December 30, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



657 



structure, and hence in our teaching of 

 chemistry, we must hew these rocks into 

 shape by the use of chemical tools. Tou 

 may ask what do you mean by this and how 

 may it be done? To illustrate, I will take 

 the first tendency which I mentioned, namely, 

 curiosity. 



There is not a normal boy or girl who has 

 not an original tendency to want to know the 

 reason or wherefore of almost everything with 

 which they come in contact. As they begin 

 their school days this tendency is gradually 

 transformed into a submissive tendency by 

 the teacher's desire to not wish to be bothered 

 with so many questions, and when the stu- 

 dent reaches the chemistry department, we 

 generally put the finished transformation 

 touch to it, and hence we have destroyed the 

 properties of one of the most energizing ele- 

 ments in the promotion of chemical educa- 

 tion. 



If we find that a student, when he comes 

 to our chemistry department, has had this 

 tendency partly transformed, it should be 

 our business as teachers of chemistry to bring 

 back or revert this original tendency to its 

 pure condition. 'Now, you ask me how this 

 may be done. I can tell you how it can not 

 be done. It will never be done by telling the 

 student all the results or letting him read 

 all the results before he goes to the labora- 

 tory, that is, by letting him go to the labora- 

 tory with the feeling that his experiments 

 are only to illustrate the lecture or book. 

 Such work is highly artificial and not only 

 dulls the keen observations of the student, 

 but absolutely tends to kill all curiosity. To 

 be sure life is too short to find out every- 

 thing in the laboratory, but what he can find 

 out and has time to find out let him find 

 out without telling him. What he does not 

 have time to find out or can not find out, 

 tell him in plain English. A few things 

 found out for himself will stimulate and aug- 

 ment his CTiriosity, and put him in an ap- 

 preciative attitude for results told him. 

 Hence I say that we as chemists can develop 

 this original tendency of curiosity by the 

 proper handling of the laboratory end of 



chemistry. This must be put up in such a 

 way as to arouse the student's curiosity. 

 This may be done by putting all laboratory 

 work in problem form and letting that prob- 

 lem be one that has not been explained over 

 and over and over again in both lecture and 

 book. You may call this a project in spite 

 of the fact that we understand that a pro- 

 ject is a piece of work carried out in its 

 natural setting. The laboratory is a natural 

 setting in the study of chemistry. 



I feel that the project or problem method 

 produces the most favorable conditions or 

 situations for arousing and holding the origi- 

 nal tendency of curiosity, and furthermore I 

 am sure that this same feeling is shared by 

 many others, and because of this fact I can 

 not understand why it is not more generally 

 used. 



I am of the opinion that the entire chemis- 

 try course can be developed by the project 

 method. Let the reading matter raise a 

 problem or project, and then let this project 

 be straightened out by a little elementary 

 research. When he has solved his problem 

 or project his book reads smoothly, and when 

 he has solved all the projects in the book 

 his book is complete, and it is not complete 

 until he has. He must do his share before 

 he can gain a full knowledge of his subject. 

 Such a situation produces a normal curios- 

 ity, and at the same time there is a very 

 noticeable improvement in his observations 

 and powers of reasoning, both of which are 

 so essential to a chemist. 



The teaching of chemistry will become a 

 science when chemistry teachers begin to 

 seek for the situations or conditions that will 

 properly develop all these original tendencies 

 which are closely allied with chemistry. 

 When, we, as chemists, have found the con- 

 ditions or situations that produce certain re- 

 sults with the elements of chemistry, what 

 do you do? You publish these results or 

 come to such a meeting as this and give 

 other chemists the benefit of your results. 

 Why should you not do likewise when you 

 have found the proper conditions for the de- 

 velopment of these original tendencies? 



