ENHANCE STUDENTS’ SCIENTIFIC BASIC SKILLS THROUGH THEIR ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN THE LEARNING PROCESS
Chapter 4: Case studies
4.1. Learning chemistry through nature
Chemistry is universally assumed as one of the most difficult and demanding science subjects. It is recognized as involving difficult concepts, specialized terminology and mathematics. Moreover, some chemistry curricula are considered quite apart from students’ interests, every-day life contexts and technological issues. This topic, already treated in the “Chemistry is all around network” (http://chemistrynetwork.pixel-online.org), was here chosen to illustrate how nature can be a stimulating open laboratory, very useful to teach a huge number of concepts.
The selected case study addresses the determination of the physicochemical parameters of a river water. These parameters can be assayed in different points of the river course and related with the living ecosystem, surrounding environment (rural versus urban) and pollution. The topic was treated by the Portuguese group who presented the activity “Physicochemical analysis of river water” carried out in river Fervença located at “Montesinho Natural Park”. The visit took place in the area of the small village of Castro de Avelãs. The student activities started with the determination, in loco, of temperature and dissolved oxygen using portable equipment. Thereafter water samples were collected and transferred to a campus laboratory for further physicochemical characterization. Similar activities were carried out by other partners, namely “Kerkini Lake - Chemical analysis of the lake” (Greece) and “Water pollution investigation in Neris river near Vilijampolė, Kaunas city” (Lithuania). The activity proposed here can be thereafter replicated in various natural contexts.
Online Resources
- Chemistry is all around network projectThe Chemistry Is All Around Network project, funded by the European Commission in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme (Comenius Subprogramme – Multilateral Networks), intended to promote the studying of chemistry at school. It covered 4 thematic areas: (i) Students’ Motivation; (ii) Teachers’ Training; (iii) Successful Experiences and (iv) Teaching Resources.
- E-learning from natureThe E-Learning from Nature project is funded by the European Commission and the Italian National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme with the aims of: (i) Promoting a proactive students’ approach to scientific subjects learning; (ii) Propose innovative teaching methodologies to scientific teachers.
- Physicochemical analysis of river waterA chemistry example extracted from the E-learning from nature portal.
- Kerkini Lake - Chemical analysis of the lakeA chemistry example extracted from the E-learning from nature portal.
- Water pollution investigation in Neris river near Vilijampolė, Kaunas cityA chemistry example extracted from the E-learning from nature portal.
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