Formation of chemical elements and substances. Chemistry and chemical education. XXI century Modern system of chemical olympiads

Chemical and chemical-technological education, a system for acquiring knowledge in chemistry and chemical technology in educational institutions, and ways of applying them to solving engineering, technological and research problems. It is divided into general chemical education, which ensures mastery of knowledge of the fundamentals of chemical science, and special chemical education, which equips with knowledge of chemistry and chemical technology necessary for specialists of higher and secondary qualifications for production activities, research and teaching work both in the field of chemistry and related fields. with it the branches of science and technology. General chemical education is given in secondary schools, secondary vocational schools and secondary specialized educational institutions. Special chemical and chemical-technological education is acquired in various higher and secondary specialized educational institutions (universities, institutes, technical schools, colleges). Its tasks, volume and content depend on the profile of training of specialists in them (chemical, mining, food, pharmaceutical, metallurgical industries, agriculture, medicine, thermal power engineering, etc.). The chemical content varies depending on the development of chemistry and production requirements.

Improving the structure and content of chemical and chemical-technological education is associated with the scientific and pedagogical activities of many Soviet scientists - A. E. Arbuzov, B. A. Arbuzov, A. N. Bakh, S. I. Volfkovich, N. D. Zelinsky , I. A. Kablukova, V. A. Kargina, I. L. Knunyants, D. P. Konovalova, S. V. Lebedeva, S. S. Nametkina, B. V. Nekrasova, A. N. Nesmeyanova, A E. Porai-Koshits, A. N. Reformatsky, S. N. Reformatsky, N. N. Semenov, Y. K. Syrkin, V. E. Tishchenko, A. E. Favorsky and others. New achievements of chemical sciences are highlighted in special chemical journals that help improve the scientific level of chemistry and chemical technology courses in higher education. The magazine “Chemistry at School” is published for teachers.

In other socialist countries, the training of specialists with chemical and chemical-technological education is carried out at universities and specialized universities. The major centers of such education are: in the National Republic of Belarus - Sofia University, Sofia University; in Hungary - University of Budapest, Veszprém; in the GDR - Berlin, Dresden Technical University, Rostock University, Magdeburg Higher Technical School; in Poland - Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin universities, Warsaw Polytechnic Institute; in the SRR - Bucharest, Cluj universities, Bucharest, Iasi polytechnic institutes; in Czechoslovakia - University of Prague, Prague, Pardubice Higher School of Chemical Technology; in the SFRY - Zagreb, Sarajevo, Split universities, etc.

In capitalist countries, the major centers of chemical and chemical-technological education are: in Great Britain - Cambridge, Oxford, Bath, Birmingham universities, Manchester Polytechnic Institute; in Italy - Bologna, Milan universities; in the USA - California, Columbia, Michigan Technological Universities, University of Toledo, California, Massachusetts Institutes of Technology; in France - Grenoble 1st, Marseille 1st, Clermont-Ferrand, Compiegne Technological, Lyon 1st, Montpellier 2nd, Paris 6th and 7th universities, Laurent, Toulouse polytechnic institutes; in Germany - Dortmund, Hanover, Stuttgart universities, Higher Technical Schools in Darmstadt and Karlsruhe; in Japan - Kyoto, Okayama, Osaka, Tokyo universities, etc.

Lit.: Figurovsky N. A., Bykov G. V., Komarova T. A., Chemistry at Moscow University for 200 years, M., 1955; History of Chemical Sciences, M., 1958; Remennikov B. M., Ushakov G. I., University education in the USSR, M., 1960; Zinoviev S.I., Remennikov B.M., Higher educational institutions of the USSR, [M.], 1962; Parmenov K. Ya., Chemistry as an academic subject in pre-revolutionary and Soviet schools, M., 1963; Teaching chemistry using a new curriculum in high school. [Sat. Art.], M., 1974; Jua M., History of Chemistry, trans. from Italian, M., 1975.

Address: St. Petersburg, emb. R. Moiki, 48

Organizing Committee email: [email protected]

Organizers: Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen

Conditions of participation and accommodation: 400 rubles.

Dear Colleagues!

We invite you to take part inII All-Russian Student Conference with International Participation "Chemistry and chemical education XXI century”, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Chemistry of the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor V.V. Perekalina.

The conference will take place at the Russian State Pedagogical University named after. A.I. Herzen.

Dates of the conference: from April 15 to April 17, 2013 The purpose of the conference is to exchange the results of studying modern problems of chemistry and chemical education between young researchers and to actively involve students in research work. The conference will feature sectional(up to 10 min) and student poster presentations, studying in bachelor's degree, sp. graduate and master's degrees. Participation in absentia with the publication of abstracts is possible. Abstracts selected by the Organizing Committee will be published in the collection of conference materials with an ISBN number. Invited leading chemists from St. Petersburg will give plenary presentations.

Main scientific directions of the conference:

• Section 1 – organic, biological and pharmaceutical chemistry
• Section 2 – physical, analytical and environmental chemistry
• Section 3 – inorganic and coordination chemistry, nanotechnology
• Section 4 – chemical education

To participate in the conference you must:

Before February 15, 2013, send the participant registration form and abstracts of the report, formatted in accordance with the requirements, to the conference email address: conference [email protected]

Zavyalova F.D., chemistry teacherMAOU "Secondary School No. 3" with in-depth study of individual subjectsnamed after Hero of Russia Igor Rzhavitin, Revda

The role of chemistry in the modern world? Chemistry is a field of natural science that studies the structure of various substances, as well as their relationship with the environment. Chemical education is of great importance for the needs of mankind. In the second half of the 20th century, the state invested in the development of chemical science, as a result of which new discoveries in the field of pharmaceutical and industrial production appeared, in connection with this the chemical industry expanded, and this contributed to the emergence of a demand for qualified specialists. Today, chemical education in our country is in an obvious crisis.

Now at school there is a consistent squeezing out of natural sciences from the school curriculum. The time for studying natural science subjects has been reduced too much, the main attention is paid to patriotic and moral education, confusing education with upbringing, as a result, school graduates today do not understand the simplest chemical laws. And many students think that chemistry is a useless subject and will not be of any use in the future.

And the main goal of education is the development of mental abilities - this is memory training, teaching logic, the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships, building models, and developing abstract and spatial thinking. The natural sciences, which reflect the objective laws of the development of nature, play a decisive role in this. Chemistry studies different ways of directing chemical reactions and the variety of substances, therefore it occupies a special place among the natural sciences as a tool for developing the mental abilities of schoolchildren. It may happen that a person will never encounter chemical problems in his professional activity, but by studying chemistry at school the ability to think will develop.

Studying foreign languages ​​and other humanities alone is not enough to form the intellect of a modern person. A clear understanding of how some phenomena give rise to others, drawing up an action plan, modeling situations and searching for optimal solutions, the ability to foresee the consequences of actions taken - all this can only be learned on the basis of natural sciences. This knowledge and skills are necessary for absolutely everyone.

The lack of this knowledge and skills leads to chaos. On the one hand, we hear calls for innovation in the technological sphere, deepening the processing of raw materials, and introducing energy-saving technologies; on the other hand, we observe a reduction in natural science subjects in school. Why is this happening? Unclear?!

The next most important goal of school education is preparation for future adult life. A young man must enter it fully armed with knowledge about the world, which includes not only the world of people, but also the world of things and the surrounding nature. Natural sciences provide knowledge about the material world, about substances, materials and technologies that they may encounter in everyday life. Studying only the humanities leads to the fact that teenagers cease to understand the material world and begin to fear it. From here they escape from reality into virtual space.

