Royal Society of Chemistry
Educational Techniques Group Trust
Minutes
of the Committee meeting
at Nottingham on 24th November 2004
< style="font-family: verdana;">Present
A J
Rest (Chairman), P E Curry (Secretary), R Murray (Treasurer), D Brattan, R Wallace, D
Moss (by invitation)
<>1) Apologies S
F A Kettle, J M Gagan
<>
< style="font-family: verdana;">
<>2) Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Minutes of the Committee meeting on
February 11th 2004
were approved.
3) Chairman’s Statement
There had been further success with
multiple language CDROMs. For example, the Dutch Chemical Society has
agreed to
fund a dual language Dutch/English version
for schools and
colleges in Holland and there
is interest in Malaysia in a Malay/Chinese/English version and in Spain and
Portugal in Spanish/English and Portuguese/English versions. In all cases it turns out that it is most
beneficial to target resources towards school and colleges because
there are
greater numbers of students in schools, the students are less fluent in
English
and need dual language versions whereas university students are more
competent
in English. A wide variety of RSC/CVC material (CDROMs and VHS tapes)
has been
sent out to Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Cameroons (French/English) under the “Chemistry Aid” programme
(see RSC News,
June 2004). The CVC has funded a visit by one of its authors, Stephen
Breuer,
to demonstrate the use of Microscale Chemistry experiments for schools
and
universities in Kenya. It is expected that an account of this visit will be
written up
for RSC News. The Committee felt that more financial support should be
offered
by the RSC for these overseas projects, cf. the RSC overseas awareness
programme. Other possible sources mentioned were the Institutes of
Physics and
Biology, the British Council and UNESCO, cf. the expansion of
“Chemistry Aid”
to become “Science Aid” and perhaps collaborating with the existing
charity
“Lab Aid”. Ray Wallace will be meeting the RSC President in the near
future and
offered to try and raise this matter with him. In support of this, the
Chairman
will send RW a note explaining these projects. In addition, UNESCO and
the
British Council would also be informed.
4) Secretary’s Report
Due to computer problems the Secretary
reported that the latest membership list had not arrived until recently
but
numbers are expected to be around 360. It was recognised that Members
might not
be downloading e-mail/www information. Therefore it was agreed that the
Membership should be contacted by an A4 mail-shot Newsletter informing
them of
the Group’s activities and urging them to download material from the
Group’s
website (www.soton.ac.uk/~ecchemed/etgt/
). It was agreed that a counter should be introduced so as to see the
“hit
rate” of the site. It was agreed that it would be helpful if the
mail-shot could be sent out
before Christmas. Action:
AJR/DB (Newsletter). AJR (www site).
Mailing labels to be obtained from the RSC. Action
PEC
<>
5) Treasurer’s Report
£
Balance
at 31/12/03
3824.06
Received
from RSC
3295.00
Less:
Committee
meeting 11/2/04
223.42
Secretary’s
expenses
94.68
Prizes
150.00
Current
a/c
balance
351.16
Deposit
a/c
6411.81
----------
6762.97
----------
Interest is being earned at about
£18/month.
6) RSC Governance
The Committee has been asked by the RSC,
under the RSC Governance exercise, to
provide information about the Committee and a Business Plan, e.g. the
Committee
members have been asked to inform the RSC when they joined the Group,
and the
Group has been asked to outline past, current and future activities. Action
Chairman.
It will be pointed out in the reply to the
RSC just how very active the Group has been both in the past and in the
present, e.g. cassettes, videos, the “Entropy” project, and in the
future, e.g.
“Chemistry Animations” (see below). Feedback from the students on the
“Entropy”
project had been very favourable, e.g. the paper in U Chem Ed (2004,
8,
pp 31-39). It was agreed that further feedback would be very helpful in
persuading the RSC to fund new ETGT projects. To this end more items
will be
written up for publication in the future.
