Subject: Subject: HS Sci Ed & NEWTON

From: Robert_Topper <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 1994 11:11:45 -0400

Since some high-school students seem to be tuning into this
space, I felt that it might be useful to tell everyone about
NEWTON. NEWTON is a public BBS maintained by Argonne National Laboratory's
Division of Educational Programs. Although not affiliated with Argonne,
I have been working with them as a volunteer for several years now.
NEWTON (newton.dep.anl.gov) has a series of moderated sections called 
"Ask-A-Scientist."  Arranged by topic (chemistry, physics, math, etc.),
students in grades K-12 (literally) and their teachers can post questions 
on different topics, to be answered by volunteer scientists who have been
"cleared" by Argonne. Any qualified scientist is welcome to volunteer 
to answer questions on NEWTON, and any student (qualified or not)
is welcome to "drop in" and ask questions. So I hope that Dan Mulcrone
and his friends and teachers will feel free to telnet to 
NEWTON at newton.dep.anl.gov .

That said; I realize that Dan and his friends are getting a lot of useful
information without having to hit the library by asking about their
assigned elements on the CCL...but is this a good thing?  
Last year, no less than 20 students (all in the same class) logged 
into NEWTON asking for enough information to write 3-page reports 
on their assigned elements...tungsten, chlorine, cadmium, etc....
In the end, we (the volunteers working the chemistry section) 
determined that we could not, and would not, honor such requests.

I wonder whether just handing students information which they 
could find out by hitting local libraries, newspapers, college libraries
and other resources (interlibrary loan is the small-town 
librarian's friend) is really helping them.  After all, part of a 
scientific education is learning how to use available library 
resources effectively.
 
I'm sympathetic to the students' frustration with their own
school's library....I grew up in small towns in North Carolina
and in western Colorado.  But the fact is that there are other
local resources they can use if they just ask. When in high school,
I had a paper to write on botanical remedies. I hit the school and 
local public libraries, as well as the library at the local 2-year 
college. I went to local hospitals (many of which have journal 
collections), and interviewed pharmacists, doctors, and health-food 
store owners..just generally hit the pavement.  Ultimately I came
out with a pretty good paper.

Certainly, the INTERNET is a vast resource and it's good for students 
to learn how to use it to do research...but ultimately I feel that what 
a student is asking for in this situation is
for a lot of people to each do a little work for them so that they 
have little left to do for themselves (except write it up).
And is that a good thing?  Well, each must decide. But remember; when
citing sources in a published scientific paper, one usually has 
to be a little more specific about where information comes from than 
"someone sent me an email message."

Best to all, especially you future chemists out there -

rqt

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 Prof. Robert Q. Topper               internet:   [email-masked]
 Department of Chemistry              phone:      (212) 353-4378
 The Cooper Union                     FAX:        (212) 353-4341 
 Cooper Square                        subway:     take the N/R to 8th/NYU 
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 by Peter Cooper in 1859, is a private institution of higher learning 
 where all students receive full-tuition scholarships.                 
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