Most people still live in the material world, constantly in contact with various substances and materials and subjecting them to various chemical and physical-chemical transformations. A person gains knowledge of how to handle substances in chemistry lessons at school. He may forget the formula for sulfuric acid, but he will handle it with care throughout his life. He won’t light a cigarette at a gas station, and not at all because he saw gasoline burning. It was just that at school, during a chemistry lesson, they explained to him that gasoline has the ability to evaporate, form explosive mixtures with air and burn. Therefore, it is necessary to devote more time to mastering chemistry, and I believe that it was in vain to reduce the hours for studying chemistry in schools.

Natural science classes prepare students for their future profession. After all, it is impossible to predict which professions will be most in demand in 20 years. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, today professions related to chemistry top the list of the most in demand in the labor market. Nowadays, almost all products that people use are in one way or another connected with technologies that use chemical reactions. For example, fuel purification, use of food coloring, detergents, pesticides for fertilizer and so on.

Professions related to chemistry are not only specialists working in the oil refining and gas production industries, but also those professions that can guarantee work in almost any region.

List of the most popular specialties:

• A chemical technologist or process engineer can always find a place in the city’s production. Depending on the training profile, he can work in food or industrial enterprises. The main task of this specialist is to control product quality, as well as introduce innovations into production.
• An environmental chemist, every city has a department that monitors the environmental situation.
• Cosmetic chemist is a very popular profession, especially in those regions where there are large cosmetic enterprises.
• Pharmacist. Higher education gives you the opportunity to work in large companies producing medicines; you can always find a place in a city pharmacy.
• Biotechnologist, nanochemist, expert on alternative forms of energy.
• Forensics and forensic medical examination. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also needs chemists, there is always a position for a full-time chemist, their knowledge can help in catching criminals.
• The profession of the future is researchers of alternative energy sources. After all, the oil supply will soon run out, and the same will happen with gas, so the demand for such specialists is growing. And maybe in 10-20 years, chemists in this field will top the list of the most sought-after specialists.

The main requirements for modern specialists are a good memory and an analytical mind, creativity, innovative ideas, a creative approach and an unconventional look at familiar things. The study of chemistry plays a major role in the formation of these skills and abilities. And a person deprived of a natural science education is easier to manipulate.

Unlike all other living beings, man does not adapt to environmental conditions, but changes it to suit his needs. A sharp increase in the population of the planet occurred after the great discovery of chemists, the invention of antibiotics and the beginning of their production on an industrial scale.

Taking into account all of the above, I think that it is necessary to increase the number of hours spent studying chemistry, and start getting acquainted already in the junior level.

If at the beginning of the last century education was understood as learning to count, read and write, then a century later we understand this concept as ensuring the fulfillment of human needs for development. Education for us has become a sustainable development, and it must be of high quality.

Literature:

1. Russian Academy of Sciences - about the Mendeleev Congress in Yekaterinburg
2. What chemistry should be studied in a modern school? — Genrikh Vladimirovich Erlikh - Doctor of Chemical Sciences, leading researcher at Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.

Chemistry and chemical education at the turn of the century: changing goals, methods and generations.

Yuri Aleksandrovich Ustynyuk – Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Honored Professor of Moscow State University, head of the NMR laboratory of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University. Area of ​​scientific interests: organometallic and coordination chemistry, physical organic chemistry, spectroscopy, catalysis, problems of chemical education.

Many very authoritative authors have already spoken out in the discussion about what chemical science as a whole and its individual fields were at the turn of the century. Despite some differences in details, the overall tone of all statements is clearly major. Outstanding achievements in all major areas of chemical research are unanimously celebrated. All experts note the extremely important role that new and cutting-edge methods for studying the structure of matter and the dynamics of chemical processes played in achieving these successes. Equally unanimous is the opinion about the enormous influence on the development of chemistry that has occurred before our eyes over the past two decades, the general and all-pervasive computerization of science. All authors support the thesis about strengthening interdisciplinary interaction both at the interfaces of chemical disciplines and between all natural and exact sciences in general during this period. There are significantly more differences in forecasts for the future of chemical science, in assessments of the main trends in its development for the near and distant future. But here, too, an optimistic mood prevails. Everyone agrees that progress will continue at an accelerated pace, although some authors do not expect new fundamental discoveries in chemistry in the near future, comparable in significance to the discoveries of the beginning and middle of the past century /1/.

There is no doubt that the scientific chemical community has something to be proud of.

It is obvious that in the past century chemistry not only took a central place in natural science, but also created a new basis for the material culture of modern civilization. It is clear that this critical role will continue in the near future. Therefore, as it seems at first glance, there is no particular reason to doubt the bright future of our science. However, don’t you, dear colleagues, be embarrassed by the fact that in the harmonious choir today proclaiming the praises of chemistry and chemists, there is clearly a lack of sobering voices of “contravos”. In my opinion, contrarians form an important, although not very numerous, part of any healthy scientific community. The “counter-skeptic,” contrary to general opinion, strives, if possible, to extinguish the outbursts of general enthusiasm about the latest outstanding successes. On the contrary, the “counter-optimist” smoothes out attacks of equally general despair at the time of the collapse of yet another unfulfilled hopes. Let us try, mentally seating these almost antipodes at one table, to look at the problem of chemistry at the turn of the century from a slightly different point of view.

The century is over. Together with him, a brilliant generation of chemists, whose efforts had achieved outstanding successes known and recognized by all, ended their active life in science. A new generation of chemist-researchers, chemist-teachers, and chemist-engineers is coming to replace them. Who are these today's young men and women, whose faces we see before us in classrooms? What and how should we teach them to make their professional activities successful? What skills should complement the acquired knowledge? What from our life experience can we pass on to them, and they will agree to accept in the form of advice and instructions, so that the cherished dream of each of them comes true - the dream of personal happiness and well-being? It is impossible to answer all these complex and eternal questions in a short note. Let it be an invitation to deeper discussion and a seed for leisurely personal reflection.

One of my good friends, a venerable chemistry professor with forty years of experience, said to me irritably recently when, thinking about this note, I listed the above questions to him: “What actually special and unexpected happened? What has changed so much? We all learned a little from our teachers, learned something and somehow. Now they, students, are learning the same from us. This is how it goes from century to century. This is how it will always go. There’s no point in building a new garden here.” I hope that what I said in response then and what I wrote here will not become the reason for our disagreement with him. But my answer to him sounded very decisive. I argued that everything had changed in chemical science at the turn of the century! It is extremely difficult to find even a small area in it (we are, of course, not talking about the remote nooks and crannies in which marginalized relics have conveniently settled down) where profound cardinal changes have not occurred in the last quarter of a century.

^ Methodological arsenal of chemical research.

As S.G. Kara-Murza rightly noted /2/, the history of chemical science can be considered not only within the framework of the traditional approach as the evolution of basic concepts and ideas against the background of discoveries and the accumulation of new experimental facts. It can rightfully be presented in another context, as the history of the improvement and development of the methodological arsenal of chemical science. In fact, the role of new methods is not limited to the fact that they greatly expand the research capabilities of the scientific community that has mastered them. In interdisciplinary interaction, the method is like a Trojan horse. Together with the method, its theoretical and mathematical apparatus penetrates into the new field of science, which are effectively used in the creation of new concepts. The advanced nature of the development of the methodological arsenal of chemistry was especially clearly manifested in the last quarter of the past century.

