PHSC 641:642
CHEMISTRY FOR TEACHERS
Catalog Entry
PHSC 641:642. Chemistry for Teachers
Credit Hours (3:2) A minimum of 100 contact hours for both courses.
Prerequisites: One year of college chemistry and one year of college mathematics. Examines chemistry topics and instructional strategies essential to teaching modern secondary school chemistry.
Detailed Description of Content of Course
Because of the laboratory emphasis of the course and the differing needs of different classes, a detailed content description is neither possible nor desirable. Concepts frequently studied generally come from the following:
1. The behavior of gases.
2. Properties of liquids and solids.
3. Reaction energetics.
a. Equilibrium
b. Rates of reactions
4. Acids and bases.
a. The Arrhenius Theory
b. Proton-transfer reactions
5. Oxidation and reduction.
a. Cell potentials
b. Maximum work and free energy
6. Atomic Structure.
a. Dalton's theory of the atom.
b. Bohr's Model - qualitative and quantitative
c. Subshells
d. The Zeeman Effect
e. The Sommerfeld Orbits and ionization energies
f. Diffraction studies
g. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
h. The Pauli Exclusion Principle
i. Distribution of electrons
7. The periodic classification of the elements.
a. The alkali metals
b. Factors which govern the reactivity of metals
c. The halogens
d. Nuclear reactions
e. The transition elements
8. Chemical bonds.
9. Molecular structure.
a. Shapes of molecules
b. Carbon molecules
c. Solids, liquids and gases
10. Environmental balance.
a. Spaceship earth
b. Maintaining the balance
c. Limits of growth
d. How chemistry is involved
11. Toxic substances
a. Pesticides
b. Industrial waste
c. Carcinogens in the environment
12. Future sources of energy
a. Solar
b. Heat from earth
c. Fusion
d. Fuel cells
e. Other
Once topics are selected for study, class participants investigate the selected topics in a laboratory environment. Whatever their chosen topics, class participants are urged to discover and emphasize the connections among their area of study and the larger context of society and technology.
Concurrently with developing their understanding of chemistry concepts, class participants develop process skills and by their participation develop an understanding of inquiry based instruction. Readings assigned to class participants review the pedagogical, philosophical and psychological bases for inquiry based instruction. Participants develop laboratory activities and materials for use in their classes. Each participant will critically examine in a thoughtful and skillful manner the appropriate curriculum(s) for their students. To the extent possible within time constraints, those participant-developed activities and materials are tested and critiqued by other participants as a means of providing feedback to the developer. The finished products are shared among class participants.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
The class is conducted as a laboratory course, with the emphasis on open-ended inquiry. Class participants pick areas of inquiry to pursue and are encouraged to branch into areas that they may find interesting. Outside assignments will consist of textbook readings to review concepts (with occasional lectures as deemed needed), readings in the philosophy, psychology and pedagogy of inquiry-based instruction, and the development by class participants of laboratory activities that can be used in a school setting. The activities developed by the class participants will be tested by the class to the extent that time permits. All developed activities will be shared, so that class participants will be able to leave with a supply of laboratory activities to use in their own classrooms.
Goals and Objectives of Course
1. To have each participant review and enhance some major chemistry topics.
2. To have participants develop the ability to incorporate more laboratory work into their curricula by giving them hands on experience with laboratory exercises and materials that they can use in their laboratories. Some of these materials will be provided by the instructor; other materials will be developed by the class participants.
3. To have participants develop the ability to incorporate more open-ended instructional activities into their curricula by providing them hands on experience with such materials which they can use in their own classrooms. Some of these materials will be provided by the instructor; other materials will be developed by the class participants.
4. To have the participants develop and/or enhance positive attitudes toward inquiry based instruction by allowing class participants to be both student (using class material developed by others) and teacher (developing their own class materials and using those materials in a teaching situation with other class participants).
5. To have each participant investigate alternative teaching strategies, new programs, alternate formats and delivery systems and relevant materials in chemical education - e. g., books, videotapes, periodicals, computer programs and electronic bulletin boards.
6. To have each participant develop the ability to teach laboratory skills and select and adapt appropriate laboratory materials.
7. The participants will critically examine the pros and cons of confirmation/verification, structured, guided and open laboratory methods.
8. The participants will understand the relationship among science, technology and society.
9. Each participant will enhance methods of problem solving and the proper use and disposal of chemicals.
10. Each participant will comprehend that chemistry is a growing, developing laboratory science and not a collection of static facts.
11. Ensure that the participants understand that the laboratory provides opportunities to see the enterprise of chemistry, that it is intellectually exciting, requiring careful planning, execution and making use of the process skills.
12. Each participant will critically examine Project 2061 and its possibilities for curriculum reform.
Assessment Measures
Assessment will be multi-faceted. Traditional testing will assess the level of understanding of science concepts. Performance on investigative activities will be assessed by written and oral reports prepared by the class participants, individually and as part of a small group. The quality of investigative materials developed by class participants will be judged (by the instructor and class participants together) on the basis of originality, appropriateness of grade level, the degree to which the activity challenges students to use higher level cognitive processes, and the degree to which the activity encourages further investigation on the part of the student.
Other Course Information
1. This syllabus is provided to the students enrolling in the class.
2. Bibliography
- Chemical Education Study materials since 1964
- Chemical Bond Approach materials since 1988
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to Chemistry since 1978
- Journal of Chemical Education Project 2061 The Science Teacher
APPROVAL AND SUBSEQUENT REVIEWS
DATE ACTION REVIEWED BY
September 1991 Revised and updated Franklin Jones, Chair Physical Science Department
