Chemical Education Journal (CEJ), Vol. 4, No. 1 /Registration
No. 4-4/Received February 12, 2000.
URL = http://www.juen.ac.jp/scien/cssj/cejrnlE.html
E-mail: zafral@aol.com
Abstract: As we move into the new millennium, it is essential
that the people who will shape our future will have a good chemistry
background in order to understand the important role that chemistry
plays in environmental issues, new materials, Green Chemistry,
industry, pharmaceuticals, medicine, gene therapy, etc. This will
allow decisions to be made from a knowledgeable and intelligent
point of view, and not just from a political or economic point
of view.
A special curriculum in chemistry and technology was developed in a collaborative effort between Princeton University (a private prestigious ivy league school which accepts only the top 2% of graduating high school students), Indiana University (a large state school with 45,000 students) and Columbia College (an urban art and communications school which accepts all high school degreed applicants with no selection). The project was funded by the National Science Foundation. The rationale for this collaboration was that it should produce a model program readily adaptable for any institution of higher education because the partners come from three very different types of institutions, and the students have very different academic, economic and cultural backgrounds.
The purpose of this curriculum is to teach chemistry to students who will be responsible for shaping our future. This includes students who major in media communications, television, radio, film and journalism and who will become our future communicators; students who major in politics, political science and economics and who will be our future politicians and policy makers; students who major in education and will be responsible for educating future generations; as well as students who major in science related fields but are not chemistry majors.
This course is student-centered. Subjects relevant to students' lives, majors and the environment are used in the curriculum as vehicles to explain basic chemistry concepts. Ideas and solutions to problems are decided, designed and presented as projects by the students in groups or individually. Students choose the media of presentation, which can take the form of videos, sculptures, books, illustrations, computer graphics, or interactive multimedia. The course takes advantage of the Science Visualization and Communication Lab, where the students produce 3-D models of abstract chemistry concepts and communicate them through CD-ROMs and videos.
The curriculum which was developed by Princeton University, Indiana University and Columbia College, adapting the teaching methods developed by the Science Institute at Columbia College, used the syllabus shown in the following diagram.
This teaching approach begins with a concrete, relevant subject
and moves like a "web" into abstract concepts. For example,
by beginning with discussions on nuclear power plants and nuclear
energy, we move into concepts including the structure of the atom.
Acid Rain is similarly used as a vehicle to discuss acids, bases,
pH, etc.
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In order to guarantee that future politicians (Princeton University
majors in politics) will have a strong background in chemistry,
they were asked to demonstrate their knowledge of the course material
in the form of a political address to the public.
A Columbia College student imitated the President's address
to the nation with his own speech.
Training future politicians in chemistry and science will assure their ability to write science policy bills from an intelligent point of view, and will guarantee future funding for science.
The second group of people who will shape our future and will influence millions of people around the world are communicators. It is extremely important that future communicators will receive a strong background in chemistry.
An example of how a communications students explained, with
computer assistance, the radioactive alpha, beta, and gamma particles
is shown here, as well as an image of another student explaining
the same concept, and a cartoon created by a communications student
depicting the splitting of the atom and development of the atom
bomb.
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A particularly creative endeavor was an educational video program
explaining the ozone layer (titled "Ozone the Clown")
made for children. In this program, "Ozone the Clown"
demonstrates the structure of an ozone molecule by using balloons,
and explains how a depleted ozone layer will not offer adequate
protection, through the use of a tattered umbrella.
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The third group who will shape our future and the minds of future citizens are teachers. If we are to have future scientists, politicians, and communicators, we must also provide our teachers with a good science background.
Part of the success from the joint program with Princeton University and Indiana University spilled over into Columbia College's teacher enhancement programs.
Teachers have shown their knowledge of science in a variety
of creative ways. A couple examples are teachers communicating
what they learned about Acid Rain in the form of a rap (song and
dance), accompanied by a creative list of the "Top
Ten Environmental Songs."
Another teacher constructed a model instrument for oil spill
reclamation, which can be used to clean our oceans. Teachers also
built models of windmills to be used as alternative energy sources.
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As a result of training our teachers, we can see the results
on their students, learning a lot and having fun while performing
a dance on the ozone layer. Children also enjoyed performing a
dance representing the Periodic Table, shown here are boys dancing
the alkali metals, and girls as halogens who will bond with the
metals to form salts.
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For all our projects, the Science Institute utilizes an outside
evaluator to compare project results to national standards. This
evaluator's graph shows how children of teachers who participate
in our programs fare against those of teachers who did not participate.
The crucial years are grade 5 (immediately before entering U.S.
middle school); the graph shows that our project benefited children
of this grade resulting in scores over ten times higher than the
control group. Another crucial year is 8th grade (before children
enter U.S. high school).
As an example of the diversity that projects can take, I will illustrate one chemical concept and how it was presented by different groups of students.
The first example is "The Bondfather", which follows
the story of the movie "The Godfather," and explains
how the ionic bond of sodium and chlorine is formed. The second
example is titled "007 - Operation Neutrality," which
follows a James Bond movie to show the formation of ammonia (NH3)
and sodium chloride (NaCl). The final example is "Ionic Bondage,"
which tells the same story, but in a cartoon format.
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Proof of the success of these methods is that they have been adopted by many teachers of the Chicago public schools as well as by many universities around the world.
Thanks to the National Science Foundation for support of this work through grants ESI-9619141; ESI-9253266; USE-9150524; and TPE-8955128.
Thanks also to David Morton and Jeffrey Wade for their assistance in preparing this paper, as well as one of my students, Martha Stefan for HTML Programming.
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