Among the most striking achievements in this field, of course, is the practical achievement of physical limits in spatial, temporal and concentration resolution in a number of new methods for chemical research. Thus, the creation of scanning tunneling microscopy with a spatial resolution of 0.1 nm ensures the observation of individual atoms and molecules. The development of laser femtosecond spectroscopy with a time resolution of 1–10 fs opens up the possibility of studying elementary acts of chemical processes in time intervals corresponding to one period of vibrations of atoms in a molecule. Finally, the discovery of tunnel vibrational spectroscopy now makes it possible to monitor the behavior and transformations of an individual molecule on the surface of solids. No less important, perhaps, is the fact that there was practically no gap in time between the creation of the physical principles of each of these methods and their direct application to the solution of chemical problems. The latter is hardly surprising, since all these and many other most important results of recent years were obtained by interdisciplinary teams, uniting physicists, chemists, engineers and other specialists.

The breakthrough to new levels of resolution and sensitivity was powerfully supported by the exceptionally rapid improvement of those physical methods that have long formed the basis of the research chemist's arsenal. Over the past 10 years, the resolution and sensitivity of all spectral methods have improved by an order of magnitude or more, and the productivity of scientific instruments has increased by two or more orders of magnitude. In leading research laboratories, the basis of the instrument park is now made up of 5th generation instruments - complex measuring and computing systems that provide complete automation of measurements and processing of results, and also make it possible to use databases and scientific data banks on-line when interpreting them. Using a complex of such instruments, a research chemist receives approximately 2000 times more information per unit of time than 50 years ago. Here are just a few examples.

Even 10 years ago, X-ray diffraction analysis of single crystals was one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming experiments. Determining the molecular and crystal structure of a new substance required months of work, and sometimes dragged on for years. The latest automatic X-ray diffractometers today make it possible, when studying compounds of not too large a molecular weight, to obtain the entire necessary array of reflections in a few hours and do not impose too high demands on the size and quality of the crystal. Complete processing of experimental data using modern programs on a personal computer takes several more hours. Thus, the previously seemingly impossible dream of “one day – one complete structure” has become an everyday reality. Over the past 20 years, XRD has apparently studied more molecular structures than in the entire previous period of its use. In some areas of chemical science, the use of X-ray diffraction as a routine method has led to a breakthrough to a new level of knowledge. For example, the data obtained on the detailed structure of globular proteins, including the most important enzymes, as well as other types of biologically important molecules, were of fundamental importance for the development of molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics and related disciplines. Carrying out experiments at low temperatures has opened up the possibility of constructing precision maps of the difference electron density in complex molecules, suitable for direct comparison with the results of theoretical calculations.

Increasing the sensitivity of mass spectrometers already provides reliable analysis of femtogram quantities of a substance. New ionization methods and time-of-flight mass spectrometers with sufficiently high resolution (MALDI-TOF systems) in combination with two-dimensional electrophoresis now make it possible to identify and study the structure of biomolecules of very high molecular weight, for example, cellular proteins. This made possible the emergence of a new rapidly developing field at the intersection of chemistry and biology - proteomics /3/. Modern capabilities of high-resolution mass spectrometry in elemental analysis are well described by G.I. Ramendik /4/.

NMR spectroscopy took a new step forward. The use of cross-polarization magic angle sample rotation techniques allows obtaining high-resolution spectra in solids. The use of complex sequences of radiofrequency pulses in combination with pulsed polarizing field gradients, as well as inverse detection of the spectra of heavy and rare nuclei, makes it possible to directly determine the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of proteins with a molecular weight of up to 50 kDa in solution.

The increase in sensitivity of methods for analyzing, separating and studying substances had another important consequence. In all areas of chemistry, miniaturization of chemical experiments has occurred or is occurring, including a transition in chemical laboratory synthesis from half-micron to microscale. This significantly reduces the cost of reagents and solvents and significantly speeds up the entire research cycle. Advances in the development of new effective general synthesis methods that provide standard chemical reactions with high, near-quantitative yields have led to the emergence of “combinatorial chemistry.” In it, the goal of synthesis is to obtain not one, but simultaneously hundreds and sometimes thousands of substances of similar structure (synthesis of a “combinatorial library”), which is carried out in separate microreactors for each product, placed in a large reactor, and sometimes in one common reactor. Such a radical change in the tasks of synthesis led to the development of a completely new strategy for planning and carrying out experiments, and also, which is especially important in the light of the problems we are discussing, to a complete update of the technology and equipment for its implementation, actually putting on the agenda the issue of widespread introduction of chemical robots into practice .

Finally, the last in order of listing in this section, but by no means the least important change in the methodological arsenal of chemical research is the new role played today in chemistry by methods of theoretical calculations and computer modeling of the structure and properties of substances, as well as chemical processes. For example, until quite recently, a theoretical chemist saw his main task in systematizing known experimental facts and in constructing theoretical concepts of a qualitative nature based on their analysis. The unprecedentedly rapid growth of computing capabilities has led to the fact that high-level quantum chemistry methods, providing reliable quantitative information, have become a real tool for studying complex molecular and supramolecular structures involving hundreds of atoms, including atoms of heavy elements. In this regard, ab initio calculations of the LCAO MO SSP with correlation and relativistic corrections, as well as quantum chemical calculations using the density functional method in nonlocal approximations in extended and split bases can now be used at the initial stages of the study, preceding them with a synthetic experiment, which becomes much more purposeful. Students and graduate students can easily cope with such calculations. Very characteristic changes are taking place in the composition of the best scientific teams conducting experimental research. Theoretical chemists are increasingly being organically included in them. In high-level scientific publications, descriptions of new chemical objects or phenomena are often given together with their detailed theoretical analysis. The remarkable possibilities of computer modeling of the kinetics of complex multi-route catalytic processes and the amazing successes achieved in this area are perfectly described in the article by O.N. Temkin /5/.

Even a very short and far from complete list of the main changes in the methodological arsenal of chemistry at the turn of the century, given above, allows us to draw a number of important and completely definite conclusions:

these changes are of a cardinal, fundamental nature;

the pace of development of new methods and techniques in chemistry in recent decades has been and remains very high;

the new methodological arsenal created the ability to pose and successfully solve chemical problems of unprecedented complexity in an exceptionally short time.

It is appropriate, in my opinion, to assert that during this period chemical research turned into an area of ​​large-scale application of a whole complex of new and cutting-edge high technologies associated with the use of sophisticated equipment. It is obvious that mastering these technologies is becoming one of the most important tasks in training a new generation of chemists.

^ 2. Information support of chemical science and new information and communication technologies.

The doubling time for the volume of scientific chemical information, according to the latest estimates by I.V. Melikhov /6/, is now 11-12 years. The number of scientific journals and their volumes, as well as the number of published monographs and reviews, are growing rapidly. Research in each of the current scientific areas is simultaneously carried out in dozens of scientific teams in different countries. Free access to sources of scientific information, which has always been a necessary condition for productive scientific work, as well as the ability to quickly exchange current information with colleagues in the new conditions of complete internationalization of science, have become limiting factors that determine not only the success, but also the feasibility of implementing any scientific project. Without constant operational communication with the core of the scientific community, the researcher now quickly becomes marginalized, even if he obtains results of high quality. This situation is especially typical for that significant part of Russian chemists who do not have access to the INTERNET and rarely publish in international chemical journals. Their results become known to members of the international community with a time delay of several months, and sometimes do not attract attention at all, being published in inaccessible and low-authority publications, which, unfortunately, still includes the majority of Russian chemical journals. Obsolete, albeit valuable, information has almost no impact on the course of the global research process, and therefore the main meaning of all scientific work is lost. In the conditions of poverty of our libraries, INTERNET has become the main source of scientific information, and e-mail has become the main communication channel. We must once again bow deeply to George Soros, who was the first to allocate funds to connect our universities and scientific institutes to the INTERNET. Unfortunately, not all scientific teams have access to electronic communication channels, and, apparently, it will take at least ten years until INTERNET becomes publicly available.

