Educating a chemist

Dr. Donald Andrews, chemical professor at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), introduces this program with a brief report from the recent National Science Foundation's conference on chemistry teachers held at JHU, which encouraged coordination of the chemistry curriculum between high schools and universities. He then shows a film developed by the Hopkins chemistry department, "Operation: Chemist" by Milner Productions, which follows a representative student through the JHU chemistry program and lists the options open to him. The university's introductory chemistry course stresses quantitative rather than qualitative problems. This is followed by experimental problems and specialty fields such as organic chemistry, as taught by Dr. Alex Nickon, shown using molecular models in a research seminar, or biochemistry, using lab animals to research the relation between food and exercise on the heart. The film highlights examples of the equipment available to students.