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ConfChem Conference on A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical EducationThe Global Experiment of the IYC2011: Creating Online Communities for Education and Science Elena Serrano,† Rovani Sigamoney,‡ and Javier Garcia−Martinez*,† †

Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory, Department of Inorganic Chemistry. University of Alicante, E-03690 Alicante, Spain UNESCO, UNESCO Engineering Initiative, 1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris, Cedex 15, France

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S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: The Global Experiment, Water: A Chemical Solution, was one of the flagship activities of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC). During the virtual colloquium of the spring 2012 online ConfChem conference, the main results of this year-long experiment were presented and discussed online for a week. Some of the main conclusions of the virtual conversations relate to the benefits of creating online communities of people sharing similar interests, the use of online educational platforms to gather massive amounts of data, and specific questions about the development of this IYC initiative. The activities of the global water experiment (GWE) were designed by a team of experts and the protocols are available online on the GWE Web site. The results were shown in one interactive world map that allowed students to learn about data visualization, validation, and interpretation. The feedback obtained from the participants of the GWE and later by the contributors of the virtual colloquium was very positive. Many participants asked specific and technical questions about the development of this experiment, while others excitedly endorsed the convenience of these large open-access activities to promote chemistry worldwide. The estimate is that over 2 million people took part in the GWE during the IYC. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the ConfChem online conference: A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education, held from May 18 to June 29, 2012 and hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. KEYWORDS: General Public, Continuing Education, Public Understanding/Outreach, Multimedia-Based Learning, Water/Water Chemistry

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they also learned different experimental techniques and the consistency of their results. In the second activity, the students measured the salt content of local water samples by the chance in mass after drying the samples. In this activity, students discovered one of the most common physical properties of water, salinity, as well as determining the concentrations of salts in solutions. During the third activity (filtration−disinfection) students constructed a filtration unit and used it to disinfect local water. Finally, in the fourth activity, students designed and built their own distillation system to purify local water using a solar still.4 A Web site was created to post these activities and to share the data.5,6 The Web site, water.chemistry2011.org,6 was prepared and maintained by European Schoolnet and was available in five languages: English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese. It included state-of-the-art interactive tools, 2D and 3D maps showing the data, pictures, videos, and news on the Global Experiment (Figure 1).

he International Year of Chemistry (IYC) has been a great opportunity to increase public awareness and understanding of chemistry, but also represented a major challenge in designing a major global experiment with a strong educational component that could impact millions of students from all around the world. The answer was to develop an experiment in which the students were the main architects of their own learning by creating the online tools that allowed them to perform the experiment and to share their results, new ideas, and experiences online.1,2 The theme of the Global Experiment: Water a Chemical Solution (GWE) was chosen because of the central role of water in chemistry and because its relationship with health, climate change, energy, and other global challenges.3 The experiment consists of four component activities exploring acidity, salinity, filtration and disinfection, and a solar still challenge. The first goal was to provide students with an appreciation of chemical investigation and data collection validation. In the first activity, students learned about one of the most common chemical properties encountered in everyday life, water acidity. By measuring the acidity of the local water, © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Published: October 8, 2013 1544

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Figure 1. World maps indicating the average values per country of two of the experiments (top) and map of Brazil showing the schools that participated in the Global Experiment with colors indicating different pH values (bottom).

finishing the IYC 2011, as reported by Prof. Dr. Milan Drabik, from the Comenius University.8 He shared a video (in Slovak) that reports on the main results and conclusions of this activity during “scientific cafe of youth” at the headquarters of the Centre of Scientific & Technical Information of Slovak Republic. Considering the worldwide impact of GWE, similar educational activities would be desirable in future international years. Indeed, another conclusion from the Virtual Colloquium relates to the extension of the GWE to other topics such as energy using the same format and webpage.6 A global experiment on healthy eating was suggested by several contributors to the Virtual Colloquium. Finally, the discussions focused on the convenience of Webbased tools to provide educational platforms and to enable students to perform chemical activities and share their results. The positive role of online communities of individuals sharing similar interests was highlighted on several occasions as a new direction in Chemistry Education. This paper was discussed from May 25 to May 31 during the spring 2012 ConfChem online conference: A Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education. The corresponding discussion of the paper, which was held during the spring 2012 ConfChem online conference, can be accessed through http://www.ccce. divched.org/spring2012confchemp3.This conference was jointly hosted by the ACS DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCEE) and the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education. The conferences are open to the public and can be assessed at the CCEE Web site http:// www.ccce.divched.org/spring2012confchem.

