FACS Newsletter, 1996, No. 1, 5-10
When I was appointed as the director of the newly established FACS Project "Asia-Pacific Chemical Education Network" in May 1995, I understood that the project which I was just initiating based on the Grant from Monbusho (Ministry of Education, Japan) could be a seed for the FACS project, or rather, FACS's idea and the Japanese project could be amalgamated into one.
The Japanese project is composed of two parts:
(i) Publication and (hopefully) free distribution of a book called "Chemical Edu- cation in Asia-Pacific" (expected date of publication: May 1, 1997; expected size: ca. 200 pp in B5).
This project is a successor of our (ie., member of the Subcommittee on International Affairs, the Committee on Promotion of Chemical Education, the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ); the subcommittee is headed by Takeuchi) successfully completed project to publish "Chemical Education in Japan (2nd version)". The book was published in August 1994 and was distributed among chemical educators of the world including participants in 13ICCE at Puerto Rico.
(ii) Formation of database based on the manuscripts of the two books mentioned above. It was planned that the database is to be accessible via Internet.
I sent a letter to Dr. Peczon, the Secretary General of FACS, to explain the Japanese project, stressing that FACS's idea and Japanese project are aiming at the same goal; to deepen the mutual understanding among Asian-Pacific chemical educators and to enhance chemical education in Asia-Pacific area.
What I suggest was as follows:
(i)Two projects before mentioned are to be carried out as the joint project of FACS and CSJ. Cost and labor are to be paid by CSJ side (by the grant from Monbusho).
(ii)The outcome of this joint venture will be transferred into the just-started "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network". Practically, the database which has been and is being compiled in Japan will become a part of "Asian Pacific Chemical Education Network" to be accessible to all chemical educators in the world and all who are interested in chemical education.
The proposal was accepted by the letter of Dr. Peczon dated on June 20, 1995.
On July 15, 1995 I sent a letter to all contact points (i.e., addresses of national delegates of FACS) to explain the project and ask a contribution of a chapter for his/her country to be included in the book "Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific". It should be mentioned that permission was simultaneously asked so that the manuscripts would become a part of database "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" in addition to the publication.
The contact persons did their best in choosing the most appropriate author for the society, and it is a great pleasure for me to report that nearly 20 societies sent us positive replies. As a matter of fact the high response was thanks to the approval of FACS EXCO given to the project.
The date of publication was set so that the book was published before 7ACC'97. All authors understand the importance of the date, and already some 10 authors sent us their manuscripts. We have heard from some authors that the preparation of manuscript is under progress.
AN in all, we now believe that by the final deadline we can have some 15 contributions. There should be 23 (24 minus Japan) contributions maximum. You would agree "the yield" is very high in view of the necessary efforts involved in preparing a chapter.
Based on the manuscripts sent to us, we have just started "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" by means of the world wide web (www). The manuscripts (as a file in FD) are converted into html form and accessible at the address:
http://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/ACEN/
(We would like to thank Soka University, Japan and Prof. M.M. Ito for providing "Asian- Pacific Chemical Education Network" a large file space and technical supports). It is expected that the manuscripts can be read through www as these tome in. When the manuscripts are revised, the files will be revised.
The same procedure is being carried out for the files of already published "Chemical Education in Japan". So, by May 1997, a brief survey of chemical education of some twenty FACS member countries can be read via www.
The structure of "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" as planned by us is not necessarily limited to this database. Tentatively we will add two other kinds of bulletin boards, Calendar and Plaza, which are open to any attendants.
The Calendar is for announcing national, regional and international events such as conferences, open seminars, workshops and other activities related to chemistry and chemical education in particular.
The Plaza is for announcing the items not suitable for Calendar. Hopefully this would be a place for exchanging opinions and questions, and answers to these.
The characteristics of these bulletin boards is that any attendant can both be a donor and a receiver of information, that is, they are created by attendants, chemical educators in Asia- Pacific region.
What is mentioned here is just the beginning of "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" rather than its final form. There are two goals which we should aim at:
(i) Expansion and update of the survey of chemical education of each country.
We thought it would be better to start from the small aim. It is extremely money and labor- consuming to prepare a book. This is the reason why we initially asked each society to prepare a chapter rather than a book. Once each contributing society has a chapter, it is now easier to expand this to a size of a book. It is not necessary to publish a book in a conventional sense. If all the files are stored in the html form and linked with one another under the heading of "Asian Pacific Chemical Education Network", this goal will be attained. It is more advantageous as compared with a hard- copy book since files can easily be expanded and corrected.
(ii) Establishing home page for chemical education in each country/society
CSJ has just opened its homepage and section of chemical education will be set up. Eventually this will come under "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network"by linking. All files of "Chemical Education in Japan" will be linked to the former We expect each FACS member society will set up a homepage for its chemical education preferably under the homepage of society. The project "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" is responsible for promoting the setup. This point will be discussed again in connection with the finance budget.
(iii) Expansion from Asia-Pacific to the World
There are some 'Countries in Asia-Pacific area whose national chemical societies do not join FACS. We should persuade these societies to set up much the same homepage and to be linked with us.
It is expected that is Europe or in American Continent, these kinds of movements have already made progress. If these would be combined in ONE network, "World Chemical Education Network% a long-lasting dream of chemical educators, to have an easy system of mutual exchange of information and mutual understanding, will be realized.
I like to report the progress on "Asian Pacific Chemical Education Network" on occasion of informal meeting of IUMC CTC (Committee on Teaching of Chemistry) to be held during 141CCE and formally on occasion of CTC meeting to be held in Geneva in August 1997. I would like to make a proposal to IUPAC CTC to set up a working party to establish "World Chemical Education Network.".
I was advised by the coordinator of projects to the effect that US$500 will be allocated to the project. Since the cost of preparing the book Chemical Education in Asia-Pacific" and of establishing the initial stage of "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" is payable by the grant from Monbusho, the annual budget for 1996 and 1997 (I do not know whether the budget for 1995 is also available) will be used to expand the network. Judging from our experience, it is not an easy task to open a homepage. It takes a lot of time of experts. We cannot pay the labor at a normal standard, but a small amount of money would be a good "catalyst" for the preparation of homepage for chemical education.
Large chemical societies (e.g., CSJ) will open its homepage as the project of the societies, and the section of chemical education will be produced as a part of its activity. Small societies will, however, be slow in this action. and hence the section of chemical education will not exist for a long period. What we, would like to suggest is to give US$ 100 for those who open homepage for chemical education for his/her countries, not as a project of the national chemical society, but as a project of more or less volunteers.
This support can be continued till all FACS member societies have, their homepage for chemical education, which will be estimated to be completed within three or four years.
I have been eager to advertise the activity of
FACS and the proposal of setting up of "Asian-Pacific Chemical Education Network" to the world. My presentation at Pacifichem'95 held in Honolulu in December 1995 was along this fine. My talk apparently attracted attention of one of the chief editors of Chem. Eng. News. I was interviewed by their reporter at Honolulu, and a short article appeared in Chem. Eng. News, January 22, 1996, page 29.
Although the article does not describe all of what we are aiming, it is better than nothing in that the activity of FACS is publicized to the world. I would like to continue in my efforts so that FACS will be better known to the world.