Volume 3, Issue 1

The use of the historical approach in teaching science has been studied for many years. Many researchers claimed that this approach has the power to improve students’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) by emphasizing not only the products of science but also the evolution of its ideas. In this paper we will deal with historical stories which were integrated into the science curriculum of primary, middle, and secondary school students from Arab schools in the Israeli Galilee (270 students) . Integrating short historical stories in science teaching is a pedagogical approach in which teachers use the chronological story of scientific discoveries and the evolution of scientific ideas in order to render students’ perceptions of the conceptual aspects of science, its processes and contexts more accurately. The stories in this paper refer to discoveries by four scientists: Galvani (the discovery of the electrical current), Fleming (the discovery of penicillin), Archimedes (the discovery of the floating principle), and Kekulé (the discovery of the structure of the benzene ring). At the completion of enacting this curriculum, the students were asked to write their reflections. By reading the students’ reflections we found out that they noticed that certain circumstances must be present in order to enable a scientist to make his discovery.

The difficulties students face with organic reaction mechanisms have been the subject of much research in chemical education however, no concept inventory has been reported in this area. The development of a concept inventory would be useful for the large-scale assessment of students’ understanding of concepts pertinent to developing proficiency in reaction mechanisms. The first step in the design of such an inventory is identifying the pertinent concepts. In phase 1 of this study, open-ended interviews were carried out with organic chemistry instructors ( N  = 11) in order to ascertain their opinions on pertinent concepts for developing proficiency in reaction mechanisms. Phase 2 of the study consisted of a national survey of organic chemistry instructors ( N  = 183) to explore the general consensus regarding the concepts identified in phase 1. The results yielded 10 concepts identified by experts to be pertinent to reaction mechanisms. The general consensus among organic chemistry instructors is that the topic of reaction mechanisms is important to the study of organic chemistry, but students have difficulty understanding the meaning of the curved-arrow notation. Future work will include the design and development of a concept inventory based on these pertinent concepts.

Designing problems and learning activities is a key factor to initiating students’ engagement with the course material and influencing their reasoning processes. Although tasks and problems are a central part of teaching and assessments in the chemistry classroom, they may not engage students in deep reasoning or in a way that is intended through a task. Some problems may cause an algorithmic or a surface approach. Even with designing clever problems, students may not use a larger variety of chemistry ideas and connect them in meaningful ways. Here the idea of scaffolding students’ answering process comes into play. Structuring students’ reasoning process through instructional prompts or structured worksheets supports students in activating and connecting knowledge pieces in a more meaningful way and positively slows down their fast decision-making process. This paper will discuss the importance of asking questions in chemistry teaching and highlights the idea of contrasting cases, drawn from cognitive psychology, as a task design principle. In addition to having contrasting cases as a good problem format, the idea of scaffolding students’ reasoning while solving contrasting cases through the use of instructional prompts that scaffold the reasoning process will be exemplarily showcased for mechanistic reasoning in organic chemistry.

In this article the development, use and evaluation of tasks in organic chemistry is discussed. These tasks are designed following the concept of school-related content knowledge. In this study the perceived relevance of these new tasks by preservice chemistry teachers was evaluated. Of special interest was the question how new tasks should be designed to be perceived as relevant; are some features of the tasks more suitable than others? To answer all research questions a mixed methods study was conducted. To understand the students’ rating of the new tasks by using questionnaires, in addition focus group interviews were conducted. The suitability of these new tasks for use in written exams was also evaluated. The results show that the students perceived the tasks as relevant for their future profession if they included contents of the school curriculum, realistic situations and were personalized. They perceived the new tasks also as relevant for practicing skills in communication and explanations.

Informing citizens about scientific issues in our highly technological world is of major importance. Toward this end, a teaching/learning sequence (TLS) focused on the nanostructures of carbon was developed and implemented in a class of secondary school students. This topic was chosen because, on the one hand, fullerenes and nanotubes are already used in a wide range of applications, and there are impressive promises for their future uses. On the other hand, from an educational point of view, students could be introduced to the important idea that some of the interesting properties at the nanoscale level are related to the structure of matter. During the development of the TLS, the fact that students would be studying extremely small-sized particles invisible to the naked eye was taken into consideration. Because of this, models and analogies were chosen as the main teaching tools to be used. In the present work, the TLS and some findings from the first implementation in the classroom are presented and discussed.