7) “Chemistry Animations”
DB
gave a stimulating demonstration of various animations. Following
this it was agreed to spend up to £2,000 to develop the
“Chemistry Animation” database to be published on the RSC www site,
(cf. the “Chemistry Images” database) and also to to develop animations
with accompanying documentation for downloading from the ETGT website.. Care would be taken to protect copyright and programs
would carry
the author’s name and address.
8) Archive of Images
It was agreed to spend up to £1,000 to fund
a pump-priming exercise with the RSC on an archive of items from
“Chemistry
Images” both as originals and on DVD as part of a National Archive. It
was felt
that each committee member should possibly keep a copy of the DVD’s.
(Action:
the Chairman)
<>
9) Resources for Disabled
Students
The work on multimedia resources for
disabled students would be presented on the Group’s website. (Action:
AJR/DB)
10) European Contacts
Attempts to make contact with the European
Chemistry Thematic Network had proved disappointing; no replies to
e-mails had
been received. It was agreed, therefore, to fund Ray
Wallace to attend the first European
Variety in Chemistry Education conference at Kracow ( 5-7/July 2005;
cost ca.
£400). The Group hopes to use this opportunity to present it’s
work to a wider
European audience, e.g. the paper in U Chem Ed (action: RW to
present a
paper on “Entropy”; AJR/DB to write a supporting papers for this on
“Getting
started with FLASH” and “Streaming Video: Some Practicalities”).
11) Priority of Projects
The Committee discussed a number of ETGT
projects and put them in an approximate order of priority:
-
Newsletter (Action: DB/AJR/PEC; Cost ca.
£150)
-
Paper for Kracow (Action: RW; Cost ca. £400)
-
Supporting papers for European “Variety in
Chemistry” at Kracow (Action:
DB/AJR)
-
Workshop on “Getting started with FLASH” (Action:
DB/AJR for “UK Variety in
Chemistry Education” and the Academy of Higher Education (Physical Sciences),
formerly LTSN for Astronomy, Chemistry and Physics.
-
Producing a pilot CDROM on “Chemistry Animations”
in order to stimulate
RSC interest in animations and the launch of a
database on the www, cf.
the
RSC/CVC “Chemistry Images” database on the www
(www.rsc.org/is/cvc/chem_img.htm
; Action: DB/DM. ETGT to provide
pump-priming funding, e.g. £2,000)).
-
AJR to continue to work with Dr C Osborne (RSC
Education Department) on
the
National Archive of Chemistry Images (ETGT to
provide £1,000
pump-priming
funding).
-
Continuation of the design work on FLASH
multimedia resources to help
support
disabled and disadvantaged students studying
Chemistry (Action: DB/AJR)
-
Producing a CDROM/DVD version for the archive of
Chemistry Cassettes
(DB/AJR; “Chemistry Topics”; Cost ca. £1,000)
-
Repeating the “Entropy” project using another
topic from the “Chemistry
Topics”
series (DB/AJR)
12) Date of Next Meeting.
In the Spring of 2005 before RW goes to
Kracow, e.g. possibly on Wednesday, 6th April. [It is to be
hoped
that David Moss will join the ETGT Committee.]
Minutes of a Meeting held at
Nottingham Trent University on 11 th February 2004
Present:
A.J.Rest (Chairman), R.Murray (Treasurer), S.F.A.Kettle, D.Brattan,
R.Wallace, and P.E.Curry (Secretary)
1. Apologies.
J.M.Gagan
2. Minutes of
the Previous Meeting. The Minutes of the Committee meeting on 3
rd. July 2003 were approved.
3. Matters
Arising (not covered by Agenda items).
(a) The sales of the ETGT/CVC series of CD-ROMs on
“Physical Chemistry Experiments” have been very disappointing and the
early interest in a series for schools and colleges (AS and A2 levels)
in conjunction with the Committee for Schools and Colleges has not
materialised.