Today our Russian scientific chemical community has split into two unequal parts. A significant, probably the majority of researchers are experiencing an acute hunger for information, not having free access to sources of information. This is acutely felt, for example, by RFBR experts who have to review initiative scientific projects. In the 2000 chemistry project competition, for example, some of the reputable experts who participated in the evaluation reported that up to a third of the project authors did not have the most up-to-date information on their proposed topic. In this regard, the work programs they proposed were not optimal. The delay in processing scientific information for them, according to rough estimates, could range from one and a half to two years. Moreover, there were also projects aimed at solving problems that had either already been solved or, in the light of the results obtained in related fields, had lost their relevance. Their authors, apparently, did not have access to modern information for at least 4-5 years.

The second part of chemist scientists, to which I include myself, experiences difficulties of a different kind. She is in a constant state of information overload. The huge volumes of information are simply overwhelming. Here is the most recent example from personal practice. In preparing a key publication in a new series of scientific papers, I decided to carefully collect and analyze all relevant literature. A machine search of three databases using keywords over the past 5 years identified 677 sources with a total volume of 5489 pages. The introduction of additional, more stringent selection criteria reduced the number of sources to 235. Working with the abstracts of these scientific articles made it possible to eliminate another 47 not very significant publications. Of the remaining 188 works, 143 were previously known to me and had already been studied by me. Of the 45 new sources, 34 were available for direct viewing. In the first of the new works, I found a number of references to the works of its authors of an earlier period, in which the problem I was studying was considered from other positions. Following scientific links to the origins ultimately revealed 55 more sources. A quick glance at the two reviews that were included in them led to the addition of 27 more papers from related fields to the list for study. Of these, 17 were already present in the original list of 677 sources. Thus, after three months of very intense work, I had a list of 270 works directly related to the problem. Among them, 6 scientific groups clearly stood out for their high quality of publications. I wrote to the leaders of these teams about my main results and asked them to send links to their latest work on the problem. Two responded that they were no longer working on it and had not published anything new. Three sent 14 works, some of which had just been completed and had not yet been published. One of the colleagues did not respond to the request. Two of the colleagues in their letters mentioned the name of a young Japanese scientist who began research in the same direction only two years ago, had only 2 publications on the topic, but, in their opinion, made a brilliant scientific report at the last international conference. I immediately wrote to him and received in response a list of 11 publications that used the same research method that I had used, but with some additional modifications. He also drew my attention to some inaccuracies in the text of my letter when presenting his own results. Having worked in detail on only 203 works out of 295 that are directly related to the topic, I am finally finishing the preparation of the publication. The list of references contains more than 100 titles, which is completely unacceptable according to the rules of our journals. Collecting and processing information took almost 10 months. From this fairly typical story, in my opinion, four important conclusions follow:

A modern chemist must spend up to half or more of his working time on collecting and analyzing information on his research profile, which is twice or three times more than half a century ago.

Fast operational communication with colleagues working in the same field in different countries of the world, i.e. inclusion in the “invisible scientific team” dramatically increases the efficiency of such work.

An important task in training a new generation of chemists is mastering modern information technologies.

Language training of the younger generation of specialists is becoming extremely important.

Therefore, in our laboratory we hold some colloquia in English, even if there are no foreign guests, which is not uncommon for us. Last year, students in my specialized group, having learned that I was giving lecture courses abroad, asked me to teach part of the organic chemistry course in English. Overall, I found the experience interesting and successful. About half of the students not only learned the material well, but also actively participated in the discussion, and lecture attendance increased. However, approximately a quarter of the students in the group, who had difficulty mastering complex material even in Russian, clearly did not like this idea.

I will also note that the situation I described allows us to understand in real light the origin of the well-known thesis about the dishonesty and treachery of some of our foreign colleagues, who do not actively quote the works of Russian chemists, allegedly with the aim of appropriating someone else’s priority. The real reason is severe information overload. It is clear that it is impossible to collect, read and quote all the necessary works. Of course, I always quote the works of those with whom I constantly collaborate, exchange information, and discuss the results before their publication. Sometimes, when my work was missed, I had to send polite letters to my colleagues asking them to correct the mistake. And she always corrected herself, although without much satisfaction. In turn, I once had to apologize for my inattention.

^ 3. New goals and new structure of the chemical research front.

A.L. Buchachenko brilliantly wrote about new goals and new trends in the development of chemistry at the turn of the century in his review /7/, and I will limit myself to only a short comment. The dominant trend towards the integration of individual chemical disciplines, which he noted in the last two decades, indicates that chemical science has reached that degree of “golden maturity” when the existing means and resources are sufficient to solve the traditional problems of each field. A striking example is provided by modern organic chemistry. Today, the synthesis of an organic molecule of any complexity can be carried out using already developed methods. Therefore, even very complex problems of this type can be considered as purely technical problems. This does not mean, of course, that the development of new methods of organic synthesis should be stopped. Work of this type will always be relevant, but at the new stage they constitute not the main, but the background direction of the development of the discipline. In /7/ eight general areas of modern chemical science are identified (chemical synthesis; chemical structure and function; control of chemical processes; chemical materials science; chemical technology; chemical analytics and diagnostics; chemistry of life). In real scientific activity, in every scientific project, to one degree or another, particular problems that relate to several general directions are always posed and resolved. And this, in turn, requires very versatile training from each member of the scientific team.

It is also important to note that in each of the above areas of chemistry there is a clear transition to increasingly complex objects of research. Supramolecular systems and structures are increasingly becoming the focus of attention. In this regard, the new stage in the development of chemical science, which began at the turn of the century, can be called the stage of supramolecular chemistry.

^ 4. Features of Russian chemical science today.

Ten years of so-called perestroika dealt a terrible blow to Russian science in general and to Russian chemistry in particular. Much has been written about this, and it is not worth repeating here. Unfortunately, we have to admit that among the scientific teams that have proven their viability in the new conditions, there are practically no former industrial chemical institutes. The enormous potential of this industry has been practically destroyed, and material and intellectual values ​​have been plundered. The meager funding of academic and university chemistry, which throughout this period was limited to salaries at or below the subsistence level, led to a significant reduction in the number of employees. Most of the energetic and talented youth left universities and institutes. The average age of teachers in the vast majority of universities has crossed the critical mark of 60 years. There is a generation gap - among the employees of chemical institutes and teachers there are very few people at the most productive age of 30-40 years. There remain old professors and young graduate students who often enter graduate school with only one goal - to be freed from military service.

