Educating chemists for the future: Conference explores different ideas on how to reform chemistry curricula and inspire students

"THE TIME IS RIPE FOR MAJOR change in chemical education." Those were the emphatic welcoming words of American Chemical Society Immediate Past-President Eli M. Pearce to some 50 educators and policy-makers who convened in Washington, D.C., earlier this summer to discuss the fundamental question: If you were going to reinvent chemical education, would it be structured the way it is now? "Just about everyone I talk to says 'no,'" Pearce said. But as it turned out, the attendees were not in complete agreement. Instead, the answer turned out to be yes, no, and maybe. There was, however, one definite area of agreement that emerged from the ensuing lively two-day meeting: This is not a simple question, and there are no simple answers. The conference was Pearce's idea and was sponsored by the ACS Society Committee on Education (SOCED). The premise of the conference, titled "Exploring the Molecular Vision," was that most undergraduate and graduate education ...