Describes eight experiments involving the use of common consumer products that could be incorporated into quantitative and instrumental analysis laboratories. Discusses these activities in terms of illustration of principles, awareness, and critical thinking. (CW)

Discusses the trend toward more "earth-as-a-system" approaches in research and teaching about global science. Uses the "greenhouse effect" as a prototypical global change problem that requires interdisciplinary problem-solving approaches. (TW)

Describes a course offered at Polytechnic University (New York) which is designed to provide an introduction to professional engineerig ethics as presented through the history of engineering, codes of conduct of professional societies, case studies and hypothetical situations. (TW)

Describes a demonstration of a practical application of electrochemistry. Discusses the set-up, materials, and theatrical attributes of this demonstration. (CW)

Describes a simplified redox method for total iron analysis suitable for execution in a three-hour laboratory period by general chemistry students. Discusses materials, procedures, analyses, and student performance. (CW)

Presented is a description of a BASIC program to be used on an IBM microcomputer for calculating and plotting synthetic seismic-reflection traces for multilayered earth models. Discusses finding raypaths for given source-receiver offsets using the "shooting method" and calculating the corresponding travel times. (Author/CW)

Discusses the conventional approaches to teaching about chemical equilibrium in advanced physical chemistry courses. Presents an alternative approach to the treatment of this concept by using Boltzmann's distribution law. Lists five advantages to using this method as compared with the other approaches. (TW)

Describes the graduate programs in environmental communications that have evolved at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Outlines the options for both masters and doctoral degrees. Lists theses done in the areas of media, audience attitudes toward environmental issues, and case studies of environmental conflicts. (TW)

Describes a polymerization reactor engineering course offered at Michigan Technological University which focuses on the design and operation of industrial polymerization reactors to achieve a desired degree of polymerization and molecular weight distribution. Provides a list of the course topics and assigned readings. (TW)

Examines some of the assumptions associated with attempts to define the "engineering method." Critiques a previously stated definition of this method, and offers an alternative definition that attempts to include the ideas put forth in the previous definition. Discusses the use of engineering heuristics in both definitions. (TW)

Describes a classroom experiment designed to teach students the fundamentals underlying the normal coordinate analysis procedure of a polyatomic molecule. Uses a reverse procedure from traditional experiments of this type by providing the values for the force field and working backwards. (TW)

Reports on a study designed to determine the importance of images to experienced chemists and the nature of images among learners, with particular attention to correlations with level of learning. Suggests that instructional methods should consider the student's ability to develop specific images appropriate to the chemical concepts. (TW)

Announces the establishment of two research centers by the National Science Foundation under its new Minority Research Centers of Excellence (MRCE) program. Describes the goals of these centers at Meharry Medical College (Nashville, TN) and at Howard University (Washington, DC). (TW)

Addresses the call for university undergraduate physics programs in Great Britain to be more concerned with the relationship between physics and the outside world, particularly with business and industry. Describes some of the constraints on this movement, as well as some of the strategies currently being used to overcome the obstacles. (TW)

Reports on a study in which two spatial tests were given to science and engineering majors and to students in nursing and agriculture at Purdue University (Indiana). Scores from the tests consistently contributed a small but significant amount of success on measures of performance in chemistry. (TW)