PubChem (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) is one of the top five most visited chemistry web sites in the world, with more than five million unique users per month (as of March 2020). Many of these users are educators, undergraduate students, and graduate students at academic institutions. Therefore, PubChem has a great potential as an online resource for chemical education. This paper describes the PubChem Periodic Table and Element pages, which were recently introduced to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. These services help users navigate the abundant chemical element data available within PubChem, while providing a convenient entry point to explore additional chemical content, such as biological activities and health and safety data available in PubChem Compound pages for specific elements and their isotopes. The PubChem Periodic Table and Element pages are also available as widgets, which enable web developers to display PubChem’s element data on web pages they design. The elemental data can be downloaded in common file formats and imported into data analysis programs (e.g., spreadsheet software, like Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, and computer scripts, such as python and R). Overall, the PubChem Periodic Table and Element pages improve access to chemical element data from authoritative sources.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of three methods used to assist in teaching molecular geometry to college chemistry students. A pre- and post-test quasi-experiment was used to collect data about students’ performance in a given chemistry exercise. One research question was intended to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the three methods in assisting students to understand the topic and carry out the exercise correctly, and a second research question addressed students’ attitudes towards the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in chemistry education. Results show a positive attitude towards the use of VR as an assisting tool to aid in understanding chemistry concepts. While the difference among the three methods was not significant, the results show that the VR brought more enthusiasm and positive attitudes toward the topic of molecular geometry among the students. Educational implications and recommendations for future research are presented as well.

This work presents a teaching training workshop on human nutrition topics with strong emphasis on the underlying chemical concepts. It was designed according to the Sustainable Conscious Cognitive Learning Model (SCCLM) and framed in a Context-Based Science Education (CBSE) approach. The proposal was implemented with 44 upper secondary school science teachers. It consisted of three phases. First, teachers were presented with ‘common-sense’ driven sentences on nutrition topics and they were asked if they agreed or disagreed with them. Through an oral discussion, the emergence of the teacher’s own cognitive conflicts was promoted in order to trigger subsequent motivation for achieving further knowledge. Next, main scientific ideas and related chemical concepts were presented for each sentence, along with teaching recommendations to complete a CBSE approach. Finally, teachers were asked their opinions on the didactic proposal. Results showed that teachers were motivated to learn beyond their strong initial non-scientific based ideas by questioning the reliability of the information sources. They were also willing to revisit their teaching on some of the canonical concepts of chemistry.

This inorganic chemistry laboratory experiment, aimed at third-year undergraduate students, focuses on an energetic coordination compound, tris(hydrazine)nickel(II) nitrate [Ni(N 2 H 4 ) 3 ][NO 3 ] 2 . As long as the solid is not subject to mechanical stimuli (impact and friction), it can be safely synthesized and handled. In our laboratory conditions (see supplementary information), the experiment includes synthesis of [Ni(N 2 H 4 ) 3 ][NO 3 ] 2 in two different morphologies, visual inspection of the samples, analysis by IR spectroscopy, checking the crystallinity by powder X-ray diffraction, 3D visualization of the crystal structure by means of a free program, and observation by scanning electron microscopy. In that respect, the experiment, as a whole, introduces students to nickel(II) complexes, coordination compounds, energetic materials, sonochemical and morphology-controlled syntheses, and a 3D visualization program for crystal structures and structural models. This laboratory experiment is also proposed in the form of alternate (light) versions so that it can be adopted in another inorganic chemistry laboratory that may have restrictions in terms of equipment, and in another third-year curriculum.

In this paper the use of two different scaffolds in a seminar on the topic of heterocycles is discussed. The students first used both scaffolds (stepped supporting tools and a task navigator) on two tasks and could then choose for one other task the scaffold that suited them more. The scaffolds were evaluated in a mixed-methods study by the use of questionnaires and the conducting of a focus group interview. Both scaffolds were assessed as being helpful. However, students who thought they didn’t need different sorts of tips, as provided by the task navigator, chose the stepped supporting tools. All students reflected on their use of the scaffolds; their choices for one of both are therefore well-founded. As the reasons for choosing the scaffold are very individual, in future seminars both types of scaffolds will be provided.

