HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE CHEMISTRY 485

THE CORRELATION OF HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGECHEMISTRY1

BY JAMES BROWN,Butler College.

This subject I submit for consideration, not as one who has any-thing final to offer, but as a teacher who has considered severaldifferent systems and has tried some of them.

Inasmuch as the objects sought in the various high schools andcollege courses differ, it is difficult or impossible to devise any sys-tem of correlation which will suit all cases with the maximum ofefficiency. Local conditions and previous training of students, aswell as the future plans of the students, so far as these are defi-nite, must be determining factors. In any case efficiency, ratherthan convenience, should be our guide.

In considering this question, I have found it convenient to pro-pose three alternatives for students who have completed a highschool course in chemistry and elect to continue the subject in col-lege. The alternatives are as follows: First�To admit the stu-dent at once to second year chemistry, usually qualitative analysis.Second�To give the student the same course as those who havehad no previous work in chemistry. Third�To give to such stu-dents a special course in general chemistry."The first alternative�To admit the student at once to second

year chemistry I do not favor for theoretical reasons and becausemy experience has found it unsatisfactory. In this case you havehigh school students, the nature of whose courses in chemistryhas differed widely, subjected to the same prescription as collegestudents whose courses have usually been more uniform and deep-er. This is apt to be especially true because the college recitationsand laboratory periods are usually longer and because in a greatmany college courses in general chemistry more or less qualita-tive analysis is introduced. This enables the college student tostart qualitative analysis at a somewhat advanced point.On the theoretical side we find similar differences. The time

is past, if it ever did really exist, when a course in qualitativeanalysis conducted in a mechanical way, may be considered prop-erly taught. The theory of the subject is presented in our besttext books from the point of view of ionic equilibrium, the periodicsystem, and the electro-chemical series. Our best college text-books and laboratory manuals in general chemistry emphasize these

1 Read before the Indiana Academy of Science, December, 1914.

486 SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

same subjects. This, it seems to me, gives the correlation betweengeneral chemistry and qualitative analysis which is not secured bycourses which do not place emphasis on these three subjects.Equations also must be well learned throughout all chemistrycourses. We must not, to be sure, give too much time to equa-tions to the exclusion of other parts of the science. But have youever known a good chemistry student who could not write equa-tions? I often wonder if equations are being neglected.The second alternative�To put all students into the same course

in general chemistry admits of several interpretations. Shall wegive full credit for the course to the student who has received anentrance credit in chemistry? This may mean duplication of cred-it. Such duplication exists in one form or another in some sub-jects. Shall we do the same in chemistry? This question isvariously answered by different institutions.. Duplication of credit may be avoided by requiring differentlaboratory experiments and different written work in the labora-tory and in connection with the textbooks, from the two classes ofstudents. This is rendered difficult by the different contents ofthe High School courses. Or we may avoid this duplication bygiving only part credit -for the college work to those who haveentrance credit in chemistry. This may appear to the student to bework without credit, and is often opposed on those grounds.The third alternative�To give a different course to the two

classes of students, may be accepted in different forms. In somecases students have totally omitted the first part of the course,and taken the latter part. entire. This I think is objectionable be-cause of sins of omission and commission. The student shouldhave much of what he omits in the first part, and duplicates muchthat is familiar to him in the second part. We may on the otherhand give a shorter course covering the whole subject to our stu-dents with entrance credit, avoiding duplication of work whichmay be supposed to be familiar, and giving only what we thinkwill impart the advanced point of view which we consider advis-able.

This accomplishes in another way much the same end as theplan of assigning different work under the second alternative.These two plans are subject to the same difficulty. The studentshave had quite different courses in High School and do not welladmit of the same diagnosis.

Will not a satisfactory solution of our problem be accomplishedby the introduction into our High Schools of the new courses in

ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR BIOLOGY 487

General Science now being advocated? This would leave thespecialization along different branches of science in the hands ofthe Colleges and would enable us to treat all classes of studentsalike without fear of duplicating credit, or of omitting anythingessential. Probably our high school science should be conductedwith the purpose mainly of enabling the student to interpret hisdaily environment. In college, however, while considering fullythe interest pf the student whose object in chemistry is cultural,we must be guided mainly by the professional student and by thosewho, for various reasons, wish to specialize in chemistry.

ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR BIOLOGY CLASSES.1BY HAROLD F. SEHNN.

BOTANICAL.Corn Products Co., Chicago�Pamphlets and commercial products.Washburn Crosby Co., Minneapolis, Minn.�"Simplified Flour Mill/’ a

large chart; excellent.Quaker Oats Co., Fort Dodge, Iowa�24 bottles of cereals.Henry A. Dreer, Philadelphia, Pa.�Seed Catalog; very fine.Postum Cereal Co., Battle Creek, Mich.�School exhibit of Grape Nuts,

Postum and Post Toasties.American Manufacturers Assn., 1236 First Nat. Bank Bidg., Chicago,

111.�Manufacture of Corn Products, booklet.Bulletins of U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, of State Experiment Station,

and of International Harvester Comp’any, Chicago�Lists furnished uponapplication.

Pillsbury ~Co., Minneapolis2�12 samples , 18 Ibs. F. 0. B.

ZOOLOGICAL.L. E. Hildebrand, New Trier High ’School Kenilworth, 111.�Living

Hydra, 50^-$1.00.North Star Woolen Mills Co., Minneapolis, Minn.�Small exhibit of

wool, yarn, and blanket material.American Woolen Co., Boston, Mass.�From Wool to Cloth, booklet.Cheeney Silk Mfg. Co., Manchester, Conn.; Eureka Silk Mfg. Co., New

York, N. Y.�Silk: Educational exhibit.Belding Bros., Belding, Mich.�Silk Culture and Its Manufacture, 25^;

a very well illustrated book.T. A. Kelleher, P. 0’. Box 82, Washington, D. C.�Silk worm eggs.

300 for 25<?.Dog portraits oi Clayton Dog Remedy Co., Chicago, free.V. 0. Hammon Co., McClurg Bidg., Chicago�Picture post cards of

mammals; $5 per thousand.National Wool Warehouse & Storage Co., Chicago�Exhibit of wool,

yarn and cloth, free.Detmer Woolen Co., Chicago�Colored calendar showing preparation,

of wool. (This should be requested by a local tailor.)^A List of niustrative Material for Botany, Physiology and Zoology, suggested

by members of the Central Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers, No-vember, 1914, and January, 1915.

2From list published in Journal of Geography, January, 1915.