(b) It has not yet been possible to make any progress
with the provision of resources for students with disabilities. Advice
from staff and colleagues with hearing difficulties has been that
because there are several signing languages in the UK , because the
signing person would significantly intrude into the video image, and
because signing for technical languages such as Chemistry is very very
slow it would be better to develop subtitle and text options rather
than have a person signing on the video image. The Chairman made a
presentation at a “Swap shop for multimedia resources for disabled and
disadvantaged students” at the University of Central Lancashire in
April 2003. He argued that people who make IT resources containing
animations and video images should pay attention to the needs of
students with disabilities and learning difficulties at the beginning
of the design stage rather than as an add-on facility once resources
have been produced (see www.soton.ac.uk/~ecchemed => conferences =>
Preston ).
(c) There has been good progress with dual language
CDROM projects. For example, the French/English series has been
extended from universities (2002) to Lycees (2003; 2500 copies sent
out) and colleagues in Holland have assembled a consortium to make a
Dutch/English series for Dutch schools and colleges.
(d) A request has come in from the Scientific Advisory
and Information Network of Kenya to help with practical chemistry for
schools and colleges in Kenya where there is very little equipment or
chemicals to do practical work. It has been agreed to send out VHS tape
and CD-ROM versions of the RSC/CVC series “Practical Chemistry for
Schools and Colleges”. If this initiative is successful then it might
pave the way for sending resources to other Commonwealth countries in
Africa .
4. Chairman’s
Statement. The Chairman reported that the RSC is seeking to
broaden its base in the world, e.g. “Chemistry in Britain ” has become
“Chemistry World” and there is a new magazine “RSC News”.
To inform Groups of the forthcoming new
directions of the RSC and the changes that will occur, there was a
meeting for Chairmen of Groups at Burlington House in December. Details
of this meeting have been written up in “RSC News”. The ETGT
is well placed to contribute to these initiatives (see below)
5. Secretary’s Report
The Secretary reported that, although
the membership had decreased from the 1999/2000 level, the current
membership of the Group is 330 compared with 331 last year and that the
ETGT membership is holding up better than some other Groups.
| |
1999 |
2000 |
2002 |
2003 |
| Assessment |
242 |
249 |
201 |
201 |
| Chemical Education Research |
187 |
222 |
200 |
193 |
| Curriculum |
314 |
330 |
294 |
289 |
| Educational Techniques |
360 |
395 |
331 |
330 |
| Tertiary Education |
219 |
249 |
217 |
204 |
The Secretary had sent out a mail shot to
ALL ETGT members reminding them of the existence of the Group web site
and the fact that this would provide a “rolling” Newsletter for the
future. It was discussed whether there should be another mail shot with
news about “Chemistry Topics” (see below) as a means of raising the
ETGT profile. Perhaps this should be done by e-mail since a
considerable proportion of the
membership have e-mail addresses, which
would facilitate contact. The Secretary was asked to try and obtain
this e-mail information for the purpose of future mail shots. Action:
PEC.
Given the fact the it is proving a
problem to recruit new ETGT Committee members, it was felt that perhaps
help and ideas from members on the fringe of Chemistry was being
missed, e.g. Forensic Science. The Secretary was asked to research the
RSC database of ETGT members (occupation, age), the Data Protection Act
permitting, to identify trends amongst members and also who had joined
or left. Action. PEC
6. Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer reported a very healthy
balance sheet
|
|
£
|
|
Start of the year
|
6700
|
|
Less: Meetings
|
500
|
|
Projects
|
2500
|
|
|
_____
3800
|
|
Plus: 2 Year’s RSC subscriptions
not yet received
|
3000
|
|
|
____
6800
|
It was agreed that a new project could be
supported.
7. RSC Governance
Paper
In connection with the RSC Governance
review, which is reported in “RSC News”, Michael Gagan (President of
the Education Division Council and a Member of the ETGT Committee) has
been working on a paper for the EDC Meeting in April 2004. A draft copy
of the section on Groups was submitted for discussion.
