Rose Stern

Rose Stern
Born (1869-11-17)November 17, 1869
Birmingham, England
Died 1953
Fields Chemistry
Institutions North London Collegiate School for Ladies
Alma mater Mason College

Rose Stern (November 17, 1869 - October 1953) was a science mistress at North London Collegiate School for Ladies.[1] While a student at Mason College, she was the first woman student to become a member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Institute of Chemistry). A proponent of grounding chemistry instruction in domestic science, she published A method of teaching chemistry in schools (with Alice Maude Hughes, 1906) and A short history of chemistry (1924).

Early life and education

Rose Stern was born on November 17, 1869, in Birmingham, England, to Moritz Stern (born 1833) and Fanny Schwartz (born 1845), both of German origin. Her paternal grandparents were Marcus (1797-1869) and Flora (1800-1858) Stern. Rose was the third of seven children.[2]

Stern graduated in 1889 from King Edward VI High School for Girls, Birmingham,[3]:57 one of the rare girls schools to offer a strong science curriculum.[4] She then attended Mason College. She was the first women student to become a member of the Mason College Chemical Society. At the associate level, three women members had preceded Stern after the club's formation in 1884: Emily Lloyd, Jessie Charles and Constance Naden.[3]:196

Stern was also the first woman student to become a member of the Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain & Ireland (later the Royal Institute of Chemistry).[3]:57[5] Stern is listed in the Register of Fellows, Associates and Students of the Institute of Chemistry as having been admitted as of February 17, 1893. Her address is given as 241, Bristol Road, Birmingham.[6]

Stern received her B. Sc. from Mason College in 1894.[3]:57–58[7]

Career

From 1897 to 1902, Stern worked as a science mistress at the County School, Bangor. In 1902, Stern became a science mistress at North London Collegiate School for Ladies (later "for Girls").[8] NLCS had been founded by Frances Mary Buss (1827-1894), whose father Robert Buss was the first science teacher at the school. Both Frances Mary Buss and her successor Sophie Willock (Dr. Sophie Bryant) emphasized the importance of teaching "real science."[3]:15–17

The students at NLCS had a Science Club, whose founder and first president, science mistress Grace Heath, had died in 1895.[9] Soon after her arrival in 1902, Miss Stern was elected President of the Science Club.[10] The students also published their own hand-written illustrated science magazine, The Searchlight.[3]:15–17 This emphasis on science was extremely uncommon for girls' schools of that time.[4] NLCS became a model for other girls' schools around the world.[3]:15–17

In 1906, Stern and Alice Maude Hughes, a science mistress from L. C. C. Secondary School, Eltham, published A method of teaching chemistry in schools. They presented a series of experiments in chemistry that were suitable for children, requiring them to keep laboratory notebooks about their activities and questions, save samples, and work from familiar to unknown areas.[11][12]

Stern, with others including Lilian Faithfull, Ida Freund, Charlotte Laurie, Jessie Charles White, and Arthur Smithells debated the proper teaching of science to girls. Rose Stern argued for a blended approach to teaching in which pure chemistry and applied chemistry were presented using familiar substances from kitchen and food preparation. She suggested that using household chemicals in chemistry class would enable girls to better appreciate academic chemistry.[3]:42–43,48[13]

"Every good teacher in science in a girls' school should look for examples for experiments from substances which are known to the pupils, for example, there is no reason why washing soda should not be used instead of another carbonate, and Epsom salts as a type of sulphate."[3]:32

There was considerable resistance to Stern and Smithells' idea that "domestic science" could involve enough science to be taken seriously. It is an approach that continues to be advocated.[3]:42–43,48

In 1924, Stern published A short history of chemistry. She is credited on title page as "Rose Stern, B.Sc. Senior Science Mistress, North London Collegiate School for Girls".[14]

