23 Facts About Ida Freund

Ida Freund was the first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom.

Ida Freund is known for her influence on science teaching, particularly the teaching of women and girls.

Ida Freund wrote two key chemistry textbooks and invented the idea of baking periodic table cupcakes, as well as inventing a gas measuring tube, which was named after her.

Ida Freund enrolled in Girton College, achieving a first class honours in the Natural Sciences Tripos course despite having previously had only school level English language skills.

Ida Freund went on to Cambridge Training College for Women as a chemistry lecturer, and one year later joined Newnham College, Cambridge, as a demonstrator.

Ida Freund was an associate at Newnham College and then a member of its council.

Ida Freund's focus on teaching left her little time for research, she did not pursue a master's degree or a doctorate.

Ida Freund was responsible for the laboratory training of her students, many of whom came up to College with little or no knowledge of chemistry.

Ida Freund had lost a leg in a cycling accident when she was a girl and used variously walking sticks, a prosthetic leg and a three-wheeled tricycle wheelchair worked with her arms.

Ida Freund was amongst the women who fought for admission to the Chemical Society in the early 1900s.

Ida Freund remained at Newnham until her retirement due to ill-health in 1913.

Ida Freund died on 15 May 1914 following surgery at her home in Cambridge while working on her second book.

Ida Freund published one paper entitled "The effect of temperature on the volume change accompanying neutralization in the case of a number of salts at different concentrations" and two chemistry textbooks.

Ida Freund had planned that the book should be 20 chapters but had only completed ten chapters at her death.

Ida Freund is known for her interest in science education, and in particular for improving science teaching in girls' schools.

At the time, in Cambridge, women could not work in the same laboratories as men so Ida Freund taught special classes in the Chemistry labs at Newnham College.

Ida Freund wrote textbooks and organised holiday workshops for women teachers.

Ida Freund experimented with different teaching techniques, favouring Wilhelm Ostwald's approach, in which "[t]he main facts of chemistry are dealt with in the form of a dialogue between a teacher and a pupil".

Ida Freund felt strongly that much that passes for training in science has little relation to scientific method and is of small educational value.

Ida Freund opposed the introduction of domestic science teaching in girls' schools as a substitute for fundamental scientific education but made use of her own baking and culinary skills to create engaging teaching resources.

Ida Freund was the first person to bake a set of periodic table cupcakes.

Ida Freund used them as teaching aids in her classroom.

Ida Freund created boxes of chocolates with pictures of scientists and a large periodic table with each element represented by a cupcake decorated with its name and atomic number in icing.