edited by
cherni~tryfor kid/
RICHARD SEINER University of Utsh san Lake City. UT 841 12
A Chemistry Experience for Gifted and Talented
Elementary Students G. Lynn Carlson University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha, WI 53141 In recent years this Journal has reported several summer experience programs and special classes in chemistry for elementary school children a t various levels ( 1 5 ) . These programs vary markedly in goals and design (6); however, each seems to be received enthusiastically by its target audience. We describe here a successful two-week summer program for children in grades P 6 of above average ability. The College for Kids program at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside is jointly sponsored by the University and the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Societies of Racine and Kenosha Counties. The University provides classroom and lab facilities and faculty from several departments to teach in their areas of specialization, while the GATE societies are responsible for organization of the program, procurement of materials, advertising, etc. The classes are scheduled for two hours a day, five days a week for two-week Deriods durina late June and Julv. A number of classes are iffered for children in grades K-8; but at present elementary chemistrv is offered onlv for children in arades 4-6. Enrollment in the program is drawn from those students living in the surrounding area who have previously been identified as gifted or talented, and each child pays a fee of $45 to participate in a two-week session. The fee covers materials as well as small stipends for the instructors and some of their assistants. Several . DurDoses . are sewed hv the Colleee for Kids oregram. The children are exposed to enrichment experiences in a colleee settine su~ervisedhv- ~rofessionals. and facultv . meml,ers'k able'to &ifill part of the university mission 0.f communitv iervice. At the same time. the Universitv's Department bf Education students ma; enroll in a seminar course on "Teaching the Gifted and Talented", and for part of the course credit, assist the professors in the College for
-
58
Journal of Chemical Education
Table 1. Syllabus lor "Conslder Chemistry" ' Day 1
Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10
Intmductions, ~ ~ U o nphysical s , and dxrmical changes Energy changes, elements, molecules, compounds Behavior of gases, rates of chemical reactions Acids and bases Inorganic chemistry: reactions ot metals Biochemistry: amino adds and proteins Organlc chemishy: dyes, consumer products PolyrnfKS Visits to research laboratories at UW-Parkslde Visitors' Day: Freezing point depression, student demon-
.Outliw of me expalmam sre avsllable horn ma sumor upon request.
Kids Droeram: for some education students assistine in the technkafiy oriented College for Kids programs represents their first exposure to science instruction since they themselves were students in high school. Because the teaching seminar enrollment is relatively small, and the education students relatively unskilled in laboratory operations, we have also ooened the assistant positions to work-study students who have had a t least one year of chemistry. The syllabus we use for our course, Consider Chemistry, is shown in Table 1. We have found that, for best results, discussion of chemical principles should be kept to a minimum; the students are more interested in doing than listening.' At the same time, however, we wish to provide the students with real but understandable chemical lessons to 'This phenomenon, as well as the students' compliance wlth safeiy glasses use, has been commented upon by Scaife(4).
Table 2. Typlcal Dally Agenda for Conslder Chemistry Day 2. Energy Changes: Elemem. Molecules, and Compounds Time
Activity
9 30 9 35
lntrm~ctlonto energy cnsnges Dosc~sston of l~mmoii~mines~lnce loone by chlidren p r e v a r day). Demanstratian: Triplet-triplet energy transfer. Discussion of observable energy changes and how to measure them. Student Activity: Heat of solution of several substances as measured by temperature change during solution. Discussion of results and summsrv. introduct on 01 terms exothermic and endorherm c Demonstratmn Thermote reactcon Recess. Exposition: The differences between atoms and molecules. elements and compounds. Handout Periodic tables. Student activity: Molecular models of simple compounds (NaCi. 02.H20, CHI. C3Hd. Shldents make models, draw them in notebooks and discuss ways to combine elements. Students are permined to keep one of their models. Cleanup. Demonstration for ned day: Iodine clock reaction. Dismis~al.
