Lifelong Learning Programme

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Teaching Resources

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TEACHING RESOURCES INFORMATION

TITLE OF TEACHING RESOURCE
Green Chemistry
IMAGE
NAME OF AUTHOR(S)
Various authors
NAME OF PRODUCER
Xatziantoniou-Marouli, K.; Maroulis, A.
DATE OF PRODUCTION
2012
WEBSITE OF THE PRODUCT
TYPE OF PRODUCT
Web Site/Portal, Downloadable material
LEVEL OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE
Medium, Advanced
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
Peer education
SUBJECT AREA
Materials Science, Food Science, Health Science, Industrial Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry
TARGET GROUP LEVEL
Upper Secondary School
LANGUAGE/S OF TEACHING RESOURCES
Greek
TUTORIAL SUPPORT
Yes
DESCRIPTION
Prerequisites: The educational material available at this site is available freely and does not require any special program for viewing. It mainly consists of pdf files and ppt presentations.

Contents and Task Description: This is a website/portal dedicated to the application of Green Chemistry in the different areas of chemistry. The website provides a large collection of educational material that is organized in seven main sections: 1) Introduction to Green Chemistry: It includes a ppt presentation of the main principles and applications of green chemistry accompanied with a short explanatory text. 2) Monographs: 33 review ariticles on several interesting applications of green chemistry (biomass, biodiesel, green polymers, food and beverages, life cycle analysis, decontamination, nanomaterials, etc). 3) Green Chemistry Experiments: Complete detailed description and supplementary material for 19 original experimental procedures. 4) Powerpoint presentations (43 in total) with a wealth of very interesting information. 5) Poster presentations (28 in total), 6) Short articles and 7) Green Chemistry in Education: It contains 5 subsections with teaching material designed for Primary Education and 5 others with such material designed for secondary education. At this moment, this section contains mostly poster presentations which make use of a nice combination of colour images and text.

Aims: The material of this site aims in bringing out the numerous connections and applications of chemistry in everyday life activities and phenomena. In addition, the material aims at highlighting the positive face of chemistry as a science and its achievements which improve dramatically the quality of our lives. In this way, student motivation to engage in chemistry learning can be increased and the same can happen with student awareness regarding environmental, health and other issues.

Use in class: The material can be used in class in different ways. The powerpoint and poster presentations can be used for lecturing. Several experiments can be performed in a school laboratory, either by teacher (demonstration) either by the students on their own. Most experiments include student worksheets, in addition to detailed instructions and theoretical background for both the teacher and the student. The information in the articles and monographs can serve as the starting point for interesting in-class discussions and also for the realization of student research projects.
COMMENTS
This website contains a large and high quality collection of material in the area of green chemistry. The material has a high degree of originality and deals with a large variety of issues which are very interesting and attractive for the average public. Such issues are for example biodiesel production from sunflower oil, acid rain, polymer materials based on potato starch, recovery of silver from photographic film etc. The experiments are described meticulously and they contain a great deal of supporting material. It is interesting that there is a separate collection of demonstration experiments and another for experiments that could be performed by the students. Even though the experimental procedures are mostly suitable for upper high school, the material in the last section (Green Chemistry in Education) is designed specifically for use in younger ages (even primary school). The material has very high scientific reliability since it is the product of work of Masters students.
NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION
TEI of Ionian Islands

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome


Date: 2012.10.04

Posted by DANIEL PETKOV (Bulgaria)

Message: The proposed website focuses on one of the most attractive aspects of contemporary chemistry – the green chemistry. This is a new branch in the chemistry which deals with the design, development and implementation of chemical products and processes intended to cut down on or stop the use and production of substances dangerous for our health and the environment.
In this way the authors of the site convince the students that in present days the application of chemistry is less dangerous. It shows practical means of: preventing pollution, improving healthcare as well as new methods of synthesis

The site is of good scientific and educational value. The materials are easy to understand, ingenuous and introduce various topics with attractive content. The basic principles of the green chemistry have been discussed there is a sufficient number of presentations and 19 experimental procedures.
Each presentation is accompanied by a short explanatory text.
The presence of poster presentations that combine colour depiction and text stimulate the students and increase their cognitive interests.
The target groups of the site are students aged 15 to 19. The variety of materials is helpful to teachers. It compensates for the lack of materials about these contemporary environmental issues. It also helps to capture and keep the interest of the students.
The students’ interest to study chemistry is increased by showing its numerous connections to and application in our daily routines. The examples of scientific achievements which improve the quality of life show the positive side of chemistry and convince the students into its importance.
It could be used as a lecture in class and the interesting information about bio diesel, acid rain, food, drinks, polymers provide various topics for discussion.
The presented demonstrations are easily applicable as they are accompanied by worksheets.
The materials in the website increase the information on issues related to the environment. They can help high school students choose their future career or stimulate less motivated ones to study natural sciences.
The practical orientation of the materials is extremely useful as it overcomes a major obstacle of contemporary education, i.e. students’ inability to relate theory to practice.

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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