1996-1997 Annual Report Text

Don's work as chairman of the Committee to find a site for Michigan's Low Level Radioactive Waste has slowed down so that Don was able to teach in four different courses each semester this past year. He was twice able to offer his popular senior seminar, "Science and Human Values".

As in the summer of 1996, Don continues his active role in the Hughes Foundation sponsored program to introduce under-represented groups to science related careers. This summer also finds Don working with a student of his own on labs for a new General Science Class that Don will be pioneering. The GEMS program at Hope, General Education in Math and Science, means that his former course "The Chemistry of Nuclear Waste" will now have labs. The course will also be expanded to consider the environmental tradeoffs associated with any method of electrical power production. Don has won a college grant for these course improvements and another for incorporating multicultural issues into all his

courses. As a proponent of positive change in our chemistry curriculum, Don has also participated in a PEW Foundation workshop in which he helped to write and edit "Case Studies". He will be using the case study approach in some lectures of his science majors course. The science majors course is also a program that Don coordinates.

One would be hard pressed to recognize Don as the "old man" of the Department because he is so active. He has just finished a busy year on the Academic Affairs Board and continues on the Core Implementation Committee, both active with the new curriculum. His community outreach continues on an Environmental Appeals Board and expands as he serves on two Intergovernmental Task Forces dealing with Lake Mac clean up. Don sleeps little and so it is no wonder that he has been involved in textbook editing for four publishers.