The Global Experiment was formally closed on March 14, 2012, during the World Water Forum in Marseille, where the main conclusions of this global activity of the IYC were presented in a press conference co-organized by IUPAC and UNESCO and in one of the sessions in the Forum. On March 31, the registration of new users and uploading of data was closed on the Web site of the Global Experiment.7 However, the rest of the features are currently still available. In fact, everybody is encouraged to download the activities, carry out the experiments, and share their experiences via online social media.

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MAIN CONCLUSIONS OF THE VIRTUAL COLLOQUIUM Almost 130,000 students from 80 countries registered at the Web site, shared data, and helped us to build the global map. But many more participated without registering on the Web site; the estimated participation in the GWE is around 2 million people. One of the most frequent questions in the Virtual Colloquium was about the future of the GWE. The Web site is currently available for people to download the protocols and perform the different experiments. At the moment, no further data can be added to the map. The map with the interactive tools is available. The authors agree with the comment posted by Peter Mahaffy, “It would be good to hear from anyone on the list who has ideas about how to sustain such partnerships over new global activities, so that the momentum for IYC is not lost”.8 Recently, the results of GWE were presented at the Latin American Chemistry Congress as a poster which is now available in the GWE Facebook group. In Slovakia, one of the most active countries in Europe, the GWE was still active at the national level one year after 1545

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(10) Wright, T.; Garcia-Martinez, J. Water: A Chemical SolutionA Global Experiment for the International Year of Chemistry. Chem. Int. 2010, 32 (5), 14−17.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

The original ConfChem paper and the PowerPoint presentation of GWE is supplied. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. Funding

The authors knowledge financial support of Dow Chemical Company, EPCA, BASF, CEFIC, Evonik, Solvay, the l′Oreal Foundation, and the American Chemistry Council. Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would not have a global experiment without the efforts of a large number of incredibly dedicated volunteers. In addition to the partnership with UNESCO and the involvement of IUPAC CCE members, members of three IUPAC Divisions, and three IYC management committee members, the experiment has benefitted from the very strong participation of the chemical industry represented by BASF, CEFIC (which served as secretariat of the group in the planning stages), the American Chemistry Council, and the International Water Association. The task group and partnerships of the Global Experiment include contributors from fields, sectors, and regions far and wide, demonstrating the wide interest and global reach of the project.9 The authors wish to express their acknowledgement to all the local groups that made GWE possible. The Global Experiment was only possible because of the contributions of many people and institutions. In addition to IUPAC and UNESCO, co-organizers of this global activity, the authors acknowledge the contribution of the task team listed in ref 10. The authors also wish to thank GITE group ‘Innoquinor’ of the University of Alicante (Spain) for their support.

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REFERENCES

(1) Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social and EducationalNetworking; National School Boards Association: Alexandria, VA, 2007. (2) Garcia-Martinez, J. Chemistry 2.0: Creating Online Communities. Chem. Int. 2010, 32 (4), 4−7. (3) The Chemical Element: Chemistry’s Contribution to our Global Future; Garcia-Martinez, J., Serrano-Torregrosa, E., Eds.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2011. (4) Video release describing the GWE. http://youtu.be/ mcKb9J0ZgxA (accessed Sep 2013). (5) Interactive map showing the data collected from GWE around the world. http://water.chemistry2011.org/web/iyc/visualisation (accessed Sep 2013). (6) The Global Experiment of the IYC website: http://water. chemistry2011.org (accessed Sep 2013). (7) Garcia Martinez, J.; Sigamoney, R. The Global Experiment of the International Year of Chemistry. Water: A Chemical Solution. Chem. Int. 2012, 34 (3), 14−17. (8) Virtual Colloquium to Sustain and Celebrate IYC 2011 Initiatives in Global Chemical Education. http://www.ccce.divched.org/ spring2012confchemp3 (accessed Sep 2013). (9) Sigamoney, R. Big Splash for the IYC Global Water Experiment. Chem. Int. 2011, 33 (3), 14−17. 1546

dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300840e | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 1544−1546