Special Projects that Relate the "Real World" of chemistry to High School Students Jacqueline Mattice Baton Rouge High School, 2825 Government Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70806 In an effort to expand the chemical horizons of my first-year high school chemistry students, I assign three projects which are to he done by each student outside of the classroom. The three projects-a current events hooklet, an interview, and a report on a scientific article-have heen in use in my course for the past three years.
prefers to lend a whole magazine to a student in the hope that the student will read more than onearticle. I usually give the student a single article in a folder. This year, however, I instructed mv students to find their own articles, and threefourths of them were able to do so. The instructinns for this project are summarized in Table 3.
Current Events Booklet Each year my first-year high school chemistry students are introduced throueh the news media to the im~ortanceot chemistry in our society. The first day of class they are told that thev have fi weeks to collect 10 c h e m i s t r ~articles from
Table 1. Interview Rules
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a current events booklet. The students are instructed to paste the article to a left-hand page and to give the source of the article and the date. They must underline the chemical terms in the article, such as "ozone" or "methane." On the righthand page across from the article, they are to write a paragraph summary of the article. I insist that each summary include a personal reaction to the article, so they are forced to relate to the article. They are never graded on their reactions; however, they are penalized for not including them. Interviews Students are instructed to interview a person who uses chemistry in hisiher work. Although this assignment would not he suited to every c~rmmunity,in Baton Rouge, where this approach was developed, chemists are easy to find. Interviews can be arranged by telephone. The students laugh when I tell them iust to call no a local olant and ask to interview a chemist, hut this approach has proven effective. The main Dnroose . . of these interviews is to aive the student a different perspective on chemistry from that which he or she has already acquired in the chemistry classroom or a t home. T o achieve this and to insure the success of the interview, I provide interview rules (Table 1) and sample questions (Table 2) to each student. To enhance the interview further, I give honus points for visiting the lab of the chemist interviewed. I require evidence of the visit (a photograph or plant pass), and a section of the student's report must explain what was learned from the visit that could not he learned from a telephone interview. Scientific Article Many scientific articles are too technical for students to understand completely, hut they still can learn a great deal from the first page or two of the article. Sci~ntificAmerican and Discouw are my two favorite sources. A colleague of mine
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Journal of Chemical Education
1. YOU may not interview a member of your family, but you may interview a friend or neighbor. 2. You may not interview a high school teacher. but you may interview a professor. 3. You may conduct your interview over the telephone. 4. YOU may take a tape recorder with you to the interview, but you must turn in a written repon either in interview form or in regular paragraph form, 5. You must conduct this interview personally. You will not receive full credit if you do it with a friend. 6. YOU may interview a pharmacist, but you will not receive bonus points far m i n o to the druastare!
Table 2. Sample Interview Questions'
4. How do you spend your time at work? 5. How is your chemical training related to your job?
6. How does pollution control relate to your safety and the environment? 7. HOWdo YOU dispose of chemical wastes? 8. How do you foresee future technology in your area of chemistry?
' Warning: You are supposed to be responding lo the person you are interviewingIf you t~mitywrseit to these questions you will rece~vean unsafistacto~grade. mese questions are Intended to help you star? the mterview or as an ald when there are penads of silence
Table 3. Scientitlc Article Instructions* 1. List the title of the article. source, date of the article. (5 points) 2. Write a one-paragraph summary describing the main ideas. (5 points) 3. What questions is the author trying to answer in the article? (5 poinfs) 4. What instruments did the investigator use to answer hislher questions? I5 points) 5. List 10 chemistrv-related facts that are mentioned in the anicle. Number these facts. Quality counts here. List. especially. facts that you now understand as a result of taking chemistry. (20 points) 6. HOWdo the illustrations contribute to the understanding of the article? Be specific. For at least one of the illustrations tell what you learned and how the information was communicated. (5points) 7. What questions arose in the course of the study? What lies ahead in this area of study? If the author did not have any questions, what questions occurred to vou? 15 oointsl
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It iS not necessary to read and understand the entire anlcle n order to complete this
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