9:40
950 1025 10 30 10:35 1050 11:OO
1195
take home. Our compromise solution consists of a very short exposition of a topic followed by a longer hands-on experience, and then the lesson concludes with a brief resume of the student results and a restatement of the lesson under consideration. The student exneriments are desiened to take about 30-45 min to complete.*we try to allow th;? students a 10-min recess about halfway through the morning and then repeat the exposition-experiment-discussion format for a new or related subject, so that the students can expect to do two experiments of their own every day. The students are encouraged to keep a written record of their experiments and are, in fact, gi;en "blue hooks" for their laboratory notebooks. We then try to present information in an organized fashion to facilitate their notetaking, and sometimes provide worksheets for recording data. However. we make no effort to erade them on their written work: College for Kids is meant not to be a high-stress experience but rather to expose the children to the excitement of doine science in a nonthreatening atmosphere. Asummaw ofa tv~icaldav'sactivitiesisshown inTable 2. We do attempt to-;elate air topics to familiar ideas and objects, but contrary to many elementary promams, ours emphasizes the use of substances not readiiy available in the home; one focus of the program is to provide the children with "college-level" experience, and they seem more readily impressed with their special environment if they use the college students' tools and chemicals. Thus, each student is assigned a drawer in the lab and uses the same funnels, test tubes. and flasks that our colleee students use. and from the beginning the students use "real chemicals" as well as everydav items. The breakage rate is no worse (even with thermometers) than it is wiih our college freshmen. The general chemistry lahoratories a t UW-Parkside, where the College for Kids class is held, are typical 24student labs, hut we have found that with elementary students the room is far too crowded with that number. Efficient use of chemicals and safe conduct of the experiments becomes impossible. The class is now limited to 15 students. For these 15, a t least three adult supervisors including the instructor are needed. Two assistants with at least some familiarity with lab apparatus are required to help the students dispense chemicals and use balances while the instructor must be free to circulate, answer the children's iunumerable questions, and provide constant encouragement for the
-
more timid students. All of the students spill things and use too much of all of the reagents unless they are closely watched by the adults. Safety is a high priority. All the students and supervisors are required to wear safety glasses during laboratory operations. (In general, the children are more tractable in this regard than college students!) We spend a sienificant amount of time the-first day describing safety requirements and require the students to take home both a letter to parents and the written safety regulations for our college labbratories. The parents are then required to sign a statement that they have read and understood the rules their children must follow. Parents are warned as well to supervise closely any experiment their child might try at home and not to permit i t unless they themselves understand the experiment and any risks involved. The experiments performed by the students, though sometimes requiring materials unfamiliar to them. are chosenin part foriheir relative safety, so that minor mistakes do not produce disasters. For instance, the concepts of "acid" and "base" are investigated first with universal indicator on very dilute solutions, then withan indicator extracted by the students themselves from the more homely red cabbage. For a few years we tried making soap, but we no longer do the ~rocedurefor safetv reasons. On the other hand. we have been able to use so&um hydroxide in the "energ; changes during solution" ex~eriment(Table 2) with relative safetv. he students like to see visible results from their woik, and we try to oblige them by providing something to take home every day. Some days they may have only papers, such as periodic tables or charts of experimental results, while other times they may take home something they have made themselves, perhaps molecular models or a polymer casting. We generally do not allow them to take home chemicals. The only exceptions to this rule are for substances such as the cabbage water, or small strips of aluminum or zinc, any of which might he readily available outside the laboratory auyway. The last two days of the 10-day sequence depart from the accustomed format and, indeed. differ irom most other elementary student programs that have been described. On day nine we examine the question "What do real chemists do?" At UW-Parkside there is an active research effort in the physical and biological sciences, and the students can simply go ask a "real chemist". The day is devoted to a tour of several of the research lahoratories a t UW-Parkside. In the two-hour time frame of Colleee for Kids there is generally time to visit only iive or six lahoratories and support farilities. We heein with a short introdurtion in which the students tell us ;hat they expect to see, and we suggest other areas the students mieht watch for. relating our suegestions to techniques they (lave tried, s u r h a s c h r ~ m a t o g r ~ phy. Although all the places u,e visit are "science" laboratori&, many of the researchers are not "chemists", and this, too, is valuable, pointing out the interdisciplinary nature of science. We also meet researchers who study organic chemistry, ueurohiology, physical chemistry, molecular graphics, molecular biology, and photochemistry. The faculty members are generally cooperative and even eager to share their work, and the children are thrilled by the experience, even though they may comprehend only a fraction of what they see. We also visit the stockroom and the instrument room. The final day is "Visitors' Day", and the parents, grandparents, and siblings of the students are invited to attend. For this day, we move to one of the large lecture halls. There is a token lesson to he presented, hut the topic is "freezine point depression", and-we makeice cream
