Discusses how to address the concept of chemical equilibrium through the use of thermodynamic activities. Describes the advantages of setting up an equilibrium constant in terms of activities and demonstrates how to approximate those activities by practical measures such as partial pressures, mole fractions, and molar concentrations. (TW)

Discusses ways of teaching students about how to assign R (rectus) and S (sinister) labels to enantiomers by using their hands as models. The chirality of the human hands follows the Cahn-Ingold-Prelog Rules for assigning enantiomers and infers the correct chirality of molecules shown in two-dimensional drawings. (TW)

Describes a cooperative program between a school district and local industrial research chemists in which the chemists serve as tutors during after-school hours. Discusses the positive responses to the program in terms of increased student interest, achievement, parental feedback, and the personal gratification of the tutors. (TW)

Discusses the need for hands-on training for technician-level chemists. Describes a technician training program at Southeast Community College that emphasizes wastewater plant operations and laboratories. Outlines the course sequence for the six-quarter environmental laboratory technician curriculum. (TW)

Reports on a cooperative education program at Montclair State College in which 600 students were placed during the 1984-85 academic year. Describes the techniques used to initiate the program and some of the benefits that the program has provided to the university, the faculty, and the students. (TW)

Briefly describes eight applications of computers to the teaching of chemistry. Includes discussions of computer software designed for organic synthesis experiments, spectrum band analyses, and the memorization of chemical terminology. Discusses new ways to store and retrieve information, interface plotters and computers, and use pocket computers.…

Describes two demonstrations designed to help chemistry students visualize certain chemical properties. One experiment uses balloons to illustrate the behavior of gases under varying temperatures and pressures. The other uses a makeshift pea shooter and a commercial model to demonstrate atomic structure and the behavior of high-speed particles.…

Discusses a new program at the University of Michigan in hazardous waste management. Describes a laboratory demonstration that deals with the reactivity and potential violence of several reactions that may be encountered on a hazardous waste site. Provides criteria for selecting particular compatibility testing methods. (TW)

Discusses the need for chemistry laboratory safety procedures. Provides descriptions of techniques to increase students' awareness of the symptoms of such things as toxic gas clouds that could escape into the laboratory, along with defensive strategies for reacting to such situations. (TW)

Differentiates the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle (or Krebs cycle) from glycolysis, and describes the bridge between the two as being the conversion of pyruvate into acetyl coenzyme A. Discusses the eight steps in the TCA cycle, the results of isotopic labeling experiments, and the net effects of the TCA cycle. (TW)

Discusses the various ways that textbooks treat the energetics of protein synthesis. Offers an approach to explaining the phenomenon by emphasizing the ordering aspects of the process. Describes the participation of compounds such as ATP and GTP in the ordering process. (TW)

Discusses the various ways that time is measured and expressed, noting several discrepancies between descriptives and their respective vocabularies. Suggests that a logarithmic time scale be adopted by chemists (such as one used in the experimental sciences) particularly when addressing very fast processes. (TW)

Discusses the historical development of a new value of the second dissociation constant (K2) for hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Describes the differences between the traditional high values for K2. Suggests modification of teaching about sulfide equilibria in light of the new low value for K2. (TW)

Discusses the use of ratio diagrams, which plot the calculations of equilibrium concentrations of the species of the carbonate system. Provides examples to describe how these diagrams can be used to illustrate the behavior systems of interest in volumetric analysis, where absorption or loss of carbon dioxide takes place. (TW)

Provides summaries of presentations given at a symposium organized at the 40th Northwest Regional Conference of the American Chemical Society. The participants addressed the role of scientists involved with educating the public, starting at the third-grade level, and continuing with high school, parents, citizen groups, and the general public. (TW)