Efficiency with Your Hands or Your Mind?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalamu Alaikum,

Another question that comes up over and over in my mind:

Is the purpose of teaching chemistry to help students learn how to be efficient with their hands or with their minds?

You could argue both come hand in hand, (no pun intended) but the way a teacher designs a lesson can heavily impact what students take from it.

Do I want to teach chemistry as something that they should remember as formulas, math computations and information tables? As a subject that when they leave the class, they can do practical chemistry (as in lab techniques)? As problem solvers that no matter what discipline they study, they can use the analytical and critical thinking skills they have learned in chemistry? As a prerequisite to something else (organic chemistry, etc.)? As a science and simply learn how the world works?

Ends vs. The Means

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalamu Alaikum,

I had read recently a book entitled, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes. The book was a historical account of the events that led up to the making and use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were many social, political and ethical conflicts/themes addressed in the book and one to really think about (in terms of chemistry) is the ends vs. the means.

In the book, there was a constant pull between the ethics of making the atomic bomb (because it can destroy everything in a couple mile radius) and the justification of using it to end the war sooner and ‘save more American lives’. Personally, I still don’t see the need to use the bomb, but the conflict pulled me back to think a bit more broadly:

*Are the negative impacts and damage to the global environment justification for researching advancements in chemistry?*