chemiftry for kid/
edited by RICHARDSTEINER University 01 Vtah
Salt Lake City. UT 84112
Chemistry for Fifth and Sixth Graders-From Plastic Laundry Basket "Labs" Karen Doyle Walton Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales, Center Valley, PA 18034
Introducing elementary school teachers to chemistry can be a fun and rewarding experience if hands-on activities that are appropriate for use in the elementary school classroom areused as the vehicleof instruction. This was the premise of the program described in this paper. Organization
The workshoo was the idea of two area hieh school chemistry teachers, ~ i Arlotto y and Daniel ~ h a m e yThey . recruited the assistance of their close friend Rodger Berg, Associate Professor of Chemistry at Allentown College, and myself, a mathematician who directed the project. The three chemists shared the teaching responsibilities. Funding was provided by the American Chemical Society, which designated us as one of their 10 model projects awarded $1.000. An additional grant of $2,500 from the Woodrow ~ i l s o nFoundation enabied us to pay the three workshop instructors. purchase supplies, and present each teacherparticipant with a modc~;stipend. Allentown College pro\,ided the tncilities and secretarial support at no cuut. Each participant was given a copy of Adventures with Atoms and Molecules, Chemistry Experiments for Young People,' which was used as the text. The hook's 30 experiments, presented in big print with simple illustrations, includechemistrsactivitieawhich use simple,sale, and readily available materiali. Explanarions are given at a level appropriate for the intended audience of elementary school students. The teachers were also given all the supplies needed to perform the experiments in their classrooms. Participants were recruited by mailing a description of the project and an application form to principals a t schools within a one-hour commuting distance of Allentown College. Each school principal recommending a teacher signed an approval of the presentation of workshop experiments in the teacher's science classes. Twenty-three teachers were accepted into the program. Workshop Format Three workshops were held from 9:00 a.m. to noon on Saturday mornings once a month in the fall of 1985. Each session began with a 10- to 20-minute lecture presented in a simple, graphic manner based on the assumption that the teachers had no previous knowledge of chemistry. The dis-
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Mebane, R. c.: Rybolt, T. R. Adventures with Atoms and Molecules, Chemistry Experiments for Young People; Enslow: Hillside, NJ, 1985.
714
Journal of Chemical Education
creuancv . . in the chemistry knowledge of the teachers made it necessary for the workshop instr&rs to present enough theory to satisfy the hpst prepared participants without hewildering the least prepared. Topics included in the curriculum are presented in the tahle. Particinants then oerformed corresoondine- exoeriments . using supplies from their large, bright plastic laundry haskets. which were their "labs". Suonlies included such items as fbod coloring, cooking oil, ridber halls, and balloons. Teachers were provided with sufficient quantities to allow their students to carry out the same activities when the teachers returned to their classrooms. In subsequent workshop sessions, the teachers discussed their classroom experiences and asked the staff any questions that arose during the students' experiments and that needed further explanation. Classroom Presentations The diverse, original ways teachers implemented the workshop curriculum in their classrooms had not been anticipated h; the project staff. We visited one elementary classroom in which each experiment was performed hy teams of four fifth-grade "chemists", because the desks in the classroom were permanently arranged in clusters of four. Each student completed a -lab reportwby recording observations to questions posed by rhe teacher on ditto she&. The directions asked each student to respond using "complete sentences". As academic dean a t a college where "writing across the curriculum" is a goal, I was impressed to find the science1 writing connection operative at the elementary level in this natural, unforced way. , In a second classroom we visited, the "open-concept" school enabled the teacher to set u p supplies for each of five different experiments at separate tables. Students progressed from tahle to tahle, reading the experiment directions, performing the experiment, and then recording results in a "lab report". This readlexperimentlwrite format optimized interaction among the students, who often responded to their peers' conjectures with counterexamples or support. In a third classroom, the teacher appointed two students to perform an experiment before class, as practice for a classroom presentation. They were then the "experts" when they performed the experiment for the whole class, having had their own questions answered beforehand by the teacher during the "dry run". In that classroom, too, the teacher had prepared ditto sheets of questions, one set to he completed by the students who performed the experiments and one set
Allentown College Chemistry Workshop Evaluation Workshop Format 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
(Low) 1
2
Day of the Week(Sat.) Time (am. vs. p.m.) Length of time per session (3 h) Meeting room facilities. comfort Overall wganization of workshops Workshop Teaching and Content
4
19% 19% 19% 12% 6% ,,
inadequste
Adequale
6. Teaching effectiveness of workshop instru6tors 7. Relevancy of what was presented to what you wanted 8. Quality of b w k 9. Adequacy of workshop supplies
8%
1-3
4-6
10. Approximately how many of the workshop experiments were pertormed in your classroom? 11. Approximately what percentage of those experiments were performed by you? 12. Approximately what percentage of those experiments were performed by your stud en^
13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.
