Previously, I commented on the "Can a mechanism be known" issue. Today I return to the topic of teaching science as a known.
Long ago when I was a graduate student I wrote a letter (Stamp and all. It was that long ago.) to my Grandmother about what I was doing in the lab. My grandmother wrote back that she found it interesting that I was trying to discover new things in chemistry. She thought that earning the degree meant that I would memorized all the combinations of reagents and conditions to make everything. She continued to explain that she thought we already knew everything there was to know. I remember thinking that if her conception of science were true I would never have entered the field. It is precisely the unknown, the puzzle, the opportunity to create new knowledge and advance the human condition that ignites the passion of many to become scientists.
I always figured that this was the difference between the BA and BS in chemistry. The BA focus on the known art and the BS on the science. One is technical the other is the exploration of the frontier. For me the teaching of science as fact is technical training, not a scientific training.
Don't get me wrong here. We need both! Much of the world of chemistry is technical and many of our students will find themselves in a technical job, or in an allied chemistry or biochemistry field.
Much of the progress of any field comes from the person looking for the solution to a puzzle, pushing the envelope of the known. My fear is that if we do not teach the idea of unknowns and the potential inherent in mastering of the unknown the science and associated technology will stagnate. Fewer will enter the field in favor of careers where the passion to discover is still alive.
T.S. Hall
I'm not sure that all institutions discriminate between the rigorous definitions of the BS and the BA. Many institutions have a tradition of offering BA or BS programs for reasons that are long lost in the murky depths of time. My BA is from an institution that fancied itself more of a liberal arts institution than a science center. But the ACS curriculum was followed to the letter and I was aware of no particular restraints on the sciency studies. In fact, we tended to have lots of contact with professors from BS/MS/PhD institutions who applied their knowhow to us. So, what does the BA mean in this case?? It means that I didn't suffer from chronic exposure to grad students.
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