| Prelude - On The Need To Know |
| Section P.1 | Why Do We Need To Understand Chemistry? |
| The Main Point: | Science is a systematic approach to knowing. Chemistry is the systematic study of all substances - the nature of their composition, their properties and their changes. Technology is the application of scientific (including chemical) knowledge to serve some practical purpose. The intimate connection between chemistry, technology and life is the essential reason for our need to understand chemistry. And most of the day-to-day choices we make as individuals and as a larger society involve chemistry. |
| Web Work: | Two ways to demonstrate the importance of science in public policy is to show that science-related legislation and budgeted money - lots of it - are a part of the work of Congress.
Look at the following Web site: http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/
- This is from the National Science Foundation's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. Search through any of the links therein, from "On The Hill" to "Neat Stuff". Find legislative Acts, budgets and other indications that science in general, and chemistry in particular, is an important part of government work. |
| Section P.2 | How Do We Find Out About Chemistry? |
| The Main Point: | Chemists and other scientists find out about nature in a systematic way, by asking questions, designing and performing experiments, gathering data, interpreting the data, and checking that their results can be repeated. |
| Web Work: | Peter Sorensen's research is highlighted in the section's Case-In-Point. Recently funded work is described at: http://www3.extension.umn.edu/mnimpacts/impact.asp?projectID=69 What are the key questions of Sorensen's latest project? Why is his work relevant? Why is it worthy of funding? Speculate: What questions might be the focus of his future work? |
| Section P.3 | Chemical Technology: Risks and Benefits? |
| The Main Point: | The application of chemical knowledge brings both risks and benefits, which can be assessed in a procedure known as risk-benefit analysis. The financial costs of allowing or avoiding risks are determined in a cost-benefit analysis |
| Web Work: | The purpose of the Pesticide Management Education Program at Cornell University is to, “promote the safe use of pesticides for the user, the consumer, and the environment”. They have a fine discussion about risk and cost-benefit analysis at: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/issues/risk-benefit-fifra.html Note the discussion there about the herbicide dinoseb. Should the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have taken the action it did with the herbicide? Why or why not? Can you search the Web and find another pesticide for which a risk-benefit analysis resulted in a different conclusion? Why was the outcome different? |
| Section P.4 | Chemical Information: Where Can You Get It and How Accurate Will It Be? |
| The Main Point: | It is important that we keep informed about the latest advances in science and technology. However, we must be careful about accounts of scientific studies reported in the mass media. Sometimes the reporters oversimplify details and draw unwarranted conclusions. |
| Web Work: | Mapping the human genome is thought to be one of the most significant scientific accomplishments of the past century. Compare two levels of discussion. The first is a detailed discussion from the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/
The second is an article published by Cable News Network, CNN.
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9906/11/human.genome/ What information is available on the Oak Ridge site that is not available on the CNN site? Is the CNN article sufficient background for a general understanding of the topic? Why or why not? If you think it lacks information, what would you add if you were to re-write the article? |
