Marco H. Scheer CBA Collection

The Chemical Bond Approach (CBA) Project was a program established to develop a new and improved high school chemistry curriculum. Largely begun as a response to the challenge posed by the Soviet Union’s Sputnik project to the United States’ scientific preeminence, the CBA Project grew out of conferences for high school chemistry teachers held at Wesleyan College in 1958 and Reed College in 1959. Work had already begun on the drafting of a new curriculum for advanced placement chemistry students when the CBA Project obtained funding from the National Science Foundation. A textbook, a teachers’ guide, and a laboratory manual resulted from these efforts.

Marco H. Scheer (1918-2000) was an American high school chemistry teacher. Born on December 31, 1918, Scheer taught high school chemistry in Nashua, New Hampshire. Scheer was actively involved with the Chemical Bond Approach Project. He attended the 1958 Wesleyan Conference on the Teaching of High School Chemistry, which was one of the conferences that led to the formation of the CBA Project. He was also a member of the Earlham College CBA team. His team collaborated with teams from four other colleges in preparing CBA Project materials, including the textbook, teacher’s guide, and laboratory manual. Marco H. Scheer died in Nashua, New Hampshire on May 11, 2000.

Sources

Marco H. Scheer CBA Collection, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.