GRADES IN CHEMISTRY 911

INFLUENCE OF HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE ONGRADES IN COLLEGE CHEMISTRY

BY GUY A. WESTNew Mexico State Teachers College, Silver City

Recently the question arose as to whether students in firstyear college chemistry lacked the necessary science back-ground. One professor of chemistry said he preferred that hisstudents come to him without high school chemistry. Anotherfound that his students suffered from lack of scientific conceptsand scientific vocabulary. In order to determine more accurate-ly the real situation at our college, the records for the past fouryears were analyzed.A tabulation was made of the high school science credits of

the students registered for the fall quarter’s course in collegegeneral chemistry. Six high school sciences were represented,namely: chemistry, biology, physics, general science, physiol-ogy, and physiography. The total number of units in all highschool sciences was computed for each student. There werein all fifty-nine students for whom complete records were avail-able. A correlation of 0.11 –.08 was found between numberof units in high school science and marks received in the fallquarter of college chemistry�a surprisingly low relationshipdespite the limitations of the study.Working from the scalier-diagram, the following table was

evolved:Grade in college Average number of units

chemistry in high school science

A ..................................... 2.21B ..................................... 2.46C ..................................... 2.05D ..................................... 2.10F ..................................... 2.20

The foregoing table reveals no discrimination between ^A^students and ^F7 students, with respect to amount of highschool science. In fact, there is surprising uniformity in back-ground (in terms of high school science credits) between thegroups represented in the five-point grade scale.

Further analysis indicates considerable differentiation be-tween students who had taken high school chemistry and thosewho had not. The grade point average for the former was 2.62

912 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

(approximately B �) while that of the latter groups was 1.81(approximately C�).Every student who received "A57 in college chemistry had

had high school chemistry. The following table shows the aver-age number of units in the various high school sciences for the^A" group and the ^F^ group in college chemistry:

"A" students ^F" studentsin college in collegechemistry chemistry

Average No. Units in all H.S. Sciences ...... .2.21 2.20Average No. Units in H.S. Chemistry ........ 1.0 0.4Average No. Units in H.S. Biology ......... .0.3 0.9Average No. Units in H.S. Physics ......... .0.3 0.0Average No. Units in H.S. General Science . . .0.07 0.5Average No. Units in H.S. Physiology ...... .0.3 0.2Average No. Units in H.S. Physiography .... .0.3 0.2

The old question of the influence of intelligence cannot beignored here. Test scores on the Ohio University PsychologicalExamination were available for fifty-two of the cases studied.A correlation coefficient of 0.38–.08 was found between in-telligence test scores and grades in college chemistry at theend of the first quarter. This relationship, however, is somewhatlower than expected in view of other studies. It is to be re-gretted that college chemistry marks were not assigned by morethan one teacher. If more students and more instructors wererepresented, the marks might be different.The advocates of general science as an introductory course

in high school cannot take much encouragement from thesedata. Larger numbers might of course show a different tend-ency. The fact is, however, that the college chemistry coursearound which this study is centered is taught more as a gen-eral science course than as a traditional-type laboratory-text-book course. Magazine articles on the production of rubber,sea divers, geological chemistry sanitation, health, etc., areamong the important materials used in the course. A splendideffort has been made to offer a live course in a formerly ^dry75subject. And yet, high school general science did not functionappreciably stronger than any other science. A point whichmight be easily overlooked, but which is perhaps important, isthe elapsed time since the high school subject was taken. Gen-eral science courses are usually offered in the earlier years ofthe high school curriculum. Physics and chemistry are frequent-

HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS 913

ly offered near the end of the senior high school. Direct com-parisons of propadeutic values therefore may be subject to someerror.

Despite the above considerations there seem to be fairly de-pendable reasons for concluding that the number of units ofhigh school science a student has taken is of less importancefor his success in chemistry at New Mexico State TeachersCollege than are some other factors, notably intelligence. Wenote the expected transfer effect (or is it the result of duplica-tion?) of high school chemistry on college chemistry.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR HIGHSCHOOL PHYSICS

BY DONALD R. WATSONCitrus Union High School, Azusa, California

No doubt every teacher of physics has approached a lessontrying vainly to recall just where he read that article that gavejust the practical application or the latest development wantedfor the day^ lesson. Science has been moving at such a terrificpace in the last few years that no textbook can be absolutelycomplete or up to date and no teacher, no matter how muchhe reads or attends summer and extension courses, can haveall the information in mind for the supplementing he desires.The tendency is to stick closely to the text and with what ma-terial that may come to mind call the preparation complete.

For several years the writer struggled with the above situa-tion. Just where was that article with the latest data on CosmicRays? Or, what are the specifications for the proposed 200-inch telescope? Where may be found the latest on the use ofDiesel Engines in airplanes and automobiles? Then followsa hurried search in the few minutes available through maga-zines at home or in the school library in an effort to find thedesired article which was read once, but now almost forgotten.After a while a plan was worked out, so that this might beavoided. Every month when the current issue of a scientificmagazine had been read, the articles that might serve as sup-plements in teaching were jotted down on a card, at the topof which was the date and the name of the magazine. Beforeeach title was placed a letter to designate the part of the course