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Education

Students’ Daily Lives

September 12, 2011 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 89, Issue 37

Although Cathy Bloedorn voices many valid concerns in her letter regarding obstacles that high school chemistry teachers face, I had to wince at her comment that she “wondered what learning about empirical formulas, orbitals, or reaction equilibria has to do with our students’ daily lives” (C&EN, Aug. 1, page 5).

It could be easily argued that sentence diagramming, geometry proofs, medieval history, and Shakespeare’s plays are also not relevant to the teenage life. Isn’t the goal of teaching a high school chemistry course to teach the basic principles of chemistry?

Stephanie Mabry
Chesterfield, Va.

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