John Suchocki explains "conceptual chemistry."

John Suchocki received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University, where his research focused on the isolation and characterization of natural products. After a two year post-doc in medicinal chemistry/pharmacology at the Medical College of Virginia, John became a visiting assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. John transferred to and eventually received tenure from Leeward Community College, one of the University of Hawaii's community colleges. There his research efforts turned to chemical education, with particular emphasis on liberal arts chemistry courses and distance learning technology. John has since moved on to become a full-time author and president of his own multimedia company. He continues to teach as an adjunct faculty at Saint Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, where he lives with his wife Tracy and three children, Ian, Evan, and Maitreya.

BC | Why did you decide to write Conceptual Chemistry?

JS | To answer this question, I need to go way back to my childhood. Starting as a kid, I've always had a strong interest in science. From looking through microscopes, to blowing up miniature volcanoes, to rolling balls down the staircase, to identifying constellations—that was me. My interest in science was keenly spurred onward by my uncle, Paul Hewitt, who is a physicist and the well-known author of Conceptual Physics. By the time I finished graduate work in chemistry I was already familiar with his conceptual approaches to teaching physics. It was only natural that I began applying his methods and techniques when I began teaching chemistry. In the early 1990s, I got my start as a writer when we co-authored Conceptual Physical Science. Over the course of this project, I learned much about writing textbooks as well as the great effort required to create meaningful textbook supplements. I was also looking carefully at the liberal arts chemistry curricula that were currently available and saw what appeared to be a great need for a conceptually oriented liberal arts chemistry textbook. All this ultimately led to my writing Conceptual Chemistry.

BC | What do you mean by "conceptual approach"?

JS | For chemistry, a conceptual approach is one in which the prime emphasis is on understanding the behavior of our physical world from the perspective of atoms and molecules. This approach allows for the careful development of chemistry concepts, while commonly observed phenomena, such as the stickiness of water, are used to show the relevance of these concepts. The conceptual approach is so important to chemistry. Consider that chemistry tries to describe a world so small that it's utterly invisible to us. This is the world of the submicroscopic. Yet, at the same time, submicroscopic happenings are wholly responsible for all that surrounds us here in the macroscopic. Through the conceptual approach there is an emphasis using visual models that help the student understand the connections between the submicroscopic and macroscopic realms.

BC | What techniques do you use to engage and motivate your students in class?

JS | First of all, I'm point blank with my students about the difference between my delivering the concepts of chemistry to them and my helping them to learn those concepts. I could give the most eloquent lecture and yet students would still walk away with a false sense of understanding. If they have truly learned a concept, then they should be able to articulate that concept back to others. Class time, therefore, is split between times where I am presenting concepts through short lectures or demonstrations and times where I have students actively involved in teaching each other what they think they have learned.

BC | Who was your biggest influence on your career and why?

JS | No doubt about it, the person who had the biggest impact on my career decisions was my uncle, Paul Hewitt. He is such a great science teacher, but not because he teaches science. Rather, it's because he teaches people. I've learned from him that it’s not enough to become facile at presenting scientific facts and relationships. To truly help students learn, a teacher needs to reach out and touch the human core. Only then might a student become inspired to find meaning and purpose. And only then will the student discover in him or herself a true desire to learn.

BC | You have a strong interest in teaching beyond textbooks, including interactive media and distance learning. What do you consider your most satisfying accomplishments in these efforts, and why?

JS | As a chemistry author, my job is to deliver the content of chemistry to the student. The textbook is certainly an important tool, but for most students, the textbook alone is not enough. Students also need to hear it and to see it. This, in turn, puts pressure on the instructor to repeat during class that which is already in the textbook. After years of teaching, however, it has become obvious to me that traditional classroom lectures are a rather inefficient use of the time I spend with my students. As I mentioned above, to me, in-class student-centered activities are the key to successful learning.

So how do I encourage other instructors to move in this same direction? How do I keep them from merely repeating that which is already in the textbook? Well, above all, the textbook should stand on its own, which only happens if it is exceedingly well-written, student-friendly, thought-provoking, and everything else one could hope for in a textbook. But even still, the textbook alone is not enough. So why not have the author provide the lectures through CD-ROM or DVD multimedia? This gives students a “talking textbook” that features everything they’ve come to expect from a traditional classroom lecture and more. Furthermore, there are novel ways that chemistry content can be delivered to the student through the web.

My goal as a textbook and multimedia author is to provide the tools that help students learn outside of the classroom. The time they spend in the classroom, therefore, has that much more potential for becoming an engaging experience where students learn by interacting with their instructor and fellow classmates. That my work helps to foster such interactions is most satisfying.

BC | Tell us a little about how you approached revising this text for the new edition as opposed to writing the first edition.

JS | The first edition involves creating something from nothing. The second edition involves refining that which is already there. As can be expected, the approach one takes to creating each is markedly different.

Foremost, creating the first edition was much more time intensive. Consider that I started writing Conceptual Chemistry in earnest about six years before it was finally published. Even with all that time, my editors and I were perpetually crunched to meet deadlines. It’s an arduous process, but there is certainly a grand sense of accomplishment once the task is completed--much like running a marathon. If I had to summarize my approach to the first edition in a word, it would be “endurance”.

Creating the second edition was a much saner process measured in months, not years. Notably, it didn’t include the mind-boggling number of details that came with the first edition. Instead, I was able to focus on oversights and inaccuracies. I also took this as an opportunity to improve readability and I was even able to add some new sections. Input from professors using the first edition for their classes was particularly helpful. I was also able to pay more attention to the supplements. It was still a rather intensive process, but nothing compared to creating the first edition. If I had to summarize my approach to the second edition in a word, it would be “refinement.” That I was rejuvenated was certainly of great assistance.