The initial reaction of the Committee to
the draft paper was that it “undersold” the ETGT, e.g. the fact that
the ETGT has a special www site which can provide additional
information to members was omitted and its project and production
activities were hardly mentioned. Members of the Committee felt that
ETGT had a definite part to play in the future of Chemistry Education.
It was decided to write to Michael Gagan with details of the
Committee’s views. Action AJR.
Looking to the future:
(a)The ETGT could collaborate with similar Groups in
Europe, e.g. the Federation of European Chemical Societies (President
Dr Peter Childs) and the European Chemistry Thematic Network (Dr A
Smith). This fits in well with the RSC move towards Europe. Action AJR
(b) Since tertiary institutions seem pre-occupied with
research and want to develop resources which are focused tightly on
their individual institution, perhaps the ETGT should collaborate more
with the secondary sector via the Committee for Schools and Colleges.
Such a collaboration would aim to provide a “think tank” for generic
techniques and resources.
(c) The Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre
for Chemistry Physics and Astronomy has a number of “Special Interest
Groups” (SIG). Since the ETGT is part of RSC it could not be “hived
off” as a SIG but a SIG for Educational Techniques could
be established with ETGT providing expertise.
(d) The ETGT should continue to engage in new
projects, e.g. an application to LTSN (DB and AJR) to provide FLASH
software shells for animations and accessibility and to demonstrate
these resources via workshops and conferences.
8. Chemistry
Topics. The RSC was not willing to undertake an academic
revision of the materials of the “Chemistry Cassettes” (see below) so
these have been launched on the RSC www site as “Chemistry Topics” (www.rsc.org/chemistrytopics)
. The name has been changed because the new resources are no longer in
the form of cassettes.
The copyright is in the name of the ETGT
so control has been retained by ETGT and licensing fees will be shared
between RSC and ETGT.
9. CD-ROM
Entropy Project. A comprehensive re-write of one of the
“Chemistry Cassettes” has been undertaken (DB, MG and AJR) as a
feasibility study of what could be achieved as a multimedia resource
rather than just an archive. The resulting CD-ROM on “Entropy – the
driving force for change” has been has been evaluated by students at
Nottingham Trent University (RW and DB). The results of the evaluation
were very positive and will be written up for publication, e.g.
“University Chemistry Education”.
The next step is to decide whether a
more extensive series of CD-ROMs should be produced. This will be an
expensive project and will need external funding in addition to any
internal ETGT funding (see above - Item 6). For example, the meeting
felt that contacting the University Heads of Chemistry Departments
meeting if it still exists might help the marketing of this, and future
projects, together with ideas for new ones.
Action. DB/AJR.
10. Date of
Next Meeting. To be arranged after the outcome of the Education
Division Council meeting on Governance (23 rd April) is known.
Minutes of a Meeting held in
Nottingham, 3rd. July 2003
Present : A.J.Rest (Chairman), R.Wallace,
R.Murray, D.Brattan, J.M.Gagan, P.E.Curry (Secretary).
Apologies : S.F.A.Kettle
1. Minutes of Previous Meeting (8/1/03)
Approved. Matters Arising to be covered by discussions.
2. Chairman's Statement
The Chairman welcomed members and thanked
Ray Wallace for organising the venue. He set out the primary purpose of
the meeting as a review of the "Entropy" CDROM project , i.e. the
conversion of an ETGT Chemistry Cassette" into CDROM and/or www format.
The RSC had approached the ETGT some two
years ago with a view to archiving the
series of ETGT "Chemistry Cassettes". The project "blew hot and cold"
but recently a degree of urgency on the part of the RSC had arisen.
Draft ideas from the RSC were put to ETGT and the ETGT agreed to work
up a format for converting the audio tape/booklet format into a CDROM
format. A DEMO CD-ROM on "Entropy" was been written by Don Brattan,
Michael Gagan, and Tony Rest and sent to the RSC ahead of a meeting
with the RSC concerning going into production.
