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PUBLICATION INFORMATION

TITLE OF PUBLICATION
FLUORESCENCE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PHENOMENON FOR DIFFERENT EDUCATION LEVELS.
NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
J.A. García, J.M. Moreno, F.J. Perales, J. Romero, P.Sánchez, L. Gómez Robledo
NAME OF PUBLISHER
European Journal of Physics Education
YEAR OF PUBLICATION
2012
LANGUAGE OF PUBLICATION
English
PUBLICATION TYPOLOGY
Research
TARGET GROUP OF PUBLICATION
Researchers, Teachers
SIZE OF THE PUBLICATION
3 – 10 pages
DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS
This paper shows the scientific foundations of a natural phenomenon of undoubted interest and applicability in
our day, fluorescence, and its possibilities for teaching at three educational levels: primary, secondary and
university. It begins by describing the nature of the phenomenon and continues by explaining how we work with
students of the levels mentioned. The method of teaching starts questioning them on fluorescent tubes and
fluorescent material. These questions will lead to further research into three topics: 1) fluorescent materials; 2)
features of the visual system; and 3) lighting systems, types of lamps and its characteristics. The work then
demonstrates its usefulness as an interdisciplinary phenomenon and as a mean of motivating students’ learning.
Keywords: Fluorescence, phosphorescence, interdisciplinary, secondary education and university education.
PDF OF THE PUBLICATION
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
CECE

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome


Date: 2014.04.07

Posted by Inforef (Belgium)

Message: This initiative is interesting for several reasons, two of them contained in the title. First of all, the topic is appealing and can lead to fun activities (who doesn’t like shiny things?) explaining how familiar objects work; it is thus a good way to interest and motivate students. It can be used at different levels (from primary school to university) and in different subjects (chemistry, physics...). It embraces several topics such as optics and wavelengths and can initiate various working methods, notably group work.

Date: 2014.04.03

Posted by Eva Smreková (Slovakia)

Message: This publication is very interesting because describes how a scientific phenomenon such fluorescence can be applied to three educational levels: primary, secondary and university by taking into account the specific learning characteristics of each one separately. In the introduction section the authors do provide definitions for fluorescence and phosphorescence as well as scientific explanation of the mode of luminescence. It is very interesting that Jablonski’s diagram is presented in its scientific version but also authors do suggest a good analogy of the diagram which can be used in early chemistry teaching. The research team provides an example how a typical primary school lesson can be conducted. This teaching is progressed through six phases with the students. The lesson is started by asking questions to stimulate the students about their experience, followed by theory on the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence, applications of the phenomena, group work and health issues and finally the lesson ended with an idea sharing session and conclusion. For second level students the same points were discussed but at a deeper level. In teaching process five types of questions are used in order to serve different stages of the lesson. At the end of the lesson the teachers should be able to reach so called idea-shearing stage and together with the students do draw final conclusions. In the article a number of very good examples of how luminescence is used in our daily life are provided.

Date: 2014.03.31

Posted by Theodoros Vachliotis (Greece)

Message: This publication proposes the use of the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence, as a basis for the developments of an interdisciplinary teaching approach which combines concepts which are studied in physics and chemistry and more specifically in materials science, optics and environmental sciences. This approach is applied in all three educational levels (primary, secondary, tertiary) by taking into account the specific learning characteristics of each one separately.
Effort is made to connect the physical phenomena with students’ experiences from everyday life (fluorescence lamps and other materials). In the teaching process, carefully selected questions are employed which come from everyday life experiences and aim in guiding the students to enter a thought process and make an effort to give answers to specific questions. At the same time, when possible there is also use of the laboratory via the performance of relevant experiments.
The proposed teaching approach uses some elements of constructivism, in the sense that there is an effort to connect new knowledge with already existing knowledge of the students from their everyday life. In addition, this approach contains also elements of inquiry via the use of questions which guide the whole process as well as via lab experimentation. In addition, it exploits modern technological advances (eg. fluorescence lamps).
In my opinion, this approach is especially interesting and useful. However, I would like to have more specific practical details in relation with the way it was actually implemented especially in secondary education, for example in relation with which specific experiments were done and how.

Date: 2014.03.29

Posted by Katerina Paschalidou (Greece)

Message: This publication is relevant because it describes how a scientific phenomenon such as fluorescence can be applied to three educational levels: primary, secondary and university. At the “Fluorescence and Phosphorescence” section the authors provide scientific information for these phenomena and the classical Jablonski’s diagram. Since the explanation of the diagram is appropriate for university students, the authors propose an analog of Jablonski’s diagram for Secondary Education. I found this approach very interesting.
The application to primary education is described in detail. The interaction between students of primary school and the university team was bidirectional. The students came to the University laboratory highly motivated just because they were at a University lab. On the other hand, for university professors it was a challenge to work with small kids and not university students. Emphasis was given on examples of fluorescence from daily life and to environmental aspects.
For secondary Education a “Science Week” was organized. The connection between science, technology and society was highlighted. New experiments were incorporated and the fluorescence was examined at a deeper lever than for primary education students. The results of the evaluation of the project indicate that students were very interested (80%) and they had learned a great deal (about 90%).
For University Education the methodology used is well described. Emphasis was given on “Know how”, students worked in small groups and the experiments were carried out in a much less supervised way.
This project was a successful experience on chemical education, as authors managed to teach fluorescence at three different education levels and motivation of students of all levels was achieved.

