"The truth is, that those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded." ... Herbert Spencer

This is my favorite quotation because it expresses what, in my opinion, is the essence of science -- it is beautiful and poetic in its own right. The statement applies particularly well to chemistry, since there are so many everyday applications of this "central" science. In these few words, Spencer eloquently sums up the role of chemistry as a scientific discipline, in society, and in University classrooms. I have come to appreciate it more throughout my teaching career. After having taught more than 5000 students, I have experienced the satisfaction of imparting some of this poetry to them. Although the roles of chemistry at a science/engineering-oriented University and at a liberal arts University might appear to be different, I believe that fundamentally they are the same: to share knowledge and to make new research contributions to the discipline. Neither one of these is more important than the other; they only differ with respect to their relative emphasis, and this emphasis must be molded to accommodate the nature of the audience in the classroom or laboratory.

A faculty member in Chemistry has the opportunity -- indeed, the responsibility -- to impart not only the fundamental concepts and facts of chemistry to his or her students, but also the excitement and rewards of making original discoveries in this most fundamental and ubiquitous experimental science. To this end, I have always felt that it is important to provide some historical perspectives in any chemistry course and to mention some of the recent research results and their implications. There is nothing so sterile as learning the nuts and bolts of a discipline without seeing how the nuts and bolts are used to build something.

I have enjoyed teaching ever since I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for a lab section at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where I later became the coordinator (still as a graduate student) for a group of labs (this involved working with and guiding other lab assistants). It was extremely rewarding to see that students could be motivated to learn and understand material for which they initially had little interest. I learned through those experiences that students listen to everything the instructor says -- things which I mentioned in passing, thinking that they were minor points, would be later cited as reasons for a student changing his or her major to chemistry. I also learned that students are impressionable and that the way a response is worded can make the difference between encouraging a student and causing the student to feel worthless and to give up. I think about the potential effects of my words every time I have a conversation with a student. My love of and enthusiasm for teaching has stayed with me since those days in the early to mid 1970s.

The most important function of a University professor is to act as a role model. Students can be motivated to work hard if they see that their professor cares about their success and if they see that he/she sets high standards for him/herself as well as for the students. Poorly prepared lectures, unavailability during office hours or at other times during the day, unfulfilled promises of checking on the answer to a question or looking up something in another source, and general sloppiness set the stage for students wondering, "If the professor doesn't care, why should we?"

I have always set high standards for my students and for myself. I generally teach rigorous courses and have been very careful to keep grade inflation in check. I never curve individual test grades. I also tell my students that there is only a curve on final grades if, after I have carefully looked over all of the exams given during the semester, I decide that some of the grades are low because of mistakes I made (a test was too long, a question was ambiguous or it required knowledge outside of the scope of the course, etc.). If the class average is 65% and I've decided that all the tests were fair and tested students on material they were supposed to have mastered, then so be it -- the class average will remain at 65%. At the same time, however, I make it clear that I am always available to help them to understand the material. I encourage them to schedule appointments with me outside of posted office hours if they need immediate or additional help. I pride myself on being fair to all students and treating them as equally as I can.

Naturally, not all courses should be organized and taught in the same way. For example, I had decided to teach Chemistry 1, the entry-level General Education course (taken as an elective by the students, who are generally Liberal Arts majors), qualitatively. In my opinion, this type of course does not warrant the same expectations as the general chemistry course that prepares science and engineering majors for subsequent courses. I relied heavily on writing assignments and a computer simulation (which culminates in a term paper and a role-playing "News Conference" about a pollution scenario) to tie together the concepts of the course and to let the students have some fun and display some creativity with the course material.

At the same time that I have attempted to maintain appropriate standards for the courses, however, it has become increasingly obvious that students are coming to college less prepared (on average) than twenty years ago. Although this is a discouraging trend, it also presents a challenge to a teacher and provides even more rewards when a student is successful in the course. The transition from a high-school "teaching" mode to a university "learning" mode is difficult for many students, making it even more important that the professor help them during this transition period.

When I began my teaching career at Penn State, I taught chemistry using the traditional lecture approach. I wrote copious notes on the board, re-worked sample exercises, and re-wrote definitions from the text. Although the students seemed to like this approach, it gradually became clear to me that they had become little more than scribes in the course. They were so busy taking down notes that they sometimes had trouble hearing what I was saying or what I was asking them while I was writing on the board; their experience was that of being taught chemistry in a passive context rather than learning it in an active environment. My approach now is quite different. I tell my students that they have paid good money for their textbook and that it is a waste of their time for me to repeat what is already in the text.

Since the Fall of the 1996/97 academic year, as a result of a successful Project Empower proposal, the Chemistry 12 course at York has been drastically revised. Much of the course material has been placed on a Chem 12 WWW Home Page (http://www.yk.psu.edu/~jhb3), and students are expected to access this page regularly to obtain assignments and access other course material. In addition to this emphasis on active learning, students also learn collaboratively by working together in groups on problems which are collected and graded every week. My typical class now is a combination of the traditional lecture (to expand on the textbook presentation or to introduce material that isn't in the text), in-class demonstrations, answering student questions about course material, and a group discussion/problem-solving activity that encourages students to participate actively. (See my "Marathon Problem" paper in the Journal of Chemical Education, 1991, 68(11), 919-922, for a description of this approach). These marathon problems, which were developed by me, have been included in the third and fourth editions of Steve Zumdahl's Chemistry text (D. C. Heath, 1993 and Houghton Mifflin, 1997). On the basis of my experience, students often have difficulty with chemistry not because of the subject matter itself, but because of poorly developed problem solving skills. One of my main thrusts in recent years has been to enhance these skills.

My philosophy for teaching labs is also centered around the idea of the professor as a role model. Now, however, the role model is that of a professional chemist and an experimental scientist. I emphasize the proper collection and interpretation of data, underscoring at all times that the data speak for themselves and shouldn't be molded to fit some preconceived notion of what the "correct" result should be. I realize that students often haven't learned proper lab techniques in previous courses, so I always take pains to show them how common lab procedures, such as gravimetric and volumetric techniques, should be done properly. I constantly urge them to "think molecules" so that they don't lay stirring rods containing analyte on a paper towel or the bench. The proper recording of data in a lab notebook, with careful attention to significant figures, is a benchmark of a good chemist, and I try to instill these habits in my students. When I have students working on a research project with me, I emphasize even more the proper setup of a notebook and the cross-referencing and sample numbering procedures that are so important for an accurate record of laboratory work.

In summary, I believe that students should be treated with respect and should be helped as much as possible to get excited about chemistry. The most important traits I can pass on to my students are my love for chemistry and my love for learning. When students have learned chemistry properly, they have learned how to learn. This legacy will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

Last modified July 7, 1997