Describes a study showing that the results of a practical laboratory examination correlated more positively with written examination scores than the teaching assistant's evaluation of laboratory technique. (MLH)

Reports a study conducted to determine how students cope with a procedureless laboratory situation in physical chemistry. Students are expected to use ingenuity, determine choice of sample size, conditions, and temperature extrapolation in an experiment on measuring heat of solution of an unknown salt. (Author/SA)

Reports on the long term comparison between a group of "high risk" college freshmen who were given a supplemental chemistry course and another group who did not have the course. The supplemental course was found to produce only a short term rise in students' grades. (MR)

The operation of teaching associates (TA's) in reference to McGregor's ideas concerning Theory X and Theory Y Management is discussed. (CP)

Describes a supplementary first-year chemistry course offered to selected students also enrolled in the regularly scheduled first-year chemistry course.

Discusses the role of the laboratory in teaching chemistry, describing and differentiating between empirical laboratory investigations and discovery laboratory investigations. Also points out that if a laboratory is designed to illustrate something, it should be the scientific method. (JN)

Reports on the session at the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers meeting on chemistry laboratories in March 1987. Speakers included Leonard K. Nash and Audrey Champagne on values and goals; Howard Ende on regulation; Stanley Smith and Jerry Bell on the uses of computers; and Miles Pickering on the human dimension. (CW)

Criticizes the way organic chemistry teaching laboratory experiments are approached from the viewpoint of physical chemistry. Compares these experiments to cooking. Stresses that what matters is not the practice of the finger skills of organic chemistry but practice in the style of thinking of organic chemists. (CW)

Provides an overview based on personal experiences, recollections, viewpoints and anecdotal records. Discusses the general philosophy of education in the Soviet Union, the selection of students, graduate study and the chemistry curriculum. Compares and contrasts the educational systems of the Soviet Union and the United States. (CW)

Describes a comparison of scale of laboratory with respect to time efficiency. Compared full scale and one-tenth scale Grignard reactions with full scale averaging 330 minutes to completion and scaled-down averaging 204. Savings are seen in air pollution, toxicity, solvent cost, and time. (JM)

Investigated predictors of success in organic chemistry and how well freshmen chemistry predicts grades in other science courses (biology and physics) and success in entering medical school. Subjects were 254 freshman enrolling in freshman chemistry at Columbia College (the all-male undergraduate division of Columbia University) in 1978. (JN)

Notes that laboratory work should be more oriented towards puzzle solving rather than technique or illustration. Offers three organic laboratory puzzles which can be solved by melting point alone. Involves lab work at the 100-200-mg scale but still uses conventional glassware. (MVL)

Factors affecting traditional laboratory instruction in chemistry are discussed. They include: responses to potential hazards in the undergraduate laboratory; student distaste for laboratory classes; equipment and chemical costs; lack of qualified teaching assistants; and faculty pressures to do research. New directions for introductory…

Reports on a study into the relationship between a student's ability to solve problems in chemistry and his/her understanding of molecular concepts. Argues that teaching students to solve problems about chemistry is not equivalent to teaching about the nature of matter. (TW)

Discusses some of the difficulties involved with chemistry laboratory experiences and some laboratory manuals. Cites studies that indicate that part of the difficulty can be attributed to constraints relating to the short-term memory of the operational information and the assumption that students have a certain level of knowledge. (TW)