Most scientific teams can be classified into one of two types, although this division, of course, is very arbitrary. “Producing research teams” carry out new large independent research projects and receive significant amounts of primary information. “Expert scientific teams”, as a rule, are smaller in number than producing ones, but they also include very highly qualified specialists. They are focused on analyzing information flows, summarizing and systematizing the results obtained in other scientific groups around the world. Accordingly, their scientific products are mainly reviews and monographs. Due to the enormous growth in the volume of scientific information, this kind of work becomes very important if it is carried out in compliance with the requirements that apply to such secondary sources of information as a review and a monograph /8/. In conditions of meager funding, a lack of modern scientific equipment and a reduction in numbers in the Russian scientific chemical community, the number of producing teams has decreased, and the number of expert teams has increased slightly. In the work of most teams of both types, the share of complex experimental research has fallen. Such changes in the structure of the scientific community in unfavorable conditions are quite natural and at a certain stage are reversible. If the situation improves, the expert team can easily be replenished with youth and turned into a producing one. However, if the period of unfavorable conditions drags on, expert teams die, since their leaders are older scientists who stop scientific activities for natural reasons.

The share of work by Russian chemists in the total volume of research and in global information flows is rapidly declining. Our country can no longer consider itself a “great chemical power.” In just a dozen years, due to the departure of leaders and the lack of an equivalent replacement, we have already lost a significant number of scientific schools that were the pride of not only our, but also world science. Apparently, we will continue to lose them in the near future. In my opinion, Russian chemical science today has reached a critical point, beyond which the disintegration of the community becomes an avalanche-like and more uncontrollable process.

This danger is quite clearly understood by the international scientific community, which strives to provide all possible assistance to our science through various channels. I have the impression that those in power in our science and education have not yet fully realized the reality of such a collapse. After all, one cannot, in fact, seriously count on the fact that it can be prevented through the implementation of a program to support scientific schools through the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Integration program. It is not realized that the funds allocated for these programs are significantly (roughly, by an order of magnitude) below the minimum limit, after which the impact becomes non-zero.

In response to a statement in this tone in a conversation with a person close to the power structures indicated above, I heard: “Don’t get angry in vain, read “Search.” Thank God the worst times are behind us. Of course, the general background is still quite bleak, but there are quite prosperous research teams and entire institutes that have adapted to the new conditions and are demonstrating a noticeable increase in productivity. So there is no need to become hysterical and bury our science.”

In fact, such groups exist. I compiled a list of ten such laboratories that work close in topic to my area of ​​scientific interests, went to the INTERNET, and worked in the library with the Chemical Abstracts database. Here are the common features of these laboratories that immediately caught the eye:

All ten teams have direct access to the INTERNET, five out of ten have well-designed own pages with fairly complete and updated information about their work.

All ten laboratories actively cooperate with foreign teams. Six have grants from international organizations, three carry out research under contracts with large foreign companies.

More than half of the members of scientific teams about whom information was found traveled abroad at least once a year to participate in international conferences or for scientific work.

The work of nine out of ten laboratories is supported by grants from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (an average of 2 grants per laboratory).

Six out of 10 laboratories represent institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but three of them are very actively involved in cooperation with the Higher College of Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and therefore there are quite a lot of students in their teams. Of the four university teams, three are headed by members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

From 15% to 35% of scientific publications of laboratory managers over the past 5 years have been published in international journals. Five of them published joint works during this period, and seven presented joint reports at scientific conferences with foreign colleagues.

In conclusion, I will say the most important thing - at the head of all these laboratories there are absolutely wonderful individuals. Highly cultured, diversely educated people who are passionate about their work.

A qualified reader will immediately notice that it makes no sense to draw any general conclusions based on such a small and unrepresentative sample of scientific teams. I admit that I do not have complete information about other successfully working scientific teams of chemists in the country. It would be interesting to collect and analyze them. But from the experience of my own laboratory, which is not the weakest in general, I can responsibly declare that without participation in international cooperation, without constant help from foreign colleagues, from whom over the past year we have received almost $4,000 worth of chemical reagents and books alone, Without constant business trips of employees, graduate students and students abroad, we would not be able to work at all. The conclusion suggests itself:

Today, in the field of fundamental research in our chemical science, productive work is mainly carried out by teams that are included in the international scientific community, receive support from abroad, and have free access to sources of scientific information. The integration of Russian chemistry, which survived perestroika, into world chemical science is being completed.

And if so, then our criteria for the quality of scientific products must meet the highest international standards. Almost deprived of the opportunity to acquire modern scientific equipment, we must focus on using the very limited capabilities of collective centers and/or on performing the most complex and delicate experiments abroad.

^ 5. Let's return to the problem of preparing our shift.

Much about this is well said in the article by the deans of the Chemistry faculties of two indisputably best universities in the country /9/, and therefore there is no need to go into many details. Let's try to move in order in accordance with the list of questions formulated at the beginning of this note.

So who are they, the young people sitting on the student bench in front of us? Fortunately, in the human population there is a small part of individuals whose destiny to become scientists is predetermined genetically. You just need to find them and attract them to chemistry classes. Fortunately, our country has long-standing and glorious traditions of identifying talented children through chemical olympiads, through the creation of specialized classes and schools. Wonderful enthusiasts of classes with gifted students still live and actively work. Leading chemical universities that take an active part in this work, despite the machinations of the Ministry of Education, are reaping a truly golden harvest. In recent years, up to a third of students at the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University have already identified their area of ​​interest in the 1st year, and almost half begin scientific work by the beginning of the 3rd year.

The peculiarity of modern times is that, when starting their studies at the university, a young person often does not yet know in which field he will have to work after completing his education. Most researchers and engineers change fields several times during their professional careers. Therefore, a future specialist as a student must acquire solid skills in the ability to independently master new areas of science. Independent individual work of the student forms the basis of modern education. The main condition for the effectiveness of such work is the availability of good modern textbooks and teaching aids. The “lifetime” of a modern textbook, apparently, should be approximately equal to the time it takes for the volume of scientific information to double, i.e. should be 11-12 years old. One of the main problems of our education is that we not only do not have new university textbooks on basic chemical disciplines, but there is a catastrophic shortage of even old ones. An effective program for writing and printing textbooks in chemical disciplines for universities is needed.

Gifted and well-motivated students have a feature that was noticed by R. Feyman in his famous lectures. They, such students, essentially do not need a standard education. They need an environment

Performance at the second
Moscow Pedagogical Marathon
educational subjects, April 9, 2003

Natural sciences around the world are going through difficult times. Financial flows are leaving science and education for the military-political sphere, the prestige of scientists and teachers is falling, and the lack of education of the majority of society is rapidly growing. Ignorance rules the world. It comes to the point that in America, right-wing Christians are demanding the legal abolition of the second law of thermodynamics, which, in their opinion, contradicts religious doctrines.
Chemistry suffers more than other natural sciences. Most people associate this science with chemical weapons, environmental pollution, man-made disasters, drug production, etc. Overcoming “chemophobia” and mass chemical illiteracy, creating an attractive public image of chemistry is one of the tasks of chemical education, the current state of which in Russia we want to discuss.

