope of state regulators. California Division of Occupational Safety & Health (Cal/OSHA) officials paid the school’s chemistry & biochemistry department a surprise visit on Tuesday, Aug. 26.
Cal/OSHA spokesperson Erika Monterroza says that the inspection marked the opening of a new investigation into laboratory health & safety at the university, although she refused to comment on the details of the investigation while it is ongoing, including what prompted it. California law gives Cal/OSHA six months to complete investigations, although the agency usually takes 3-4 months, Monterroza says.
(more…)
German Scandal: Paying For The PhD Title
Aug
26
26
Posted by Sarah Everts on August 26, 2009 in Education
If you’re a wannabe doctoral student, picking a good topic and supervisor is a pretty important thing, but would you pay thousands of Euros for this?
Germany’s academic community is being rocked by investigations by the city of Cologne’s public prosecutor into a now insolvent consulting firm that connected students with professors at fees of up to €20,000. Professors taking in the students would receive €4,000 for their open door policy–a double payment for supervisory services already being compensated for by their academic salaries.
Now the public prosecutor is investigating over a hundred lecturers, instructors and professors from all over Germany, and from a wide spectrum of disciplines, under suspicions that they received bribes to accept and then graduate possibly undeserving students. According to der Spiegel, it’s the latest investigation in to the consulting firm, (Institut für Wissenschaftsberatung or Institute for Academic Consultancy), whose managing director was sentenced last year to three and a half years in prison for bribing a University of Hannover law professor.
Annette Schavan, Germany’s minister of education, said publically on Sunday that if the accusations are verified to be true, Germany’s academic credibility could be damaged. Um, yeah.
Der Spiegel has got a good piece on the whole bribing backstory here…
Hat tip: Chemistry World
Kindergarten And Crystallography
Aug
24
24
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on August 24, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Education
As my daughter starts kindergarten this week, I thought I’d share an interesting bit of history that I learned recently: Kindergarten’s origins are entwined with crystallography.
Fröbel
Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) is the man credited with inventing kindergarten. Two things stand out about Fröbel’s career path: First, he became a teacher at the Frankfurt Model School in 1805 and spent the ensuing five years being indoctrinated in Johann Pestalozzi’s philosophy that learning is better based on observation and hands-on experience rather than in lectures and recitations.
Then, after a stint in the Prussian army, Fröbel spent two years cataloging crystals for Christian Samuel Weiss, learning an early crystal classification system based on the axial intercepts of developed facets. About Fröbel’s experience there, biographer D. J. Snider wrote:
(more…)
Digital Textbooks: Bane Or Boon?
Jul
27
27
Posted by Sophie Rovner on July 27, 2009 in Education
Digital versions of textbooks that can be read on a PC or a dedicated reading device like Amazon’s Kindle are slowly gaining ground in university classrooms. But they’re not yet used much in chemistry courses.
What’s your opinion of these digital textbooks?
As a student or professor, have you used one in your college courses? In what ways did it help or hinder your educational activities?
And if you haven’t yet tried a digital textbook, what’s holding you back?
Summer Camp Awesomeness
Jun
19
19
Posted by Jyllian Kemsley on June 19, 2009 in Education
From 30Threads, via Terra Sig: What happens when you drop 50 pounds of Silly Putty from a 10-story building?
Do you–or your kids–have any good memories of summer camp science adventures? Please share them in the comments. I’ve got my eye on a science camp for my daughter next summer, so perhaps I’ll be back next year to share her stories.
Teach Chemistry The Way Chemistry Is Done
Jun
8
8
Posted by Rudy Baum on June 8, 2009 in Education, The Editor's Blog
Will the NSF Chemistry Division’s realignment have any impact on the moribund structure of academic chemistry departments? That’s not its stated goal, but some people hope it will.
The division announced the realignment of its programs at a town hall meeting at the ACS meeting in Salt Lake City. In this week’s issue, Sue Morrissey has a story on the details of the realignment and the rationale behind it.
So, as of July, it’s out with organic dynamics; organic synthesis; theory or computational; experimental physical; inorganic, bioinorganic, and organometallic; and analytical and surface, and in with eight new interdisciplinary programs whose titles more accurately reflect the research that’s actually being done in chemistry labs these days.
It’s in with chemical synthesis; chemical structure, dynamics, and mechanisms; chemical measurement and imaging; theory, models, and computational methods; chemistry of life processes; macromolecular, supramolecular, or nanochemistry; environmental chemical sciences; and chemical catalysis. The division has put together a nifty decision tree to help chemists figure out where their research proposals will find a home in the new structure.
Waiting for Godot Or Graduate Program Rankings, Whichever Comes First
May
29
29
Posted by Carmen Drahl on May 29, 2009 in Education
UPDATE July 8:
The methodology report (which describes how the assessment of graduate program rankings was conducted) will be released Thursday July 9th at noon Eastern. Download it here.
The 20th century play “Waiting for Godot” is about the interactions between two men who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of an acquaintance named Godot, who never, in fact, arrives.
I’m no literature buff, but I couldn’t resist a comparison to the graduate students and the education community that’ve been eagerly awaiting an update to an authoritative set of grad program rankings for several years now.
Learning in Stereo
Apr
30
30
Posted by Carmen Drahl on April 30, 2009 in Chemistry is Everywhere, Education
Things like Kyle Finchsigmate’s great series of blog posts on running columns , Org Prep Daily, and chemistry demo posts on Mitch’s blog have got me thinking about the process of learning how to do stuff in the lab, and how technology is changing that process. Back in the day, I would read the instruction book before going to undergraduate labs, but I really learned the nitty gritty details about lab techniques from talking to people (my lab TA’s, my undergraduate mentor, senior grad students, and postdocs). From time to time, I also got tips from a website (Not Voodoo). What fascinates me most about the blogs is the useful discussions that each post engenders.
There are a smattering of universities who are looking to technology to help students learn their way around the lab- they’re producing videos of lab techniques, some available on YouTube and/or for downloading onto an iPod, like a video podcast. Watch videos at MIT, Cal. State U. Long Beach, and Indiana U. South Bend for some examples. Searching Google for “lab demo video” brings this one up.
Does your college or university make use of video podcasts for teaching students proper lab techniques?
Would you use podcasts/ videos to learn lab techniques or brush up on skills, or do you think learning from a real person is better?
Where do blogs fall into the equation? What’s their role?
What do you think is the best way to teach someone how to properly use lab equipment or perform a certain lab technique? Does it depend on the technique in question?
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