Message from the IUPAC President

“IUPAC’s mission is to advance the worldwide aspects of the chemical sciences and to contribute to the application of chemistry in the service of mankind.” One of the ways in which IUPAC strives to fulfill this mission is to contribute to chemistry education. Nobody doubts the importance of chemistry education that promotes public understanding, fosters scientific literacy and encourages young people to study the chemical sciences and follow a career in them. Chemistry is unique among the sciences in having an entire industry devoted to its applications with substantial opportunities for wealth creation. However, education is a sensitive matter. It is a national responsibility and is a vehicle for many goals, including the development of cultural and ethical values and national pride. Woe betide the outsider who attempts to interfere!

The DIDAC resources for teachers present an excellent opportunity for IUPAC to fulfill its mission. Firstly, these are resources for teachers, not a curriculum for students. Their central component is a set of very high quality, colored overhead projector transparencies, which are free of any written language. Of course, there is chemical language, but that is truly universal – the symbol for hydrogen is H, whether you write in English, Russian, Chinese or Arabic! The transparencies are supported by printed text for the teacher, explaining what the transparency can be used to teach - but not how to teach it. This of course needs to be made available to teachers in their national language; recognizing how essential this is for DIDAC to be widely used, translations into several languages have already been completed. But again, this printed text is not a curriculum: it simply provides explanation and extension of what the transparency shows. Teachers can choose which transparencies to use; they can choose whether or not they want or need to read the printed text. They are free. They can also be confident that the transparencies, and supporting text, have been constructed by highly reputable chemistry educators. The DIDAC materials are the product of an investment in chemistry education made by Agfa-Gevaert N.V. to mark their centenary and the 75th anniversary of IUPAC. They enlisted some of the best chemistry educators in Belgium and endeavored technically to produce the best quality product they could.

Since their original publication in Belgium (with supporting text in French and Flemish) the high quality of the DIDAC resources has been brought to the attention of IUPAC. Largely through the efforts of IUPAC’s Committee on Chemical Industry and Committee on Teaching of Chemistry (now Committee for Chemistry Education), the potential global interest of this resource has been recognized and a program of close cooperation with UNESCO established.
A shared vision has developed between IUPAC and UNESCO as a result of strenuous efforts in the last four years to bring this resource directly to the attention of educators in some 50 countries. Many of these are developing countries where overhead projectors and electricity cannot be taken for granted in classrooms. Selected posters will be printed for classroom display in such circumstances. At the same time, the universality of the images obviously lends itself to electronic dissemination. This explains the preparation of this CD: it brings to global maturity an idea conceived in Belgium six years ago.

In the spirit that has driven this project all along, the resource is being made freely available. Please examine it and take from it what you need. If it helps to teach chemistry, IUPAC will be well satisfied.

Pieter Steyn