I did well in school and have often stood by the principle that learning about pretty much anything is good. Today, I decided that although the Periodic Table is very nice and pretty, I have yet to ever have a need in my life for any knowledge gained (and long forgotten) by knowing anything about the Periodic Table.
I think this is the correct table. There is also one for determining when to dispose of hazardous elements found in cupboards and fridges.
The yellow bile in me says fire is the best element, and may aether stay in the heavens, for there is no place for it on earth!
Depends on what you do for work, I’ve used the periodic table for many, many years.
And it’s a heck of a lot simpler to write NaOH on a secondary container than “sodium hydroxide solution”.
I’ve basically got most of the Rphrases down for chemical hazards, and of course, now the world is changing to “Global Harmonization” and I have to learn an entire new set.
But at least the environmental pictos are still “dead fish dead tree”.
You can get away with that? The last place I worked it wasn’t considered “safe” to do that because not every one that worked in the building was a chemist so we needed to write things out. EtOAc, EtOH, H2O, KCl all needed to be written out as ethyl acetate, ethanol, water and potassium chloride.
The periodic table seems like language to me. You could memorize it and “know” it, but unless you are shown an application for it and use it, it really does nothing for you. A good teacher would hopefully be able to make these things seem to explain parts of normal life, and not just another thing to memorize and forget. Something as simple as going down the grocery aisle and seeing something labeled “low sodium”. Looking at the label you can see that they used KCl instead. The periodic table pretty much shows why potassium can replace sodium.
Useful? Maybe, maybe not but then again it can be like a tool in a toolbox that comes in handy once in a while, one that you would never miss if you didn’t have it or knew how to use it, but one that can be given the right circumstances.
As long as it’s “identified” (all of our labs are locked, so unless you’ve had CHP, RCRA and PPE training you can’t access them) has the HFR or hazards, and owner, it’s good. I recommend date, but it’s not required.
Of course, I could go in any lab right now and find at least 5 containers that are not labeled even in this simple way. I furnish sticky labels and all folks need to do is fill it in. Or they can write on the container in Sharpie. But NOOOO. Every behavior and culture or condition audit has “unlabeled secondary containers” called out. I’ve been known to “confiscate” unlabeled containers, put them in the haz waste area with the users charge number, then let them work it out that way.
The other point about various subjects, is that all students are exposed to them, so that they can choose something that they like and have an aptitude for. Chemistry is vital to so many professions, such as medicine or pharmacy. These days many new jobs are in health related fields. Ban chemistry and condemn those young students to a life excluded from those possible jobs. Obviously more in depth knowledge is required for some.
Pre-med students have to take organic chemistry as well as regular chem, and it is a “weed-out” course. Would someone really want a doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist that didn’t understand basic chemistry? Folks sometimes decide on those professions early in life, sometimes later. If a student skipped basic chemistry and never were exposed to it until late in college, an already difficult road would be that much steeper. Imagine an other wise brilliant student trying to pass organic chemistry in college without ever having high school chem.
As others have pointed out, reading food labels is enhanced by knowing a bit of chemistry. Add in vitamins and possible medicines and everyone would do well to know some chemistry. The theory may seem a bit far removed from the application, but that may be because a person didn’t do well in the subject.
It’s like the folks that say math and algebra aren’t necessary. Ever try reading a loan agreement, or a credit card agreement? Or save for retirement? Or take out any kind of complicated loan? A basic understanding of algebra can be a big help when the math can get complicated. Sure what is taught in school isn’t direct knowledge, a case of theory vs. real world application, but knowing the math is better than being taught how to read the agreements, because wording gets changed to fool people. They probably teach how to write the text so as to confuse in some other courses. If someone knows the math they aren’t as easy to fool.
youse guys are tryin’ ta mess with the “ignorance is bliss” thing, ain’t ya 
I knew Missy would defend the table. I appreciate Bill’s explanation of “weeding out” folks. I guess that’s where I fell but I wasn’t “weeded in” in the first place, I just liked taking the classes with the smart kids.
I was quite surprise many years ago how little chemistry or cell bio. was on the MCATs.
That concept always annoyed me. Look to the left and right because one of the people entering this college will not graduate. If I brought a car to a shop and the mechanic said there was a 1 in 3 chance that he wouldn’t be able to get the thing running again but would charge you $5,000, I think I would find a different mechanic. The student should be the customer, and if the chemistry class is so poorly taught that you are failing 1/4 of the people, then you shouldn’t be taking money under the guise of providing an education, get rid of the class and set up a certification program. The idea that universities can be proud of the fact that they weed out people and leave them with debt that has special bankruptcy protections seems distasteful.
that was one of hardest parts of academia, finding the good teachers and lining up when they taught the classes that you wanted/needed to take.
the other being, the required classes were either taught by someone so bored with the class or someone too incompetent to be trusted to anything else.
One of the best classes I had was calculus III. I had disliked math all the way up until I took a night class at the University. The class was taught by a non-university professor from an outside college (moonlighting?) and he made that class seem easy to understand and probably taught me things I should have learned in the two previous semesters.
Educationally speaking, how does one honestly justify expecting the bored or incompetent to do the job properly?
Just to be clear, this question is largely rhetorical.
yeah, I didn’t mean to suggest that it didn’t exist in any of the other professions.
I found sabbaticals valuable in college. Put off a course until said instructor left for sabbatical and the school put somebody competent in to replace them temporarily at least in general chemistry. Luckily there aren’t many incompetent biologists or organic chemists…
The problem comes in when the school values patents and copyright more than teaching ability. I have taken classes from very talented chemists that seemed to consider teaching as something that was a side duty, like manifesting hazardous waste, and placed as little effort into it as they could get away with. Reading from the book verbatim and adding nothing, making changes to the labs at the last minute, etc. Had some good ones that wanted to teach, professors in inorganic and biology come to mind, but that seemed to be due more to the individual’s personality.
Obviously, you were not one of my fellow slackers in college. We’d have loved to have paid tuition and been guaranteed a degree. Never mind, that’s what did happen. We did however tell our parents, who were footing the bill, that the professors were lousy.