Chemistry Dept. Receives $25,000 for Teaching Film

The Chemistry Department has received a $25,000 grant from the Fund for the Advancement of Education, Louis F. Fieser, Sheldon Emory Professor of Organic Chemistry, announced yesterday.

The grant will be used to finance a series of 12-minute films dealing with laboratory practice, Fieser said. A second grant of $2,700 has already been received from the University's Tozier Fund for Visual Education, he added.

The films, in full color, will be used to demonstrate various aspects of laboratory technique. "We hope that the films will fill the gap between the lectures and the laboratory," Fieser said. At present, no demonstrations are given in Chemistry 20 lectures because "of the complexity of organic apparatus," he added.

Some instructors, Fieser said, were unfamiliar with the new series of experiments introduced at the beginning of the fall term. "As a result, we are trying to improve student's laboratory technique through devices such as these," Fieser stated.

Professional Filming

Fieser stated that professional producing companies and distributors would be used, accounting for the high cost. "We intend to make the films available at nominal cost to any college that may need them," he stated. The personalities of the demonstrators and undue attention to Harvard will be minimized, he said.

The grant is one of a number from the Fund for the Advancement of Education to improve teaching methods and resources. B.F. Skinner, professor of Psychology, has received money to perfect a machine to teach an elementary language and science at the college level.