At the RSC/ETGT meeting there was no
support from RSC for the idea of a series of interactive packages on
"Chemical Topics", e.g. "Entropy". Instead the RSC had signed up with a
company to archive the "bare bones" of the "Chemistry Cassettes" to be
launched on the www. Therefore, if the ETGT in collaboration with CVC
wanted to go ahead with the "Chemistry Topics" series, then this would
be a separate matter and would have to be funded as such by ETGT and
CVC.
The "Entropy" CD-ROM was demonstrated by
Don Brattan, and was applauded as an excellent effort. The debate on
possible amendments and future plans included:
(a) confirmation that interactivity is
crucial and that the interactive nature of the programme
should attempt to overcome past experiences of students being merely
"entertained";
(b) the recognition that the main outlet
in the UK would probably be 1st Year university
students because most "A" level syllabuses do not include "Entropy";
(c) plans for a consumer trial involving
ca.50 copies of a CDROM + questionnaire which
would be distributed to students at Nottingham Trent University in
mid-September 2003 as a "starter pack" in order to obtain feedback from
students. Prizes would be made to students who completed the best
questionnaire.
(d) on the basis of the consumer trial
the ETGT/CVC would decide whether to go ahead with
the series "Chemistry Topics" CDROMS
3. Secretary's Report
The membership of ETGT at the end of 2002
was 331. This compares with Assessment Group (201), Chemical Education
Research Group(200), Curriculum Group(294), Tertiary Education Group
(217) in the Educational Division. Larger memberships occur in
Sections/Groups such as Chromatography, Pharmaceutical Analysis, and
Biological and Medicinal Chemistry.
4. Treasurer's Report
The financial status of ETGT is appended
below showing over £3000 available to fund projects if necessary.
5) Other Business
(a) An investigation of the benefits of
"Signing" for video programmes has revealed that there are four
"signing" languages in the UK and that technical "signing" is very
cumbersome and difficult. It seems, therefore, is that provisions for
students with hearing difficulties should be addressed via sub-titles.
Nevertheless, the industry standard for video should be that options
for disabled and disadvantaged students should be designed in at the
outset and prior to production rather than having to be added later.
This message was presented by the Chairman at a Swap Shop on "Creating
Accessible Multimedia" at the University of Central Lancashire at
Preston in April 2003.
(b) Considerable progress has been made
with dual language French/English CDROMs. A series for universities,
entitled "Le bon geste pratique en Chimie/Practical Laboratory
Chemistry" was released in 2002 (20 CDROMs) and a version for Lycees
will be released in time for the beginning of the 2003/2004 academic
year. Analogous to the use of sponsorship to send out 6,000 copies of
"Practical Laboratory Chemistry for Schools and Colleges" in the UK,
sponsorship from ICI has allowed the series of Lycees CDROMs to be sent
out in France on the basis of one disc free and payment for the others.
(c) The design of the ETGT web site has been completed (see
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ecchemed/etgt/) . The site will be linked to
the RSC site.
(d) The RSC is keen to hear of new ideas
to stimulate interest in studying and working in
Chemistry.
(e) The RSC is reviewing the structure
and activities of Groups. It is expected that the
Chairman will be called to give a presentation on behalf of ETGT to the
Education
Division Council in the Autumn.
APPENDIX Financial Statement.(£)
Audited amounts as of 31/12/02
Current A/C 270.43 Deposit A/C 6425.55
Total 6695.98
Cost of meeting on 8/01/03 272.02
ETGT Projects 2000.00
500.00
Interest 74.69
As of 3/07/03 Current A/C 98.41 Deposit
A/C 3900.24 Total 3998.65
Cost of meeting on 3/07/03 224.15
Forecast of Subscription Income 1600.00
European
Centre for Chemistry Education
ETGT - Minutes