oppor tunitie~ in edlted by RAYMOND D BANGS Roselle Park High School

and continuing education Marblehead ETHYL Senlor L H l ~ h SCHULTZ School

Continuing education has become an area of great activity within the educational community. Many universities have initiated or expanded programs to provide educational op- portunities for persons who wish to refresh or extend their college training. One group of professionals for which a number of these programs are designed is the secondary school chemistry teacher. Science educators have long recognized the changing nature of their subject matter and realize the need for continuing education.

The following article is hased on a presentation that was given by J. Edmund White at the Symposium on Continuing Education held at the 14th Great Lakes Regional ACS

Meetinp, Macomh, IL, June 4-6.1980. White, Chairman of

(Edwardsville, IL 62026). A paper presented a t this Symposium by J. E. Bundschuh

on a program offered hy Western Illinois University (Macomh, IL 61455) will he featured in a future issue of THIS JOURNAL.

I t is hoped that anyone planning activities in continuing education in chemistry will find the descriptions and the evaluations of these programs to he helpful.

Continuing Education for High School Chemistry Teachers J. Edmund White Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL 62026

A series of courses desiened for teachers of high school chemistry was offered at S ~ U E in 1978-79. The program was well-received and has established good relationships with local teachers. Unique features of the program which led to its success included involving teachers in the ~ lann ine of the - - program, offering courses of short duration, and developing a schedule that was convenient for teachers.

The project was supported by an NSF grant, under the Pre-college Teacher Develo~ment in Science Drogram, which

mary objective was to broaden the background of those who teach chemistry. Secondary objectives included encouraging teachers to continue their formal educations, experimenting with short and minicourses as devices for providing continuing education, and establishing communication and cooperation between the Department of Chemistry and the chemistry teachers in the region served by SIUE.

Format of the Program

The design of the program was based on needs identified through local survevs and those listed in the ACS committee rfap,rrr. "(;uidclinc-: .~nd I ( ~ ~ . o o ~ , ~ ~ ~ n ~ l ; ~ ~ ~ t ~ ~ i ~ i . ) r t hc l 'rrp~rq r i m a i d ( ' W ~ I I U I ~ ) : I<<Iu(.itt~~tl~ oi'St(.t~l:try S,ht)~d 'l'(.ilciirr~ dl. hr~iii>rr\."~ Tlir r t p m r e , ~ , ~ n ~ n c ~ l s ~ w m i n ~ :111d w ~ ~ k v t ~ d .;cI~cdul.~tz, :~ltt.rn:~l<. t'.mn;~t-. c t ntrnl directed I,, intcrt .t> of teachers, and academic credit; all of these are elements of this Dropram.

T& types of courses were offered: the short course and the minicourse. The latter was designed so that the ~ a r t i c i ~ a n t would focus attention on one topic and make only four trips to the campus. The four meetings were divided according to three different plans:

1. Four 2%-hour evening meetings a t one-week intervals (total of four weeks)

2. Four 2lh-hour evening meetings a t two-weekintervals (total of eight weeks)

3. A 2-hour evening meeting and a 3-hour meeting on the following Saturday morning a t one-week intervals (total of two weeks)

Plans 1 and 3 permitted the offering of two (or more) courses in the same quarter without overlap. Each minicourse pro- vided one quarter hour of credit.

The alternative short course provided three quarter hours of credit and consisted of lectures in the mornings and laho- ratory work in the afternoons during one five-day week in June.

The titles of the courses offered are listed in the table. In general, the material to be included and the depth of treat- ment were chosen with attention to the typical educational background of the participants. Other considerations were inclusion of material which would he new to most of the teachers and of examples which might be used to enrich their own teaching situations. Illustrations of some of the nniaue topics pesented are

Course 1: Proposed mechanisms of the formation of the nuclei of elements after the Big Bang

Course 2: Fundamentals of toxicity; a laboratory survey for unsafe situations

Course 3: Computer plotting of titration curves Course 4: Instrumentation for air pollution monitoring Course 5: Philosophy of problem solving; computer-assisted in-

struction Course 6: Stereoehemistry; applications of nuclear magnetic res-

onance in organic analvsis.

' American Chemicd Soc el, ACS Comm nee on Con1 wing E ~ J - cnlion 1155 161n St . h W . &ash nglon. D.C. 20036

238 Journal of Chemical Education

The vour5ei were prepared a n d tn l ldh t I,!. mtwlwri i d t h e i a c u l t v d r h r I J w ~ l r t m t ~ n l t r i ( 'hew~.; t ry. , \deu~~nre r i m e t;m

Results One measure of the success of a program is the support

given it by attendance. The tahle includes the number of participants taking each course. Enrollment in the short course was smaller than expected, partly due to several ~rereeistrants ohtainine summer iohs at the last minute.

earned four or more credit hours. mhe average was fo& credit hours Der teacher.)

~ a s e d on the evaluations received for the entire project, a majority of the participants agreed that:

5 hcduli~?~ m e mght p r w+k ttt ~n?. C ~ ~ I W w ~ k intervals i i - ~ r ~ a f r w r l r y . I ~ I a. hc.dul~ng m 5:atunl dy i. 11.11 (leiired The i r personal classroom teaching will he improved greatly. The i r personal background has been improved greatly. They would recommend a similar project to fellow teachers.

They were divided about equally on the need for earning graduate credit and the desirability of exams and grades for courses in such a program.

Discussion The reactions show that the participants were satisfied with

the program and felt that they had benefited from it. Many expressed interest in continuing similar activities even without financial support. In the following year, however, similar courses were scheduled without grant support and enrollment was Door

Omie 3olutic,n 10 tllc p r ~ h l e m 01 t u i f i o n expense i s 11, granf c c m l i n l ~ ~ n r t ~ I u ( . i i ~ i ~ m i uui t . r i i t l ~ e r 1han academir v r t d i ~ nnC to set the Tee very low. This would require that the instructo~ he assigned ta the course as part of his regular load. Another is to offer no credit and have no charges. About half of the participants said that credit was not important.

In conclusion, i t appears that many teachers are willing to attend courses during the school year which are scheduled convenientlv. if the cost is low. Minicourses. focusine on a limited topic and scheduled over a short period of time, are a ~onu la r and effective wav to ~rovide on~ortunities for high . . " . . . school teachers to continue their educations.

Acknowledgment The author wishes to thank his eight colleagues in the De-

partment of Chemistry who helped to teach the courses in this pojkct and to recognize the financial support of a grant from the Pre-college Teacher Development in Science Program, Division of Scientific Personnel Improvement, National Science Foundation, Award No. NSF-SPI-78-04192.

Titles of Courses and Number of Particioants Comoletina Each

Minicourses (10 lecture hours; 1 credit) 1. Origins of Elements, Molecules, and the Earth's Atmosphere 22 2. Hazardous Substances 33 3. Acid-Base Theories 25 4. Chemistry of Air Pollution 22 5. Problem Salving in the Physical Sciences 15

Short Course (lecture and lab; 3 credits) 6. Modern Organic Chemistry 13

This feature serves as the source of educational opportunities for chemistry teachers. It includes up-todate information on forthcoming workshops, seminars. and short courses. Readers also are provided the opportunity to relate their personal experiences with these education programs. in addition, readers are invited to share their dreams and suggested designs for possible workshops. In this way it is hoped that potential sponsors will have a bener idea of the needs and desires of their potential participants.

Volume 59 Number 3 March 1982 239