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Vol.
25 No. 1
January - February 2003
New
Strategies for Chemical Education in the New Century
A
Report on the 17th International Conference on Chemical Education
Held in Beijing
by Xibai
Qiu
From 610 August 2002,
more than 400 university, college, and secondary school chemistry
teachers; education researchers; chemistry researchers; chemical
engineers; and publishers from 40 countries and regions gathered
in Beijing for the 17th International Conference on Chemical
Education (ICCE) to discuss new ideas, thoughts, approaches,
and techniques for chemical education in the new century.
The theme of the conference, which was sponsored by IUPAC
and organized by the Chinese Chemical Society, was "New Strategies
for Chemical Education in the New Century." This conference,
the first ICCE in the new century, was held at the Fragrant
Hill Hotel, located in a famous scenic spot.
At the opening ceremony on
7 August, Professor Chunli Baiacademician and vice president
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, executive president of
the Chinese Chemical Society, and IUPAC Bureau Memberdelivered
the welcoming address. Professor Peter Atkins, chairman of
the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE) and IUPAC
conference representative, Professor Changgen Feng, representative
of the China Association of Sciences and Technology, and Professor
Eli M. Pearce, president of the American Chemical Society,
also made addresses. In addition, the vice minister of education,
Professor Guiren Yuan, and the representative of UNESCO, Dr.
A. Pokrovsky, also attended the opening ceremony.
Three hundred sixty-three
papers covering a wide range of chemical education issues
were accepted. Ten eminent professors were invited to give
the plenary lectures at the conference. Topics of their lectures
were as follows:
- "Chemistry: Teaching It,
Enjoying It, and Spreading It," by Peter Atkins
- "Nanoscience and Nanotechnology,"
by Chunli Bai
- "Chemical Education: Higher
Level and Wider Scope," by Kui Wang
- "The Graduate Education
System in the United States," by Eli Pearce
- "Could or Should Chemical
Education be Globalized by Internet," by Yoshito Takeuchi
- "Electrochemistry Remediation
of the Environment: Fundamentals and Micro-Scale Laboratory
Experiments," by Jorge G. Ibanez
- "Using Dance, Drama, and
Animation in Chemical Education for the Global Population,"
by Z. M. Lerman
- "The Art of Doing Research
in Chemistry Education," by Hans-Jurgen Schmidt
- "Chemistry for Sustainable
Developing: Greening the Curriculum," by Sylvia A. Ware
- "Multimedia Computer Coursewares
for Chemistry Teaching in Universities," by Panwen Shen.
Twenty-one more invited lectures
and 162 oral lectures were arranged into six sessions, each
of which highlighted a different special topic: 1) public
education and chemical literacy education, chemistry and society,
and environment-oriented chemical education; 2) chemistry
experiments, green chemistry, and environment- friendly chemistry
experiments; 3) Internet, computer, and chemistry; modern
technologies used for chemistry education; 4) teaching university
chemistry; 5) teaching chemistry in secondary schools; 6)
theoretical basis of chemical education, chemistry Olympiad,
chemical education, and frontiers of chemistry research.
One hundred seventy more papers
were presented as posters and displayed the recent chemical
teaching research of chemistry teachers from different types
of schools from all over the world.
At the four workshops, the
organizers highlighted their recent research results, which
mainly concerned micro-scale chemistry, low-cost chemical
instruments, and greening chemistry experiments. The speakers
vivid explanations and interesting experiments made the workshops
exciting.
After the conference, a number
of participants attended a Seminar on Chemical Education held
in Xian, including Professor John Bradley, chairman
of the CCE Subcommittee for Chemistry Education Development;
Professor Xinqi Song, president of Chinese Chemical Society;
as well as three other chemists from abroad and China. More
than 40 chemical teachers from the western part of China attended
the seminar. The topics included chemical education, advances
in chemistry, and micro-experiments. Participants expressed
hope that more seminars like this would be organized.
Prof.
Xibai Qiu <[email protected]>
is vice chairman of the Committee on International Activities
of the Chinese Chemical Society, and was secretary of the
17th ICCE.
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last modified 30 December 2002.
Copyright © 2002 International Union of Pure and Applied
Chemistry.
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