Date: 2014.03.27

Posted by Fernando Hernández Mateo (Spain)

Message: The present publication is relevant because demonstrates how a widely know scientific questions concerning a natural phenomenon such as fluorescence, of undoubted interest in daily lives, have great teaching possibilities at different levels (primary, secondary and university) by an adequate exploitation of the motivation of the students through the use of scientific question relied to the mentioned phenomenon. Particularly relevant is the fact that the study case suggests solutions to exploit at the secondary level of the Spanish educational system some of the recent applications of fluorescence. Furthermore, the selected subject meets the requirement of interdisciplinaritythat is particularly valuable not only because of the concurrence of different academic disciplines but also because helps the student in integrating several thoughts, and technologies - along with their specific perspectives - in the pursuit of a common task

Date: 2014.03.19

Posted by Ciara O\' Shea (Ireland)

Message: This publication describes how, through using certain phenomena that surround students lives the basic concepts of physics and chemistry could be taught in a manner which would naturally awaken the curiosity of students, thereby making learning a little easier. It was felt that the particular phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence would be interesting for students to learn and in addition they could act as a starting point for teaching chemistry and physics concepts at any level of education i.e. primary, secondary or third level. However the depth at which the various issues would be treated would be obviously age appropriate.
The authors were university based and from time to time students and schools would request a visit to their laboratories. It was with these primary and second level students that work was carried out. The authors progressed through six phases with the students. They started the lesson by asking questions to stimulate the students about their experience, followed by theory on the phenomena of fluorescence and phosphorescence, applications of the phenomena, group work re issues surrounding the phenomena such as environmental and health issues and finally the lesson ended with an idea sharing session and conclusion. For second level students the same points were discussed but at a deeper level and they highlighted how various branches of science along with technology promote general advancement in society. In general this publication describes the interdisciplinarity that certain phenomena can present for students, along with interest in social issues such as environmental and health issues.
While the idea behind the publication seems a sound idea, more detail on the methodologies used could be provided for use at second level education. As already stated the students who took part in this exercise had requested to come to the University to visit the labs etc so as a result the participants were already interested and motivated students. The paper could have been made more relevant to teachers if methodologies had been prepared for teachers and given to a set of schools in a region so that testing could be carried out on how well physics and chemistry concepts could be taught to students who were not naturally motivated by science through the use of the said phenomena. This would enable the authors to truly see if teaching students the basic concepts of physics and chemistry by using everyday phenomena as a starting point would change the interest and scientific aptitude of all students.

Date: 2014.02.23

Posted by Assoc. Prof. Samir Naimov (Bulgaria)

Message: The article reviewed is published in an international peer-reviewed, scientific journal dedicated to contributing publishing of articles focused on physics education. The paper is written in a professional manner. The main aim of the paper is to demonstrate how the fluorescence and phosphorescence can be enrolled in chemistry education in primary, secondary schools, and in universities. In the introduction section the authors do provide definitions for fluorescence and phosphorescence as well as scientific explanation of the mode of luminescence. The topic is interesting and can be used from many chemistry teachers not only in high schools but also in universities and other education institutions. The Jablonski’s diagram is presented in its scientific version but also authors do suggest a good analogy of the diagram which can be used in early chemistry teaching. The research team provides an example how a typical primary school lesson can be conducted. Five types of questions are defined in order to serve different stages of the lesson. At the end of the lesson the teachers should be able to reach so called idea-shearing stage and together with the students do draw final conclusions. In the article a number of very good examples of how luminescence is used in our daily life are provided. For the secondary school students the research team has enrolled more advanced experiments in order to demonstrate the fundamentals and technical applications of fluorescence and phosphorescence. The data provided has been obtained in period of two academic years and 12 and respectively 20 students groups have been accommodated in the university laboratories. At the end of the course based on the data from satisfaction survey between 80 and 90 percent positive responses have been acquired. At the final stage of the study the phenomenon of luminescence has been implemented in chemistry teaching of the university students. As expected the level of teaching is extended not only to “know” but also to “know how” level. More complex and interdisciplinary training / research tasks are involved in the curricula. In conclusion I would like to mention that the authors has manage to implement in very scientific and professional way luminescence phenomenon in chemistry teaching of primary , secondary school, and university students.

National Reports on successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry The national reports on chemistry successful experiences to promote lifelong learning for chemistry are now available on the related section of the project portal. The reports presents examples of successful experiences in the partner countries and the results of testing of ICT resources with science teachers.

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