Teaching Resources

Chemistry e-Book (Lower Secondary School – 3rd Grade)

Theodoropoulos, P.; Papatheofanous, P.; Sideri, F.

ΟΕΔΒ ΑΘΗΝΑ

2011

Online course, e-book

Medium

Problem solving, Experiential learning, Self-learning

Fundamental Chemistry, Life Chemistry, Materials Science, Food Science, Industrial Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry

Lower Secondary School

Greek

Yes

Prerequisites: This teaching resource, available freely at the portal of the Greek Ministry of Education, does not require special additional software for functioning. We note however that a few applications run only by using Internet Explorer.

Contents: The teaching resource is the enriched electronic version of the standard chemistry textbook used in the 3rd Grade of the Lower Secondary School in Greece. The e-book is organized in three main sections with several subsections. These sections are the following: Acids-Bases-Salts (with 5 subsections), Chemical elements – Elements of special interest (with 6 subsections), Carbon Chemistry (with 4 subsections) .
The basic design of each subsection is the following: At the beginning, there is a short presentation (with words and images) of the connections of the chemistry subject of the section with everyday life. Subsequently, the main anticipated results from the study of the section are briefly stated. The main material is presented by using a combination of text, photos and a collection of links by clicking on small characteristic images or hot words. The links include connections to short videos, interactive quizzes, additional or explanatory information (usually Wikipedia links), other websites. In each section, there is always a presentation of one laboratory experiment via the use of images and explanatory text. In the end of each section there are texts that bring out the connections of the subject presented with everyday life phenomena/experiences, with other scientific fields and/or technology. Finally, there is a collection of exercises for self-assessment which, in some cases, they are of interactive nature.

Aims: The educational material provided, aims mainly in encouraging self-learning, ie in motivating the student to learn chemistry by studying on his/her own. The material is presented in a way that aims to attract student’s attention and interest in learning chemistry. The teaching resource also aims at bringing out the connection of chemistry with other sciences and with everyday life experiences of the students.

Task Description and use in class: The tasks to be performed by the students are described in a clear way. The material is designed mainly for use by the students themselves for self-learning and self-evaluation. However, the teacher can also corporate the material in the class practice, for example via the solution of the problems in the end of each section or by creating discussions related to the real life applications of the material. The website which makes available this e-book, contains also supplementary material for both the teacher (“Teacher’s handbook) and the student (“Student’s handbook”). This material provides specific guidelines and practical information on the possible ways of incorporating the e-book in the class practice.

This teaching resource is designed in a user-friendly manner in order to make chemistry more appealing to the average student. The use of videos and interactive applications can have a significant effect in motivating students to explore the world of chemistry. However, there is a tendency to use rather lengthy texts which may be discouraging for the average student. In addition, the self-evaluation problems would be more effective if they were more interactive. The links to Wikipedia could be problematic because they are not always in Greek and also because sometimes they contain specialized information which is difficult to be assimilated by secondary school students. On the other hand, the material is easily available, it does not require any special software for functioning and it is presented in a systematic manner. The material is overall scientifically reliable.

TEI of Ionian Islands