3
Chemistry Concepts* Bonding Diffusion Size of particles Spacing between particles Motion of particles Density Structure of atom Basic periodic table Stability of noble gases Equal sharing of electrons In nitrogen and oxygen Definition of molecule Nonpolar ma1ec"les Unequal sharing of electrons Definition of dipole Dipole-dlpoie bonds Nonpolar molecules polar sites
13% &25% 36% 0-25%
13%
Good 19% 44% 44% 13% 7-9
50 % 36 % 50 % 27%
1
2
3
56% 38% 31% 50% 25% 38% 44% 50% 19% 44% 25 % 50% 38% 25 % 19% 32%
19% 56% 50 % 25% 75% 62% 56% 37% 19% 12% 69% 6% 18% 6% 6% 6%
38% 44 % 69% 69% 56%
68% 81% 43 % 50% 81 %
38 % 38 % 13%
25% 6% 13% 25 %
13% 62% 38%
5 (High)
Excellent 61% 50% 56 % 87% 10-12 38% 75% 75% 55 %
13+ 49% 100% 28% 100% 18%
4
6%
6% 6% 6%
6% 6%
Key;
1. mi= concept was entirely mw to m. 2. 1 was Somewhat Familiar with me cancaot before me workshoo. bvt ths wohshoa clarlned n for me. 3. I was EOmfwtable wim mb concept before the workshop. 4. NOresponoe.
by those who observed. A different tesm of two "performing chemists" was appointed for each experiment. Evaluatlons by Teacher-Partlclpants
At the end of the second workshop, each teacher-participant completed a form which asked simply what was done well a t the workshops and what improvements could he made. The responses were discussed hy the staff and suggestions were heeded for the third workshop. The final project evaluation, completed a t the end of the third workshop, appears in the table, with percentages of responses recorded. Examples of representative "additional comments" are included. Student Evaluatlons
Two of the teacher-uartici~antswere asked to have their students complete evaiuation forms. Complete-sentence responses were solicited to auestions such as "Do vou have a better understanding of the experiment hecauseiou did it, rather than just read ahout it?" and "How do vou feel about chemistry as a result of doing these experiments?" Comments included the following: I had a much better understanding when I did the experiment because I got to see what really happened. Before it was a bunch o f mumble jumble. I didn't like chemistry hut doing the experiments made me change my mind.
I'm still a little uneven about it (chemistry),but I do like it. I like chemistry very much. I might work with chemicals when I grow up. I thought these experiments were a very nice change of pace for science class. I would enjoy learning more about chemistry. I would enjoy seeing and domg more experiments Conclusion Our staff of two high school and two college teachers was invigorated and honored to conduct this project, which was itself an exnetiment. The hours of ~ l a n n i n ediscussine . the chemical pknciples involved and methodsldf exceeded the ~renarationneeded to conduct three successful workshops. But the energizing exchange of ideas will indirectly profit high school and colleee students taueht - hv.the instr&rs as well as the elemen& school students who were the intended direct recipients. Call it what vou willsplral learning or elementa&econdaty/college articulation-it worked. The personal and professional satisfaction our staff enjoyed was ~Ugmentedby the knowledge that we provided three months of good hands-on chemistry to 23 elementary teachers and 1,116 students. We hope the wider chemistry communits will benefit from this ~ r o i e cmanv t vears hence. ~ d d i t i o n a details i about the p r i e c i , includkg a detailed curriculum, can he obtained hy writing the author.
Volume 64
Nuinber 8
August 1987
715
