Aim
"to promote the study and general knowledge of
all branches of chemistry at the secondary level of education"
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Membership
If you would like to join the Chemistry Education Association or would like to update your contact details, please select the appropriate link below.
History
Established on 31 March, 1977, by a group of tertiary and
secondary educators, the Chemistry Education Association (CEA)
adopted the above policy as a major criterion for its future
directions. The means of carrying out this policy was determined
as the establishment of the necessary funds to facilitate the
writing and publishing of appropriate educational material, and
to promote and assist teachers of chemistry in the development
of their teaching skills. A committee of five trustees-three
secondary and two tertiary teachers-manages the business of CEA,
and they rotate regularly. Membership of the association is open
to all interested persons. The CEA was incorporated in 1987.
Funding to back the CEA's first major publication came from
the generosity of the writers an earlier publication, Chemistry:
A Structural View (CSV), who made available their accumulated
royalties to the CEA. Published to meet the needs of the Victorian
education system in 1965, CSV was the first example of the capacity
of Victorian chemistry educators to produce good texts for their
pupils. By the 1970s, increased enrolment and the more diverse
needs of secondary school students generated a need for a new
secondary school text. It was the public identification of this
need at a 1975 meeting of the Science Teachers' Association of
Victoria (STAV) which prompted the formation of CEA to meet the
challenge. CSV had enjoyed international acceptance and this
probably added further confidence of some of its writers to embark
on the new Victorian text, Chemistry: Key to the Earth (CKE).
Published in 1979 after testing in a pilot edition affectionately
called 'the Telephone Book', CKE ran to two editions and approaching
40,000 sales. Accompanied by practical manuals and teachers'
guides, the full project involved additional writers beyond the
authors of the original book. Indicative of the co-operation
and interaction of the times, the Education Department made available
the full time services of one of its teachers.
By the mid 1980s, CEA responded to the responsibilities of
managing accumulated royalties by subsidising chemistry related
conferences, lectures, visiting speakers and offering scholarships
and prizes. STAV was usually the mediator in these arrangements.
But it was realised that to continue to introduce new texts,
the trustees had to be able to meet considerable up front fees
and hence manage their funds prudently. The cycle time for new
texts appears to be about ten years, and with the introduction
of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) in the late 1980s,
it was time to get to work again.
For the new VCE, two texts and resource books were needed
for Year 11 and Year 12, and breaking with tradition,
the CEA decided to work with Heinemann Education Australia rather
than Melbourne University Press. Six main writers were involved,
and this time CEA subsidised the salary of a liaison officer
with the Department of Education. Both texts became available
in 1991, Chemistry One selling 16,000 copies in its first year.
By 1998, work was in hand for a third edition of Chemistry One and Chemistry Two.
With the implementation of a new Chemistry course for Years 11 and 12 in 2007-2008, new teams of writers were formed and the fourth editions of Chemistry One and Chemistry Two were produced.
For some years, CEA has offered grants for people to attend
chemistry conferences, subsidised In-Service courses for chemistry
teachers, conferences and functions, pupil remedial courses and
liaison with parallel organisation such as the STAV and the Royal
Australian Chemical Institute. CEA continues to search for appropriate
ways of meeting its prime aim.
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