Reviews of Chemical Reactivity for School Science Teachers

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The purpose of this project is the collection and publication of at least twelve reviews covering the descriptive inorganic chemistry of the most important elements and their simple compounds, both in the pure state and in aqueous solution. The reviews, for the most part, will be published in the Journal of Chemical Education. They will later be collected in reprint volumes for teachers. The reviews are being modeled on the curriculum developed by W. C. Bray and W. M. Latimer, "A Course in General Chemistry". The general characteristics of the reviews include: coverage of the chemistry of everyday materials rather than esoteric compounds; inclusion of laboratory exercises and demonstrations graded as to suggested usage level; description of safety and waste disposal methods; and de-emphasis of heavily theoretical models in comparison with qualitative models. In conjunction with the project, a Policy Group, consisting of chemical educators from both higher education institutions and secondary schools is being formed. A second group, the Reactivity Network, will consist of highly qualified secondary school chemistry teachers who will serve on writing teams and give presentations about the review program at professional meetings. This project will address a serious shortcoming in precollege chemical education by providing materials focused on descriptive chemistry, an area largely ignored in current texts. Secondly, it will help to modify the present approach to laboratory work in that the laboratory activities will become the central feature of the materials, and will involve the solution of problems rather than the performance of illustrative experiments.