reviews Revitalizing Undergraduate Science: Why Some Things Work and Most Don't

Sherla Tob~as Research Corporat~on 6840 E Broadway Blvd . T~cson. AZ 85710-2815.1992 192 pp 15 1 x22 9cm PB $3 95 for postage for handlmg for flrsl copy, $1 tor eacn am - tional wpy; $4 foreign

Beginning with the mid-1970's, educational reformer Sheila Tobias has dedicated herself to answering "the question of why intelligent and motivated college students have task-specific disabilities in certain disciplines, partic- ularly mathematics and sciences."

In 1987 the Research Corporation initiated a program "to increase the flow of young people into the sciences with programs appropriate to the foundation's interest and ex- pertise" and in 1990 published its first "occasional paper

A .

bn neglected problems in science education", Tobias' well- publicized study They're Not Dumb. They're Different: Stalking the Second Tier (Research Corporation, 1990). This provocative monograph analyzed the characteristics of students who decided not to complete their studies in science but who were successful in other fields. Tobias'sec- ond book in this series, Revitalizing Undergraduate Sci- ence, disdains quick fixes to improve science education. In an introductory chapter, "Science Education Reform," Tobias discusses What's Wrong with the Prwess" and ar- gues that innovations per se requiring outside funding are less successful than steady improvement in existing pro- grams. In keeping with her subtitle, Why Some Things Work and Most Don't, she presents case studies of "pro- grams that work" as measured by productivity, student re- cruitment and retention, and high morale among faculty and undergraduates.

These success stories were written in collaboration with 25 sources and on-site "rapporteurs"~ounselors, faculty, retired faculty, faculty spouses, department chairs-"al- ways somwne with enough background to be able to report on the preselected program." Tobias describes and aua- lyzes introductory college physics and chemistry programs and courses in which unexpectedly large numbers of stu- dents, including minority students, are being recruited into and remaining in science, and she compares institu- tional responses to the challenge of teaching science to un- dergraduates.

Tobias concludes that outside ideas, even those by ex- perts. are less important than local initiative and control.

In view of the dismal record of previous innovations in science education, I strongly urgethose instructors inter- ested in educational reform to study carefully Tobias' case

studies and to ponder her conclusions before making changes in undergraduate programs in their own institu- tions.

George B. Kauffman and Laurie M. Kauffman California State University, Fresno

Fresno. CA 93740

A Skeptical Biochemist

Joseph S. Fruton. Haward University Press: Cambridge, MA, 1992. x +330 pp. 15.3 x23.3 cm. $27.95.

Looking back on six decades of research and teaching, Joseph S. Fruton presents stimulating thoughts about sci- en-how it is practiced, how it is explained, and how its history is written. He brings his own skeptical vision to bear on how chemistry and biology interact to describe liv- ing systems by offering "thoughts about efforts to describe, advance, defend, or belittle the scientific endeavor to ex- plain the properties of biological organisms through the study of the constitution and interactions of their chemical components."

Among the significant questions that Fmton raises are:

How does the "scientific method" work in practice? What is the nature of the tension between the cbemical and biological sciences?

What are the rwts and future direction of molecular biology? .What is the proper place of expert scientists, as opposed to professional historians of science, in the historiography of science?

F N ~ ~ ' S intriguing book should help to define and clarify the nature of some of the differences in the recent dis- course about the role of the biochemical sciences in the growth of our knowledge of the natural world and should be of great interest to scientists, philosophers, historians, and sociologists.

Georae B. Kauffman California ~tatebniversit~, Fresno

Fresno, CA 93740

The Design of Drugs to Macromolecular Targets

C. R. Beddell, Editor. Wiley: New York, NY, 1992. xiv + 287 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.9 x 23.7 cm.

: Reviewed in This Issue 1 , i

: Sheila Tobias, Revitalizing Undergraduate Science: f : Why Some Things Work and Most Don't I

11 Joseph S. Fruton, A Skeptical Biochemist b ,

Reviewer ti George B. Kauffman : I

Laurie M. Kaufrnan A24 :i I.

George B. Kauffman

1 Monographs

[ ' Titles of Interest

A24 Journal of Chemical Education