Chemical Education Today

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 79 No. 3 March 2002 • Journal of Chemical Education 281

Dear Class (or in this case Readers),Please read the review of Uncle Tungsten in this issue of

the Journal (p 312). Your assignment for spring break is todiscover the wonderful life andtimes of Oliver Sacks in UncleTungsten: Memories of a Chemi-cal Boyhood (1). I know that youwill enjoy it as much as I did.

Uncle Tungsten is well writ-ten, entertaining, and delightful.As I read the pages of intriguingdescriptions of many wondrouschemical reactions, I was im-pressed with the truly open in-quiry methods of learning that Oliver was allowed (encour-aged) to engage in when he was a boy. He was surroundedby a house full of well-educated adults and older siblings,who advised him on the marvels of chemistry and drove hispassion for chemistry. Yet it was this same inquisitiveness thatwas stifled at school and got him caned on more than oneoccasion. Of his boarding school experience during WW IIhe writes, “…I felt trapped at Braefield, without hope, with-out recourse forever…” (1, p 22). Sacks’s memories abouthis school life were, at best, reserved. In another reference tohis schooling he records (1, pp 313–314),

School, mercifully, had been largely indifferent to whatI was doing—I did my schoolwork, and was otherwiseleft to my own devices. … At school I had left the unde-manding classics “side,” and moved to the pressured sci-ence side instead. I had been spoiled, in a sense, by mytwo uncles, and the freedom and spontaneity of my ap-prenticeship. Now at school, I was forced to sit in classes,to take notes and exams, to use textbooks that were flat,impersonal, deadly. What had been fun, delight, when Idid it in my own way became an aversion, an ordeal,

when I had to do it to order. What had been a holy sub-ject for me, full of poetry, was being rendered prosaic,profane.

Now, put yourself in his parents’ shoes. If your 10-year-old son or daughter were continuously investigating the re-active patterns of explosive and malodorous chemicals, wouldyou simply install a fume hood in the laboratory in yourhouse? I think, the answer to this would be (for the major-ity), No!

What are the advantages and disadvantages of open-inquiry, guided-inquiry, cookbook, and skill-building chem-istry? I would attest that Sacks was educated by the truest ofopen-inquiry methods available. However, in many instancesthese methods are impractical when one is attempting to teachmany students at a time. What is the best way to integrateguided inquiry into our curriculum? And, on the other side,what necessary skills may be omitted when using methodsof inquiry? I’m not sure I have the answers to these ques-tions, but I would love to see more inquiry-based activitiessubmitted to JCE. Anyone game?

Literature Cited1. Sacks, Oliver. Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood;

Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2001.

Especially for High School Teachers

Inquiry Methods in Chemistry

Secondary School Featured Articles

� Book & Media Review: Uncle Tungsten: Memories of aChemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks, reviewed byA. Truman Schwartz, p 312.

� JCE Classroom Activity: #43. Lego Stoichiometry,by J. Eric Witzel, p 352A.

by Diana S. Mason

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Pat Ruff