Modernization program (reforms)
education in Russia and its shortcomings

The Soviet Union had a well-functioning system of chemical education based on a linear approach, with the study of chemistry beginning in middle school and ending in high school. An agreed scheme for ensuring the educational process was developed, including: programs and textbooks, training and advanced training for teachers, a system of chemical olympiads at all levels, sets of teaching aids (“School Library”, “Teacher’s Library” and
etc.), publicly available methodological journals (“Chemistry at school”, etc.), demonstration and laboratory instruments.
Education is a conservative and inert system, therefore, even after the collapse of the USSR, chemical education, which suffered heavy financial losses, continued to fulfill its tasks. However, several years ago, a reform of the education system began in Russia, the main goal of which is to support the entry of new generations into the globalized world, into the open information community. To achieve this, according to the authors of the reform, communication, computer science, foreign languages, and intercultural learning should occupy a central place in the content of education. As we see, there is no place for natural sciences in this reform.
It was announced that the new reform should ensure a transition to a system of quality indicators and education standards comparable to the world. A plan of specific measures has also been developed, among which the main ones are the transition to 12-year schooling, the introduction of a unified state exam (USE) in the form of universal testing, the development of new education standards based on a concentric scheme, according to which by the time they graduate from the nine-year school, students should have a holistic understanding about the subject.
How will this reform affect chemical education in Russia? In our opinion, it is sharply negative. The fact is that among the developers of the Concept for the Modernization of Russian Education there was not a single representative of natural science, therefore the interests of the natural sciences were completely not taken into account in this concept. The Unified State Exam in the form in which the authors of the reform conceived it will spoil the system of transition from secondary school to higher education, which universities created with such difficulty in the first years of Russian independence, and will destroy the continuity of Russian education.
One of the arguments in favor of the Unified State Exam is that, according to reform ideologists, it will ensure equal access to higher education for various social strata and territorial groups of the population.

Our many years of experience in distance learning, associated with the Soros Olympiad in Chemistry and part-time admission to the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, shows that distance testing, firstly, does not provide an objective assessment of knowledge, and secondly, does not provide students with equal opportunities . Over the 5 years of the Soros Olympiads, more than 100 thousand written works in chemistry passed through our department, and we were convinced that the general level of solutions very much depends on the region; in addition, the lower the educational level of the region, the more decommissioned works were sent from there. Another significant objection to the Unified State Exam is that testing as a form of knowledge testing has significant limitations. Even a correctly designed test does not allow an objective assessment of a student’s ability to reason and draw conclusions. Our students studied the Unified State Exam materials in chemistry and discovered a large number of incorrect or ambiguous questions that cannot be used for testing schoolchildren. We came to the conclusion that the Unified State Examination can only be used as one of the forms of monitoring the work of secondary schools, but in no case as the only, monopolistic mechanism for access to higher education.
Another negative aspect of the reform is related to the development of new education standards, which should bring the Russian education system closer to the European one. The draft standards proposed in 2002 by the Ministry of Education violated one of the main principles of science education - objectivity. The leaders of the working group that compiled the project proposed thinking about abandoning separate school courses in chemistry, physics and biology and replacing them with a single integrated course “Natural Science”. Such a decision, even if made for the long term, would simply bury chemical education in our country.
What can be done in these unfavorable internal political conditions to preserve traditions and develop chemical education in Russia? Now we move on to our positive program, much of which has already been implemented. This program has two main aspects - content and organizational: we are trying to determine the content of chemical education in our country and develop new forms of interaction between chemical education centers.

New state standard
chemical education

Chemical education begins at school. The content of school education is determined by the main regulatory document - the state standard of school education. Within the framework of the concentric scheme adopted by us, there are three standards in chemistry: basic general education(grades 8–9), base average And specialized secondary education(grades 10–11). One of us (N.E. Kuzmenko) headed the working group of the Ministry of Education to prepare standards, and by now these standards have been fully formulated and are ready for legislative approval.
When starting to develop a standard for chemical education, the authors proceeded from the development trends of modern chemistry and took into account its role in natural science and in society. Modern chemistry – this is a fundamental system of knowledge about the world around us, based on rich experimental material and reliable theoretical principles. The scientific content of the standard is based on two basic concepts: “substance” and “chemical reaction”.
“Substance” is the main concept of chemistry. Substances surround us everywhere: in the air, food, soil, household appliances, plants and, finally, in ourselves. Some of these substances were given to us by nature in ready-made form (oxygen, water, proteins, carbohydrates, oil, gold), the other part was obtained by man through a slight modification of natural compounds (asphalt or artificial fibers), but the largest number of substances that were previously in nature did not exist, man synthesized them on his own. These are modern materials, medicines, catalysts. Today, about 20 million organic and about 500 thousand inorganic substances are known, and each of them has an internal structure. Organic and inorganic synthesis has reached such a high degree of development that it allows the synthesis of compounds with any predetermined structure. In this regard, it comes to the fore in modern chemistry
applied aspect, which focuses on connection between the structure of a substance and its properties, and the main task is to search and synthesize useful substances and materials with desired properties.
The most interesting thing about the world around us is that it is constantly changing. The second main concept of chemistry is “chemical reaction”. Every second, an innumerable number of reactions occur in the world, as a result of which some substances are transformed into others. We can observe some reactions directly, for example, the rusting of iron objects, blood clotting, and the combustion of automobile fuel. At the same time, the vast majority of reactions remain invisible, but it is they that determine the properties of the world around us. In order to realize one’s place in the world and learn to manage it, a person must deeply understand the nature of these reactions and the laws to which they obey.
The task of modern chemistry is to study the functions of substances in complex chemical and biological systems, analyze the relationship between the structure of a substance and its functions, and synthesize substances with given functions.
Based on the fact that the standard should serve as a tool for the development of education, it was proposed to unload the content of basic general education and leave in it only those content elements whose educational value is confirmed by domestic and world practice of teaching chemistry at school. This is a minimal, but functionally complete knowledge system.
Standard of basic general education includes six content blocks:

• Methods of knowledge of substances and chemical phenomena.
• Substance.
• Chemical reaction.
• Elementary fundamentals of inorganic chemistry.
• Initial ideas about organic substances.
• Chemistry and life.

Basic Average Standard education is divided into five content blocks:

• Methods of learning chemistry.
• Theoretical foundations of chemistry.
• Inorganic chemistry.
• Organic chemistry.
• Chemistry and life.

The basis of both standards is the periodic law of D.I. Mendeleev, the theory of the structure of atoms and chemical bonds, the theory of electrolytic dissociation and the structural theory of organic compounds.
The basic intermediate level standard is designed to provide high school graduates, first of all, with the ability to navigate social and personal problems related to chemistry.
IN profile level standard the knowledge system has been significantly expanded, primarily due to ideas about the structure of atoms and molecules, as well as the laws of the occurrence of chemical reactions, considered from the point of view of the theories of chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics. This ensures that high school graduates are prepared to continue their chemical education in higher education.

New program and new
chemistry textbooks

The new, scientifically based standard of chemical education has prepared fertile ground for the development of a new school curriculum and the creation of a set of school textbooks based on it. In this report, we present the school curriculum in chemistry for grades 8–9 and the concept of a series of textbooks for grades 8–11, created by a team of authors from the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University.
The chemistry course program at a basic secondary school is designed for students in grades 8–9. It is distinguished from the standard programs currently operating in Russian secondary schools by more precise interdisciplinary connections and precise selection of material necessary to create a holistic natural-scientific perception of the world, comfortable and safe interaction with the environment in production and everyday life. The program is structured in such a way that its main attention is paid to those sections of chemistry, terms and concepts that are in one way or another connected with everyday life, and are not “armchair knowledge” of a narrowly limited circle of people whose activities are related to chemical science.
During the first year of chemistry (8th grade), the focus is on developing students' basic chemical skills, "chemical language" and chemical thinking. For this purpose, objects familiar from everyday life (oxygen, air, water) were selected. In the 8th grade, we deliberately avoid the concept of “mole,” which is difficult for schoolchildren to understand, and practically do not use calculation problems. The main idea of ​​this part of the course is to instill in students the skills of describing the properties of various substances grouped into classes, as well as to show the connection between the structure of substances and their properties.
In the second year of study (9th grade), the introduction of additional chemical concepts is accompanied by consideration of the structure and properties of inorganic substances. A special section briefly examines the elements of organic chemistry and biochemistry to the extent provided for by the state education standard.

