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TEACHING RESOURCES INFORMATION

TITLE OF TEACHING RESOURCE

Sagascience CNRS

IMAGE

NAME OF AUTHOR(S)

Sagascience team:
Jean-Marc Dumas, Christine Girard, Sylvie Langlois

NAME OF PRODUCER

CNRS

WEBSITE OF THE PRODUCT

http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/dossiers/saga.htm

TYPE OF PRODUCT

Downloadable material

LEVEL OF CHEMISTRY KNOWLEDGE

Medium, Advanced

SUBJECT AREA

Life Chemistry, Materials Science, History of Chemistry, Health Science, Environmental Chemistry

TARGET GROUP LEVEL

Upper Secondary School

LANGUAGE/S OF TEACHING RESOURCES

French

TUTORIAL SUPPORT

DESCRIPTION

Please describe the teaching resource taking into consideration
• The prerequisites
• The contents
• The aims:

Sagascience is a resource developed by the CNRS for the general audience as well as researchers, teachers and students. It is a collection of scientific files containing basic data necessary to understand the research carried out by the CNRS. The topics addressed are transdisciplinary.

The files that are particularly interesting for chemistry are:
1) Lavoisier, the revolutionary scientific path in the 18th century
2) Nanotechnologies and health
3) Chemistry & beauty
4) Climate
5) Climate and the Earth
6) Climate, an inquiry to the Poles
7) Freshwater
8) Art & Sciences

Those scientific files are very rich and varied documentary resources.
The file on Lavoisier is a multimedia animation to discover the interesting personality of the father of modern chemistry.
The other files contain pictures, illustrations, films, learning animations, diagrams, models, interviews of researchers, bibliographies, a glossary, scientific articles … to discover and question oneself on current topics such as nanotechnologies, climate, water …

• Task Description
• How to use it in class

This resource can be used within the framework of a project carried out by the class on a current topic.
In a learning context, the many visual supports (photos, videos, interviews…) can be used as a relevant initial questioning to raise students’ curiosity. The numerous scientific articles, animations, models, videos… are of course an indispensable documentary resource during the research phase to answer to the initial questioning. This type of research activity can be carried or in groups. It can lead to oral presentations to encourage communicational skills.
Role-playing games can also be considered. Indeed, the students could play the role of a researcher and should defend their point of view during a debate on a social issue.
More traditionally, the resource can be used in class or at home as an occasional documentary resource.

COMMENTS

Please provide information about:
• Points of strength

Those file are very rich visually speaking (photos, videos, 3D animations and interactive games), are correct, updated and enriched by researchers according to current issues.
Several files are available in French and Spanish.

• Points of weakness

• Scientific reliability

The files are very reliable from a scientific point of view. Those files are updated and enriched by researchers according to current issues.
Moreover, for each scientific concept, there is a link to an explanation, a definition …

• Pedagogic value

This documentary resource is very complete and rigorous on the scientific level and very rich on the pedagogic level. It gives meaning to learning for it addresses current topics. It makes it possible to wonder about technological, environmental, health and other issues addressed by researchers.

NAME OF THE REVIEWING ORGANISATION

HELMO - Inforef

Comments about this Publication

Your comments are welcome

Date: 2014.03.24

Posted by Maria João Melo (Portugal)

Message: Saga science is \" une collection de dossiers thématiques et d\'animations multimédias en ligne sur le site web du CNRS\", covering a wide range of interesting subjects that impact our life in society.
I think it is a fantastic tool, and its main drawback is that the majority of the information is only available in French. Presently, in Portugal and I think elsewhere in Europe, French is seldom used by students in the physical sciences, so this will be a big limitation for it to be accessed outside French speaking countries. But, as some dossiers present already an English version, it is possible that in the near future a full English together with a Spanish or Portuguese version will be also available!
I can only recommend warmly this site, to students and professors, for their selection of exciting subjects and for so generously sharing with us the importance of current French research and discoveries. It may be not as funny as \" The Periodic Table of Videos - University of Nottingham\", but it is tremendously engaging!

Strong points:
- The number of the subjects selected and their impact on society.
- The in-depth presentation, which allows the viewer to select self-consistent relevant points or to follow the full narrative
- In the \"découvrir\" section, the \"animations\" that allow sharing the dossier\'s contents with a wide range of publics
- Als, in the \"découvrir\" introductory section, for example in the Art & Science dossier, the videos showing the laboratories and experiments as well as interviews with scientists and a full disclose of the chemistry behind all important aspects of the beauty of works of art and their conservation. I was very sorry to not be able to view any of these videos, but every time I tried to start a video-film, I always received the message \"fatal error\" ...

Points that could be improved:
- In the \"découvrir\" introductory part, the narrative is very conventional, and do not allow for a certain creativity nor appeals to the viewer\'s imagination. For example, for the Lavoisir dossier, I think at least one or two of his experiments should have been reproduced: as an animation or, even better, again in the laboratory. In the \"Musée des Arts et Métiers\" collection it is still possible to see the equipment used by Lavoisier to produce water from hydrogen and oxygen. This visit and the possibility of imagining the experience was one of my most exciting experiences in a museum: the experimental design and idea are beautiful and so are the objects. These experiments \"speaks volumes\" on the genius and inventiveness of this great man of science and a father for chemistry. They also enable us to \"see\" the enormous amount of work involved.
-Concerning the format, I would have liked to be able to navigate by clicking in the figures assembled in the menu bar: it would have created a closer interface than what allowed by the scroll-down menu.
- I think the serious line choose to introduce the subjects should be kept, but adding a side-lime more provocative-funny-imaginative would make this site more \"really\" interactive and more challenging, particularly in terms of engaging with the public.

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.