Teaching Resources

Date: 2013.02.02

Posted by Jana Šreková (Slovakia)

Message: This source is a part of a project called “Chemistry is all around us”. This part deals with an specific area which consists of 3 special materials: metals for specific purposes, polymers for specific purposes and superconductors. The first two topics are interesting and can be relatively easily tried under the school conditions even without using specific safety rules and with available chemicals. This part is motivating because those experiments can be done by a funny way with connection to a daily life. These parts are really well designed and at a relatively small area they provide a lot of useful information and contain a lot of activities and interactive exercises. The part about superconductors is more difficult and it is aimed at advanced students and requires specific places and laboratories and also a terminology is more scientific. With individual exercises it is great that it is always explained why is the answer correct or not. Even though a traditional didactic approach is much more used those 3 parts are relatively inovative because each of them is divided into 4 parts – an introduction, activities, exercises and relevant link to a topic. This gives an opportunity for all users to understand given topic in its full range and from various sides. Personally I consider this web as a useful one from methodological and didactic point of view and I will use it in my teaching.

Date: 2012.09.24

Posted by Maria Sheehan (Ireland)

Message: This teaching resource is divided up into three different units:
Unit 1 ~ Metals for Special Uses
Unit 2 ~ Polymers for Special Uses and
Unit 3 ~ Superconductors

 Is the teaching resource described useful for you? Why?
The first two units in this resource could definitely be used in the classroom. The third unit (Superconductors) is too advanced and requires materials that would be difficult to get in the school laboratory therefore would be impossible to implement.
The layout of the resources is excellent with a large amount of class material available. The practical activities for the first two units are appropriate and very manageable to set up in the classroom. The follow up exercises are also very useful. The link between chemistry and pupil’s every day experiences are very evident in these units.

 Do you think it can increase the students’ interest toward chemistry? Why?
Units 1 and 2 have definite potential to increase pupils’ interest in chemistry. They relate chemistry to everyday life and the activities use everyday materials that are available to them in their kitchen. Unit 3 is just too advanced to have this effect.

 Do you think it can help the students to understand better and faster? Why?
The hands on activities in unit one and two on metals and polymers will help pupils understand these topics much easier. In unit one pupils will experience first had how to remove stains from metals such as copper and silver. They will also understand the chemistry of how these stains come to be there in the first place. The activities could provide a useful introduction to the corrosion of metals and the compounds formed. This unit could be used with Junior Cycle pupils along with Transition Year pupils. Unit two provides a good link between the macroscopic and microscopic action of polymers. This will definitely help pupils understand how these polymers operate.

 Do you think it propose an innovative didactical approach? Why?
Yes mainly due to the link between these activities and topics with the pupils own everyday life. These activities put chemistry in context. The content in each unit has a solid scientific basis and the resources provided offer a worthwhile educational experience for pupils.

Date: 2012.09.23

Posted by Ireiotou Effimia (Greece)

Message: This teaching resource could be very useful as an alternative teaching tool. This applies especially for the first two sections which are related with Metals and Polymers, because the activities they propose are quite interesting and can be relatively easily performed in a school laboratory or even at home without the need of advanced safety precaution or difficult to find chemicals. The section related with the superconductors is in my opinion quite advanced for secondary education, at least in the way it is presented. For this reason I find this specific section less useful.

I believe that certain parts of this teaching resource could increase students’ interest toward chemistry. The sections related with Metals and Polymers contain fun to do activities which bring out the connection of chemistry with several everyday life materials and experiences. Some of them could also be very enjoyable to perform even away from school. In my opinion, the section on the Superconductors rather diminishes the importance of the teaching resource because the activities proposed can be done mostly in a research lab and not a school lab. In addition, the language employed is strictly scientific, in the sense that it is the type of language that discourages a student to engage in further learning.

I believe that the first two sections (Metals and Polymers) can actually help students understand better and faster because they do contain a lot of useful information in a limited space and in the context of nice activities and interactive exercises. It would be preferable if the user had the possibility to easily move from one multiple choice question to the next one without first having to find the correct answer. It would also be useful if a score was given for the percentage of correct answers. I found it very useful that for every wrong answer an explanation was given for “why it is wrong”.

This teaching approach contains a series of traditional tools which are however combined together to constitute an innovative whole. The combination of the four separate subsections “Introduction” – “Activities” – “Exercises” – “Relevant Links” in each teaching section gives the possibility to all types of users to approach the subject under study from different angles.