Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
themes themselves; they design and present their own posters and organize an
exhibition in school for their friends and parents.
Textbooks and everyday chemistry: Textbook authors have always tried to
enrich chemistry topics for all different school types with references to everyday
life and environment [
16
]. If you class topics according to their level of references
to daily life from those without any reference to those with a high level of everyday
life implications, one obtains the following list (based on the German textbook):
Topics without references to everyday life:
fundamental laws of chemistry; gas
laws; Dalton's atomic model; structure of atoms, ions, and molecules; chemical
bonding; and mental models concerning quantum mechanics.
Topics with references to everyday life as initial motivation:
for the topic
“chemical reactions” you may start with a burning match, with dissolving mineral
tablets, before the standard experiments are performed and interpreted. The topic
“water and the H
2
O molecule” may be started with the use of water in everyday life,
e.g. with purification of waste water and production of drinking water, before the
decomposition of water into the two elements hydrogen and oxygen is shown and
before the synthesis of water from those elements will follow.
Topics ending with references to everyday life for reinforcement:
after the
scientific explanation of electron transfers concerning standard reactions of metals
and salt solutions for the topic “redox reactions and electron transfer,” students may
encounter batteries of everyday life or
iron rust and corrosion and their
interpretation.
Topics with full references to everyday life:
after teaching most basic concepts,
for example, acid-base reactions, redox reactions, equilibrium and energy, many
everyday life phenomena can be described scientifically, and many projects
concerning everyday life can be carried out. Such projects may deal with environ-
mental or food chemistry, with energy production and alternatives, with industrial
processes, and the production of important chemicals.
Curricula with full references to everyday life:
a number of curricula, which are
based fully on everyday life or on environmental chemistry, have been developed.
One example is ChemCom, short for “Chemistry in the Community” [
17
]
(see Fig.
8.4
) that offers as the first topic “the quality of our water” and provides
many applications of water in our life. Under the “molecular view of water,” ball-
and-stick models of water molecules appear, and also colored balls as models for
H atoms and O atoms appear. The formula H
2
O is introduced as the first formula in
the curriculum.
Later “electrical nature of matter” follows and dipole molecules are discussed.
The dipole molecule of water and particular ions are introduced, with certain ions
used as a basis for specific water tests. All this information is completely without
the common scientific structure of chemistry - all scientific information is taken
only as required for the topic “water.”
Another curriculum is named
Salters Advanced Chemistry
. It is divided into
three parts: “Chemical Storylines” [
18
] delivers the everyday life topics and
environmental themes (see Fig.
8.5
), “Chemical Ideas” [
19
] contains the scientific
ideas, the systematic of chemistry technically prepared for looking at all the
