Records of the Chemical Education Material Study Program

The Chemical Education Material Study Program (also known as the CHEM Study Program or CHEMS) was one of two major programs funded by the National Science Foundation to raise the level of high school chemistry curricula. Officially established in 1959 and sponsored by the American Chemical Society, it was largely begun as an answer to the challenge that the Soviet Sputnik project posed to the United States’ scientific preeminence.

The Chemical Education Material Study Program was developed at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and at Harvey Mudd College. American chemistry educator Richard J. Merrill (1962-1965) and film producer David W. Ridgway (1966-) served stints as the program’s Executive Director. Merrill and Ridgway also co-authored a history of the program, The CHEM Study Story, which was published in 1969. The Chemical Education Material Study Program was continued by the University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science through the 1980s.

The Chemical Education Material Study Program leaned heavily toward actual experimentation and lab work as opposed to rote memorization of descriptions and formulae. A number of educational materials were produced under the program’s auspices to guide students and teachers, including the textbook Chemistry: An Experimental Science with an accompanying teacher’s guide, a laboratory manual and teacher’s guide of the same title, and a full program of twenty-six films. These materials were translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and several other languages (including an unauthorized Soviet version).

Sources

Merrill, Richard J. and David W. Ridgway. The CHEM Study Story. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1969. - The CHEM Study story : Merrill, Richard J : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Joseph S. Schmuckler Papers, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.