Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
9.11 The PIN-Concept for Grammar Schools
Harsch and Heimann [
2
] conducted an empirical study with grade 11 students at
three grammar schools to prove the efficiency of the PIN-Concept in practice. The
involved chemistry teachers (one woman, three men) received a complete teacher
manual, which covered a teaching unit of about 30 h. The manual consisted of
comprehensive lesson plans with all required experimental instructions, spectra,
and exercises with answers. The four teachers were acquainted with the philosophy
of the PIN-Concept, the experiments, the exercises, and the methodical variation
possibilities at the Institute for Chemistry Education at the University of M
unster.
They were instructed in a 2-day course to teach the whole unit independently at
their schools. The length of the lessons was only given roughly so that the teachers
could adapt it to the needs at their school. They had the chance to focus on topics
that seemed especially important to them and to include other aspects, such as
spectroscopic methods for structural analysis. The sequence could be changed if
this was appropriate. This specifically applies to the exercises, which they should
integrate flexibly into the course flow. The teaching unit was divided into three
sections and covered 11 steps, which are displayed in Table
9.5
.
On average the four teachers needed about 35 h for this comprehensive program.
It should be mentioned that the time need differed significantly from class to class
(min. 29 h, max. 40 h).
€
Table 9.5
Content of the empirical study for the students with grade 11 at grammar schools [
2
]
Step Content
Step 1.1 Classification of six unknown substances A-F with the help of test reactions.
Step 1.2 Analysis of household and everyday substances (e.g., vinegar, alcohol, spot
remover, glue).
Step 1.3 Discovering synthesis relations between the substances A-F (oxidation with
dichromate; ester synthesis and hydrolysis).
Step 1.4 Exercises for using data from test reactions and understanding of their
meaning.
Step 2.1 Qualitative elemental analysis of the substances A-F (detection of C/H/O
atoms).
Step 2.2 Structural elucidation of A-F with the help of simplified
13
C-NMR and mass
spectra.
Step 2.3 Understanding structure-properties relations by using formulae and
functional groups for the interpretation of experimental data.
Step 2.4 Exercises for understanding synthetic pathways and for predicting possible
results.
Step 2.5 Mixed exercises for the integration of different methods and observations.
Step 3.1 Discovering the homologous series of alcohols and understanding its
definition at the macroscopic level (substances) and at the submicroscopic
level (formulae).
Step 3.2 Structure elucidation of a natural substance (glycolic acid) by using data from
different investigative methods.
Altogether, 11 learning steps had to be absolved