Students are expected to learn scientific inquiry. It consists of several individual processes that need to be coordinated. Recent teaching concepts have suggested fading students into a limited set of interconnected processes, mostly using backwards-fading techniques. The efficiency of open approaches to learning has been criticized repeatedly in science education research. Following a brief discussion of previous scaffolded inquiry teaching concepts developing students into “open inquiry”, it is argued that these have been interpreted too strictly in science classrooms: (i) restricting inquiry to too few processes; (ii) delivering support to students in an all-or-nothing fashion; (iii) understanding opening of inquiry as a one-way-street insensitive to needs of momentary closing. This is not justified by the situated character of pedagogical considerations that depend on learners’ needs and potentials, teachers’ strengths and insecurities, and potential constraints from content. An alternative matrix for teaching inquiry is suggested that distinguishes five processes in four variations of openness. An example from chemistry shows that the achieved degree of openness is derived from situated considerations and is not ruled by a priori decisions on openness. Nor is this decision governed by faithfully adhering to a schematic sequence (confirmatory → structured → guided → open inquiry).

Metallic nanoparticles are small particles, with dimensions of less than 100 nm, which have unique characteristics. For example, the color of a nanoparticle solution is given by the surface plasmon resonance, in contrast to only absorbance of a molecule. Metallic nanoparticles have been used in the antiquity for the production of colored glass. Many of the medieval cathedral red windows are in fact, stained with gold nanoparticles. However, presenting just a red solution to a class and explaining that the solution contains gold nanoparticles can be disappointing as the red color can be obtained in many different ways without the need of nanoparticles. Something peculiar, like dichroism, can, on the other hand, shine the interest of an observer to the “nano-world”. Dichroic nanoparticles show different colors when illuminated from the front (scattering) or from the back (transmission). This effect is unique for nanoparticles and nanostructures in general and can generate the “WOW” effect in class or during public demonstrations. In this article we present a simple synthesis of dichroic silver and gold nanoparticles. Solutions of such nanoparticles are a stunning visual media for demonstrations, outreach and engaging audience in the “nano”world.

The purpose of game-based learning is to design learning activities that introduce or explain concepts in more attractive way than in the traditional classroom. Using educational games in the classroom enables innovative and interactive lesson in which the material is seen from a different perspective or point of view. Play is connected to creativity, higher-order thinking, inquiring and problem-solving skills, decision making, collaboration, communication and the development of positive attitudes toward chemistry. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the importance of game-based learning approach in the classroom. Several good practice examples of games and puzzles for chemistry teaching are given to illustrate their applicability in the classroom and to serve as an idea for teachers, thus motivating them to be more creative in finding ways to implement this method and create their own puzzles according to their needs and classroom settings. Motivated by the International Year of the Periodic Table, puzzles are related to the Periodic Table concepts. The presented games can be used to create an escape room classroom, but they can be used independently. We believe that the use of games for educational purposes will be of great benefit to students.

Students in a second semester general chemistry course used quantum chemical calculations to investigate and reinforce general chemistry concepts. Students explored the isomers of hypochlorous acid, made predictions of miscibility via dipole moments calculated from ab-initio means, experimentally validated/disqualified their miscibility predictions, and used molecular models to visualize intermolecular attraction forces between various compounds. Student responses in pre-/post-exercise assessments show evidence of student learning. Responses in pre-/post-exercise surveys showed an increase in student understanding of basic concepts and of the importance of quantum mechanics in common general chemistry topics.

This article outlines a structured investigative activity for students in lower secondary school. It was developed for the Australian Mathematics and Science Partnership Programme, a government initiative intended to promote the employment of more hands-on investigations in secondary science within Australian schools. The investigation focuses on water purification and is intended to develop conceptual knowledge of this topic and also high-level skills such as experimental design, particularly in relation to identifying and controlling variables. The investigation is outlined in detail and was trialed with practicing science teachers, school students and preservice secondary teachers. All of these groups provided feedback in various forms that indicated the investigation was valuable, relevant, interesting and allowed students to take some responsibility for their own inquiry learning.