"My object in writing this book is to supply a want I have long felt — a book suitable for the use of boys and girls beginning the study of chemistry,... for the books which have hitherto been written on this subject are too advanced for the use of young beginners... the want of a simple account of the labours and discoveries of the great chemists may have been felt in other schools by teachers as convinced as myself, that the study of chemistry is best approached along historic lines."[14]:v

The idea of introducing chemistry to students through the history of major people and discoveries was novel. As one reviewer noted:

"We do not know of any History of Chemistry written expressly for use in schools; there is room, therefore, for such a work... it is a desirable book.[15]:89

Miss Stern is listed as having been a member of the staff at NLCS from 1902-1930.[1] During her career at NLCS, Stern inspired generations of young women.[3]:32

"Many Old North Londoners must have felt it as a personal loss when they heard of the death of Miss Stern. During her long time at the North London Collegiate School she taught Chemistry to many generations of girls, and also took a lively interest in various school activities, and was always a most helpful and approachable member of the Staff… Miss Stern was kind to new young members of Staff. She had a robust commonsense outlook and was passionately devoted to the school, and its traditions. She inaugurated the general pattern of Jewish prayers and took a great deal of trouble to make these prayers of real value to the Jewish girls."[1]

According to the North London Collegiate School Magazine, Miss Stern broke one of her legs during World War II. After a period of increasing disability at her home in Fairwarp, she died in October 1953.[1]

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Concerning Old North Londoners" (PDF). North London Collegiate School Magazine (3). 1954. pp. 43–44. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Family photographs related to Mrs L. Gompertz". The National Archives. Retrieved 25 September 2014. Moritz Stern, came from Munich. He was born 1833, the son of Marcus (1797-1869) and Flora Stern. Moritz Stern came to Birmingham in 1851 as a clerk to John Benson and Co., of Edmund Street. ... Moritz Stern went back to Munich to get married to Fanny Schwartz (born in 1845) on June 28th, 1866. They had 7 children: Arthur (born May 1867), Florence (1868), Rose (1869), James and Marcus (twins born February 1872), Helen (1873) and Daisy (January 1876)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoff (2008). Chemistry was their life : pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949. London: Imperial College Press. ISBN 978-1860949869.
  4. 1 2 Rayner-Canham, Marelene; Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey (2011). "Chemistry in English Academic Girls' Schools, 880-1930" (PDF). Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. 36 (2): 68–74. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  5. ↑ Minutes of the Institute of Chemistry, 17 February 1893.
  6. ↑ "Students". Institute of Chemistry of Great Britain & Ireland, founded October 1877, Incorporated by Royal Charter, June 1855, Register of Fellows, Associates and Students for the Year 1894-5.: 69.
  7. ↑ Education Department (1898). "Report from Mason University College, Birmingham". Reports from University Colleges. London: Wyman and Sons. p. 11. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  8. ↑ "Changes in the Staff" (PDF). North London Collegiate School Magazine. 27 (81). 1902. p. 46. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  9. ↑ "In Memoriam An Address to the Science Club" (PDF). North London Collegiate School Magazine (July). 1895. p. 25. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  10. ↑ "Science Club" (PDF). North London Collegiate School Magazine. 27 (82). 1902. p. 85. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  11. ↑ Hughes, Alice Maude; Stern, Rose (1906). A method of teaching chemistry in schools. Cambridge: University Press.
  12. ↑ C., J. B. (20 June 1907). "A Method of Teaching Chemistry in Schools Elementary Science of Common Life (Chemistry) An Elementary Study of Chemistry". Nature. 76 (1964): 170–171. doi:10.1038/076170b0. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  13. ↑ Stern, R. (1912). "Science in Girls' Schools". School World. 14: 460–461.
  14. 1 2 Stern, Rose (1924). A short history of chemistry. London: Dent.
  15. ↑ Sherratt, William Joseph Michael (1980). History of science in education: An investigation into the role and use of historical ideas and material in education, with particular reference to science education in the English secondary school since the nineteenth century. University of Leicester.
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