| In 1988, the American Chemical Society released the first edition of the Chemistry in the Community (ChemCom) materials. ChemCom is a year long secondary chemistry course developed for capable students who do not intend to pursue a science or engineering related career. During the decade that has elapsed since that first edition, two other editions have been released (1992, 1996). The program uses an issues-oriented, science, technology, and society (STS) approach. The chemistry is taught with a need to know, spiral approach. The approach is not the only change ChemCom makes from the traditional high school program. Some topics common to the conventional program are eliminated and others de-emphasized, and the amount of mathematical calculations is reduced. Some topics not commonly included in high school chemistry are introduced. These changes have led to the perception by some high school and higher education chemistry teachers that students taking ChemCom would not be as well prepared for all introductory university chemistry course for science related majors as students from a traditional chemistry course. This perception led to a variety of concerns about scheduling students in high school classes and about including ChemCom in the curriculum.;The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of this perception. The sample consists of forty-three students with ChemCom as their high school chemistry background and forty-three students with a traditional chemistry background. All of the students were taking the Chemistry 31 course at a research I university. The non-ChemCom students were matched with the ChemCom students based on the number of mathematics and science courses taken in high school. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups of students using an ANOVA with alpha = 0.05. The students' composite, mathematics, and science scores on the ACT were then used as covariates. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups of students using ANCOVAs with alpha = 0.05.;To determine any difference in the attitude of the students toward STS issues, the Science, Technology, and Society Attitude Scale (1996 Iowa Assessment Handbook) was administered to the students. No significant difference was found between the two groups using a t test with alpha = 0.05.;The ChemCom and non-ChemCom students with similar high school backgrounds were comparable in achievement in a university chemistry course and in attitude toward technological and societal issues. |
