E D U C A T I O N

Olin Supports Advanced Science Classes Company sends outstanding science teachers to high schools in its plant communities

142ND ACS NATIONAL M E E T I N G

Chemical Education

Six groups of bright students in high schools spread throughout the eastern half of the U.S. are ready to enter special classes in chemistry and physics this fall. They're "special" because the teachers of these classes are se­lected experts in their fields. They have demonstrated their teaching talents, and they hold either masters' or Ph.D. degrees in science. Most of their classes will be working at fresh­man college levels.

Olin Mathieson's science education plan is designed to raise the standards of science education in high schools. William F. Leonard, Olin's director of corporate relations, told the Sym­posium on Improving Academic-Indus­trial Communications that the key to its success is the teacher. Olin be­lieves that potential scientists must be motivated at an early age—no later than the high school years. For this reason, he adds, the company exercises great care in selecting teachers for the science program. In addition to

knowledge, the teachers must also pro­vide the inspiration to guide students into science careers.

Scholarships provide one measure of the success of the Olin plan, Mr. Leonard points out, although it is not an objective of the program. At Alton (111.) High School alone last year, he says that students from Olin classes earned $110,000 in college scholar­ships. Since 1958, students from all these classes have received some $300,000 for college training.

Olin is supporting six teachers this year in towns where it has plants. The plan, which is conducted with the cooperation of local school boards, started in Monroe, La., in 1957-58. Since then schools in Alton, III, Bre­vard, N.C., Saltville, Va., and Mcin­tosh, Ala., have joined it. Lake Charles, La., starts its first course.

Olin recruits teachers for its plan from both high schools and universi­ties. But final selection of the teachers is left up to the local school boards. The company makes a grant of $10,-000 to each school board in the plan, Mr. Leonard says. These funds are then turned over to the teachers— $7500 for salary and $2500 for re­locating and living expenses.

Top students—either juniors or seniors—may join the Olin classes. Students from public and parochial schools other than the host school are also invited to attend the course. They are given a college level course when they are prepared for it. Otherwise, a stepped-up high school course is of­fered. The courses are part of the school curriculum, with credit, and are taken during regular school hours in addition to their other courses.

Each class is two hours a day. The instructor teaches two classes of 15 students each day, five days a week. Although the Olin teachers are free of other school duties, Mr. Leonard em­phasizes, they have special responsi­bilities to their 30 students, both as teachers and as counselors.

For the 1962-63 school year, Dr. Donald B. Summers will teach the Olin class at Alton (111.) High School; F. Glenn Bartle will teach at Brevard (N.C.) High School; Col. Wm. D. Fritz at Neville High School, Monroe, La.; Randall H. Gifford at R. B. Worthy High School, Saltville, Va.; Emory Harris, Jr., at Leroy (Ala.) High School; and Dr. Kenneth G. Melgaard, at Lake Charles, La.

According to Mr. Leonard, Olin plants industrial "seed money" in these towns hoping that it will lead other companies to sponsor similar plans and that local school boards will also become more interested in raising the standards of science education.

Chairman of the symposium (held jointly with the Division of Chemical Marketing and Economics) was Dr. Walter S. Guthmann of Roosevelt Uni­versity, Chicago, 111.

OLIN PLAN. Alton (III.) High School students work in a college level chemistry course taught by Dr. Donald B. Summers (second from left). The 1961-62 class won scholarships and awards from 10 sources including General Motors Corp., Shell Oil Co., and Bausch & Lomb

LAB FACILITIES GOOD. Most of the schools in the Olin plan have adequate lab equipment for the advanced science courses, as shown here. If funds for equipment are not avail­able locally, Olin provides grants for the purpose. The Na­tional Defense Education Act matches the grants

60 C & E N S E P T . 24, 1962

we spell "Chlorinated Solvent" five ways at PPG Chemicals Ethylene Dichloride

Perchlorethylene Trichlorethylene

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chemicals C & Ε Ν 61

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Money by Itself Isn't Enough

Industry can aid education with equipment gifts, and hiring teachers for part-time work

142ND ACS NATIONAL M E E T I N G

Chemical Education

Industry's most important aid to edu­cation is money. And it will be for as long as we have privately endowed colleges and universities. So Union Carbide's Howard Bunn told a lunch­eon held jointly with the division of Chemical Marketing and Economics.

But, he warns, it isn't enough. There are many other ways in which industry and business can help. Equipment gifts have become increas­ingly common recently, he admits. He says that as many industrial re­search projects are finished, much equipment is relegated to the store­house. This equipment, he adds, is a way for industry to contribute to education significantly at relatively little cost. Equipment manufacturers are ignoring this route too much.

In many modern industrial labora­tories, there is expensive equipment such as spectrographs, nuclear mag­netic resonance units, or a Van de Graaf accelerator; these may be used only a few hours weekly. Foresight and planning will make it possible for educators and students to use this otherwise unobtainable equipment.

Sometimes a university project re­quires more help than one industrial laboratory can give. Mr. Bunn cites an example at Lehigh University, where the civil engineering laboratory needed an exceptionally large uni­versal testing machine. Neighboring Bethlehem Steel could put such a unit to good use also. The two teamed up and, as a result, the school now has the largest universal hydraulic testing machine in the world. It's now used by the university, and by steel, aluminum, and cement com­panies as well.

This approach, Mr. Bunn says, is also becoming popular with expensive electronics equipment. He points out that, of the 60 or 70 power network analyzers in use, about 25% of them are located at colleges under similar types of cooperative arrangements.

Industry must also recognize that

Howard Bunn "There are many other ways."

it has the obligation—and the means— to help in manning the teaching plat­forms, too, according to Mr. Bunn. Industrial plants, he points out, are staffed with many highly trained tech­nical men who are authorities in their specific fields.

Mr. Bunn believes that this teach­ing talent should be made available not only to colleges and universities, but to junior colleges and secondary schools also. Such programs require one essential ingredient: the blessing of top management.

Hiring men from the academic world is also mutually beneficial. The corporation benefits from the ability and perspective of a competent aca­demician, and he acquires insight and experience in practical, commercial applications.

Besides individual company-edu­cator participation, there are group-sponsored programs, such as the Foun­dation for Instrumentation Education and Research. FIER sets up a pro­gram of in-industry scholarships that combines monetary support with prac­tical in-plant experience. Another is the Practice School Program, such as MIT's Chemical Engineering Practice School Station at American Cyanamid's plant in Bound Brook, N.J. Here, full-time faculty people, along with company men, select work assign­ments of instructional value as well as of interest to the company.

62 C&EN SEPT. 24, 1962