Chemistry Department Motion Picture Films, 1958-1959

In the spring of 1957, the first television course at Oregon State College, Chemistry 203, was broadcast via closed-circuit TV from a studio in Shepard Hall to lecture rooms in Dearborn Hall. During the 1957/58 and 1958/59 academic years, General Chemistry (Ch 104, 105, and 106) was broadcast via KOAC-TV from a studio in Gill Coliseum and received simultaneously by students at Oregon State College, the University of Oregon, Oregon College of Education, and Willamette University. These courses were part of an 8-year interinstitutional television project supported by the Fund for Advancement of Education of the Ford Foundation.

Kinescope films of the lectures (2 per week) and weekly laboratory experiment demonstrations were made during the 1958/59 year and used to teach a special chemistry course during the 1959/60 academic year and were broadcast over KOAC-TV as late as 1963.

Although instruction by television had begun as early as 1952 at Iowa State College, Oregon State College was one of the first institutions to offer a chemistry course by television and to broadcast a course to students at several institutions simultaneously.

Wendell Slabaugh, an innovative and enthusiastic teacher, was at Oregon State University from 1953 until his sudden death in 1980. He was a pioneer in many audio-visual as well as other teaching techniques and lecture demonstrations. In 1973, the Manufacturing Chemists Association recognized Slabaugh with their Award for Excellence in teaching chemistry.