Editorial - A new look

Welcome to the new academic year, and to a new look for Education in Chemistry (EIC). Following the positive feedback from the readership survey on the content of the magazine earlier in the year, we decided to go ahead and redesign the magazine. This gave us the opportunity to look at each section and, along with your comments, focus on bringing out some of EIC's strengths.  

Our intention, therefore, was not to compromise the content, but rather open it up and make it a more accessible and comfortable read.  

The main magazine now fills 36 pages, because InfoChem, the student supplement, has been removed and itself been expanded from four to eight pages. The changes will allow us to deliver a wider range of feature articles in the main magazine - look out, for example, for a new series entitled Maths for chemists coming shortly - as well as increase the number of book and software reviews covered. InfoChem will continue to give a positive image of the chemical sciences to students, and working with our colleagues in the education department we will be introducing material that should help them make the transition from school to college/university, as well as providing careers information.  

In Column we will continue to analyse Government changes to education as they affect chemistry teaching at both secondary and tertiary levels. The RSC's education department - under the direction of Tony Ashmore, with support from Colin Osborne and his team, who take care of schools and colleges, and Libby Steele and her team who oversee higher education and professional development - plays a major role in influencing Government policy on chemical education, and providing resources for teachers, lecturers and students. As part of this department, EIC is well placed to keep you informed about all these activities. 

EIC is your magazine. I hope you will view the new layout as an improvement and that it will encourage you to read more and distribute it among your colleagues. I welcome your thoughts on the changes and hope you will use the Letters page and the Endpoint to express your views on matters affecting the teaching and learning of chemistry across the secondary-tertiary interface.