To develop a chemical view of the world, the course draws broad correlations between the elementary chemical knowledge acquired by children in the class and the properties of those objects that are known to schoolchildren in everyday life, but were previously perceived only at the everyday level. Based on chemical concepts, students are invited to look at precious and finishing stones, glass, earthenware, porcelain, paints, food, and modern materials. The program has expanded the range of objects that are described and discussed only at a qualitative level, without resorting to cumbersome chemical equations and complex formulas. We paid great attention to the style of presentation, which allows us to introduce and discuss chemical concepts and terms in a lively and visual form. In this regard, the interdisciplinary connections of chemistry with other sciences, not only natural, but also humanities, are constantly emphasized.
The new program is implemented in a set of school textbooks for grades 8–9, one of which has already been printed, and the other is being written. When creating textbooks, we took into account the changing social role of chemistry and public interest in it, which is caused by two main interrelated factors. The first is "chemophobia", i.e., the negative attitude of society towards chemistry and its manifestations. In this regard, it is important to explain at all levels that the bad is not in chemistry, but in people who do not understand the laws of nature or have moral problems.
Chemistry is a very powerful tool in the hands of man; its laws contain no concepts of good and evil. Using the same laws, you can come up with a new technology for the synthesis of drugs or poisons, or you can come up with a new medicine or a new building material.
Another social factor is the progressive chemical illiteracy society at all levels - from politicians and journalists to housewives. Most people have absolutely no idea what the world around them consists of, do not know the elementary properties of even the simplest substances and cannot distinguish nitrogen from ammonia, or ethyl alcohol from methyl alcohol. It is in this area that a competent chemistry textbook, written in simple and understandable language, can play a great educational role.
When creating textbooks, we proceeded from the following postulates.

The main objectives of the school chemistry course

1. Formation of a scientific picture of the surrounding world and development of a natural scientific worldview. Presentation of chemistry as a central science aimed at solving pressing problems of humanity.
2. Development of chemical thinking, the ability to analyze the phenomena of the surrounding world in chemical terms, the ability to speak (and think) in chemical language.
3. Popularization of chemical knowledge and introduction of ideas about the role of chemistry in everyday life and its applied significance in the life of society. Development of environmental thinking and familiarity with modern chemical technologies.
4. Formation of practical skills for safe handling of substances in everyday life.
5. Arousing keen interest among schoolchildren in the study of chemistry, both as part of the school curriculum and additionally.

Basic ideas of a school chemistry course

1. Chemistry is the central science of nature, closely interacting with other natural sciences. The applied capabilities of chemistry are of fundamental importance for the life of society.
2. The world around us consists of substances that are characterized by a certain structure and are capable of mutual transformations. There is a connection between the structure and properties of substances. The task of chemistry is to create substances with useful properties.
3. The world around us is constantly changing. Its properties are determined by the chemical reactions that occur in it. In order to control these reactions, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the laws of chemistry.
4. Chemistry is a powerful tool for transforming nature and society. Safe use of chemistry is possible only in a highly developed society with stable moral categories.

Methodological principles and style of textbooks

1. The sequence of presentation of the material is focused on studying the chemical properties of the surrounding world with a gradual and delicate (i.e., unobtrusive) acquaintance with the theoretical foundations of modern chemistry. Descriptive sections alternate with theoretical ones. The material is evenly distributed throughout the entire training period.
2. Internal isolation, self-sufficiency and logical validity of the presentation. Any material is presented in the context of general problems in the development of science and society.
3. Constant demonstration of the connection of chemistry with life, frequent reminders of the applied importance of chemistry, popular science analysis of substances and materials that students encounter in everyday life.
4. High scientific level and rigor of presentation. The chemical properties of substances and chemical reactions are described as they actually occur. The chemistry in textbooks is real, not “paper”.
5. Friendly, easy and impartial presentation style. Simple, accessible and competent Russian language. Using “stories”—short, entertaining stories that connect chemical knowledge to everyday life—to facilitate comprehension. Wide use of illustrations, which make up about 15% of the volume of textbooks.
6. Two-level structure of material presentation. “Large print” is a basic level, “small print” is for deeper learning.
7. Widespread use of simple and visual demonstration experiments, laboratory and practical work to study the experimental aspects of chemistry and develop students' practical skills.
8. Using questions and tasks of two levels of complexity for deeper assimilation and consolidation of the material.

We intend to include in the set of teaching aids:

• chemistry textbooks for grades 8–11;
• guidelines for teachers, thematic lesson planning;
• didactic materials;
• a book for students to read;
• Chemistry reference tables;
• computer support in the form of CDs containing: a) an electronic version of the textbook; b) reference materials; c) demonstration experiments; d) illustrative material; e) animation models; f) programs for solving calculation problems; g) didactic materials.

We hope that the new textbooks will allow many schoolchildren to take a fresh look at our subject and show them that chemistry is a fascinating and very useful science.
In addition to textbooks, chemistry Olympiads play an important role in developing schoolchildren’s interest in chemistry.

Modern system of chemical olympiads

The system of Chemistry Olympiads is one of the few educational structures that survived the collapse of the country. The All-Union Olympiad in Chemistry was transformed into the All-Russian Olympiad, retaining its main features. Currently, this Olympiad is held in five stages: school, district, regional, federal district and final. The winners of the final stage represent Russia at the International Chemistry Olympiad. The most important from the point of view of education are the most widespread stages - school and district, for which school teachers and methodological associations of cities and regions of Russia are responsible. The Ministry of Education is generally responsible for the entire Olympiad.
Interestingly, the former All-Union Olympiad in Chemistry has also been preserved, but in a new capacity. Every year the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University organizes an international Mendeleev Olympiad, in which winners and prize-winners of chemical olympiads from the CIS and Baltic countries participate. Last year, this Olympiad was held with great success in Almaty, this year in the city of Pushchino, Moscow region. The Mendeleev Olympiad allows talented children from the former republics of the Soviet Union to enter Moscow State University and other prestigious universities without exams. The communication between chemistry teachers during the Olympiad is also extremely valuable, as it contributes to the preservation of a single chemical space on the territory of the former Union.
In the last five years, the number of subject Olympiads has increased sharply due to the fact that many universities, in search of new forms of attracting applicants, began to hold their own Olympiads and count the results of these Olympiads as entrance exams. One of the pioneers of this movement was the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, which annually conducts correspondence and intramural Olympiad in chemistry, physics and mathematics. This Olympiad, which we called “MSU Entrant”, is already 10 years old this year. It provides equal access to all groups of schoolchildren to study at Moscow State University. The Olympiad takes place in two stages: correspondence and full-time. first - correspondence– the stage is of an introductory nature. We publish assignments in all specialized newspapers and magazines and distribute assignments to schools. Almost six months are allotted for a decision. We invite those who have completed at least half of the tasks to second stage – full-time tour, which takes place on the 20th of May. Written tasks in mathematics and chemistry allow us to determine the winners of the Olympiad, who receive advantages when entering our faculty.
The geography of this Olympiad is unusually wide. Every year, representatives of all regions of Russia take part in it - from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, as well as several dozen “foreigners” from the CIS countries. The development of this Olympiad has led to the fact that almost all talented children from the provinces come to study with us: more than 60% of students at the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University are from other cities.
At the same time, university Olympiads are constantly under pressure from the Ministry of Education, which promotes the ideology of the Unified State Exam and seeks to deprive universities of independence in determining the forms of admission of applicants. And here, oddly enough, the All-Russian Olympiad comes to the aid of the ministry. The ministry’s idea is that only participants in those Olympiads that are organizationally integrated into the structure of the All-Russian Olympiad should have advantages when entering universities. Any university can independently hold any Olympiad without any connection with the All-Russian Olympiad, but the results of such an Olympiad will not be counted towards admission to this university.
If such an idea is formalized into law, it will deal a rather strong blow to the university admission system and, most importantly, to high school students who will lose many incentives to enroll in the university of their choice.
However, this year admission to universities will follow the same rules, and in connection with this we want to talk about the entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University.

Entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University

The entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University is taken at six faculties: chemistry, biology, medicine, soil sciences, the Faculty of Materials Sciences, and the new Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics. The exam is written and lasts 4 hours. During this time, schoolchildren must solve 10 problems of varying levels of complexity: from trivial, i.e., “comforting” ones, to quite complex ones, which allow differentiating grades.
None of the tasks requires special knowledge beyond what is studied in specialized chemistry schools. Nevertheless, most problems are structured in such a way that their solution requires thinking, based not on memorization, but on knowledge of theory. As an example, we would like to give several such problems from different branches of chemistry.

Theoretical chemistry

Problem 1(Department of Biology). The rate constant for the isomerization reaction A B is equal to 20 s–1, and the rate constant for the reverse reaction B A is equal to 12 s–1. Calculate the composition of the equilibrium mixture (in grams) obtained from 10 g of substance A.

Solution
Let it turn into B x g of substance A, then the equilibrium mixture contains (10 – x) g A and x g B. At equilibrium, the rate of the forward reaction is equal to the rate of the reverse reaction:

20 (10 – x) = 12x,

where x = 6,25.
Composition of the equilibrium mixture: 3.75 g A, 6.25 g B.
Answer. 3.75 g A, 6.25 g B.

Inorganic chemistry

Problem 2(Department of Biology). What volume of carbon dioxide (NO) must be passed through 200 g of a 0.74% solution of calcium hydroxide so that the mass of the precipitate formed is 1.5 g, and the solution above the precipitate does not give color with phenolphthalein?

Solution
When carbon dioxide is passed through a solution of calcium hydroxide, a precipitate of calcium carbonate is first formed:

which can then dissolve in excess CO2:

CaCO 3 + CO 2 + H 2 O = Ca(HCO 3) 2.

The dependence of the mass of sediment on the amount of CO 2 substance has the following form:

If there is a lack of CO 2, the solution above the precipitate will contain Ca(OH) 2 and give a purple color with phenolphthalein. According to this condition, there is no coloring, therefore, CO 2 is in excess
compared to Ca(OH) 2, i.e., first all Ca(OH) 2 is converted into CaCO 3, and then CaCO 3 is partially dissolved in CO 2.

(Ca(OH) 2) = 200 0.0074/74 = 0.02 mol, (CaCO 3) = 1.5/100 = 0.015 mol.

In order for all the Ca(OH) 2 to pass into CaCO 3, 0.02 mol of CO 2 must be passed through the original solution, and then another 0.005 mol of CO 2 must be passed through so that 0.005 mol of CaCO 3 dissolves and 0.015 mol remains.

V(CO 2) = (0.02 + 0.005) 22.4 = 0.56 l.

Answer. 0.56 l CO 2 .

Organic chemistry

Problem 3(chemical faculty). An aromatic hydrocarbon with one benzene ring contains 90.91% carbon by mass. When 2.64 g of this hydrocarbon is oxidized with an acidified solution of potassium permanganate, 962 ml of gas is released (at 20 °C and normal pressure), and upon nitration, a mixture containing two mononitro derivatives is formed. Establish the possible structure of the starting hydrocarbon and write the schemes for the mentioned reactions. How many mononitro derivatives are formed during the nitration of a hydrocarbon oxidation product?

Solution

1) Determine the molecular formula of the desired hydrocarbon:

(C):(H) = (90.91/12):(9.09/1) = 10:12.

Therefore, the hydrocarbon is C 10 H 12 ( M= 132 g/mol) with one double bond in the side chain.
2) Find the composition of the side chains:

(C 10 H 12) = 2.64/132 = 0.02 mol,

(CO 2) = 101.3 0.962/(8.31 293) = 0.04 mol.

This means that two carbon atoms leave the C 10 H 12 molecule during oxidation with potassium permanganate, therefore, there were two substituents: CH 3 and C(CH 3) = CH 2 or CH = CH 2 and C 2 H 5.
3) Let us determine the relative orientation of the side chains: upon nitration, only the para isomer gives two mononitro derivatives:

When the product of complete oxidation, terephthalic acid, is nitrated, only one mononitro derivative is formed.

Biochemistry

Problem 4(Department of Biology). With complete hydrolysis of 49.50 g of oligosaccharide, only one product was formed - glucose, the alcoholic fermentation of which produced 22.08 g of ethanol. Establish the number of glucose residues in the oligosaccharide molecule and calculate the mass of water required for hydrolysis if the yield of the fermentation reaction is 80%.

N/( n – 1) = 0,30/0,25.

Where n = 6.
Answer. n = 6; m(H 2 O) = 4.50 g.

Problem 5(Faculty of Medicine). With complete hydrolysis of the pentapeptide Met-enkephalin, the following amino acids were obtained: glycine (Gly) – H 2 NCH 2 COOH, phenylalanine (Phe) – H 2 NCH(CH 2 C 6 H 5) COOH, tyrosine (Tyr) – H 2 NCH( CH 2 C 6 H 4 OH)COOH, methionine (Met) – H 2 NCH(CH 2 CH 2 SCH 3) COOH. From the products of partial hydrolysis of the same peptide, substances with molecular masses of 295, 279 and 296 were isolated. Establish two possible sequences of amino acids in this peptide (in abbreviated notation) and calculate its molar mass.

Solution
Based on the molar masses of the peptides, their composition can be determined using the hydrolysis equations:

dipeptide + H 2 O = amino acid I + amino acid II,
tripeptide + 2H 2 O = amino acid I + amino acid II + amino acid III.
Molecular masses of amino acids:

Gly – 75, Phe – 165, Tyr – 181, Met – 149.

295 + 2 18 = 75 + 75 + 181,
tripeptide – Gly–Gly–Tyr;

279 + 2 18 = 75 + 75 + 165,
tripeptide – Gly–Gly–Phe;

296 + 18 = 165 + 149,
dipeptide – Phe–Met.

These peptides can be combined into a pentapeptide as follows:

M= 296 + 295 – 18 = 573 g/mol.

The exact opposite sequence of amino acids is also possible:

Tyr–Gly–Gly–Phe–Met.

Answer.
Met–Phe–Gly–Gly–Tyr,
Tyr–Gly–Gly–Phe–Met; M= 573 g/mol.

Competition for the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University and other chemical universities has remained stable in recent years, and the level of training of applicants has been growing. Therefore, to summarize, we assert that, despite difficult external and internal circumstances, chemical education in Russia has good prospects. The main thing that convinces us of this is the inexhaustible flow of young talents, passionate about our beloved science, striving to get a good education and benefit their country.

V.V.EREMIN,
Associate Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University,
N.E.KUZMENKO,
Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University
(Moscow)