Chemistry Education
and Human Activity
SED 131 – Current Trends in Chemistry Education
Three dimensions of human activity
that require strong emphasis for
educational practice to meet the
learning needs of students are
developed:
i. the human activity of learning and teaching
chemistry;
ii. the human activity of carrying out chemistry;
and
iii. the human activity that has imprinted itself in
such a substantial way on the chemistry of
our planet that it has defined a new
geological epoch.
Chemical Education vs
Chemistry Education
• The difference between chemical education and
chemistry education is human activity.
• The term “chemical” education accurately conveys that
at the heart of this domain of education are
substances: their structures and properties, and the
reactions that change them into other substances.
• But, beyond chemicals, human activity is central to
i. teaching and learning chemistry,
ii. the practice of chemistry in laboratories and industry,
iii. the use and reactions of chemical substances by ordinary
people
Tetrahedral Chemistry Education
I. The Human Activity of Learning
and Teaching Chemistry
• Johnstone suggests that current
educational practice often clusters ideas
into indigestible bundles, and that
theoretical ideas are not linked to the
reality of students’ lives.
• The result: “chemical” education that is
irrelevant, uninteresting, and
indigestible, leading to student attitudes
that range from not being able to
understand to indifference about
arriving at understanding.
I. The Human Activity of Learning
and Teaching Chemistry
• Gilbert’s review of the interrelated problems
facing chemical education over the past two
decades reinforces Johnstone’s critique,
suggesting that students experience
i. an overload of content,
ii. numerous isolated facts that make it difficult for
students to give meaning to what they learn,
iii. lack of ability to transfer conceptual learning to
address problems presented in different ways,
lack of relevance of knowledge to everyday life,
and
iv. too much emphasis on preparation for further
study in chemistry rather than for development
of scientific literacy.
I. The Human Activity of Learning
and Teaching Chemistry
• Atoms or Learners First?
Atom
Diatomic
Triatomic
Tetratomic
Complex
I. The Human Activity of Learning
and Teaching Chemistry
• Atoms-First Approach
• may have roots over a halfcentury old in the work of Linus
Pauling, who, in the first edition
(1950) of his much-emulated
College Chemistry suggests a
similar flow of ideas:
• “In this book I begin the
teaching of chemistry by
discussing the properties of
substances in terms of atoms
and molecules…”
Linus Pauling, PhD
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954)
Nobel Peace Prize (1962)
I. The Human Activity of Learning
and Teaching Chemistry
• Perhaps atoms and other isolated “chemical”
building blocks need to come second, after first
motivating learners with the beauty and importance
of the whole, based on an understanding of their
diverse needs for learning chemistry.
“Science is built up with facts, as a
house is with stones. But a collection of
facts is no more a science than a heap
of stones is a house.”
- Henri Poincaré, La Science et
l’hypothèse
Identifying Learners and Designing
Curriculum to Meet Their Needs
• Problem. An overemphasis is often placed on
providing all of the foundational pieces for the few
students who major in chemistry, rather than for the
majority of students who will pursue careers in
health professions, engineering, or other areas.
“Although General Chemistry was written primarily
for use by students planning to major in chemistry
and related fields it has been found useful also by
students with primary interest in other subjects …”
– Linus Pauling, College Chemistry
Identifying Learners and Designing
Curriculum to Meet Their Needs
• Effective educational practice requires
understanding who the students are
who take chemistry, and ensuring that
learning objectives are formulated to
meet the needs of the many students
who won’t again darken the door of a
chemistry course or lab, as well as those
going on to study chemistry.
Effective Practices in the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• Re-hybridizing learning toward tetrahedral
chemistry education that attends thoughtfully
to the human activity of learning and
teaching chemistry requires much more than
tinkering with curriculum.
• Rather, systemic efforts to deliberately design
learning environments, curriculum, pedagogy,
and physical spaces are all needed to enrich
the experiences of learners.
Effective Practices in the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• The community of educators has taken
monumental strides to pay more attention to
the “education” part of “chemical education.”
This includes efforts to
i.
identify and understand the learning needs of all
students studying chemistry,
ii. create learning communities, and
iii. implement both curriculum and pedagogical
strategies that lead to more active and engaged
learning
Effective Practices in the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• Helpful practices to enrich experiences of learning
chemistry
i. understanding the student’s prior conceptual
understanding and developing validated
inventories and strategies to identify and address
misconceptions;
ii. using models for learning that account for different
learning styles and limits to cognitive load;
iii. motivating students;
Effective Practices in the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• Helpful practices to enrich experiences of learning
chemistry
iv. engaging students with active and collaborative
instruction and building and supporting intentional
learning communities;
v. developing curriculum that connects to the lived
experience of students and societal needs;
vi. implementing strategies for faculty professional
development; and
vii. integrating into education the responsible and
ethical practice of science.
Exemplar: Emphasizing the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• Visualizing the Chemistry of Climate Change
(VC3) is one example of an evidence-based
approach to implementing reform for
introductory university chemistry courses,
based on an analysis of the motivational and
learning needs and conceptual understanding
of students.
Exemplar: Emphasizing the Human
Activity of Learning and Teaching
Chemistry
• VC3 has developed an interactive set of
resources, targeting first-year university
chemistry students and teachers, with a triptych
of goals, to
i.
ii.
exemplify science education for sustainability,
improve the understanding of climate change by
both undergraduate students and faculty members,
and
iii. provide resources to support pedagogical reform by
modeling how chemistry topics can be
contextualized to enhance student motivation and
learning.
II. THE HUMAN ACTIVITY OF
CARRYING OUT CHEMISTRY
• A second way for chemistry educators to
emphasize the human element is by attending
to the scholarship that asks whether the
chemistry taught and learned in classrooms
authentically reflects the practice of chemistry.
• Tetrahedral chemistry education emphasizes
the coherence between the rich human
activity of carrying out chemistry and the
portrayals of that activity in classrooms and
laboratories.
II. THE HUMAN ACTIVITY OF
CARRYING OUT CHEMISTRY
• Chemistry students should have an authentic
understanding of where ideas and theories
come from, how they develop over time, and
how they connect to observations about the
world.
• They should frequently engage the question:
“How do we know what we know?” in
addition to “What do we know?”
Explicit and Implicit Messages
about the Nature of Chemistry
• Without overt attention to the authenticity of
how chemistry is portrayed, “chemical”
education can introduce misconceptions
about science as an intellectual and social
endeavor.
• By recognizing and countering unauthentic
messages, chemistry educators can seize
opportunities to paint a picture of chemistry
as a creative science.
“thinking like a chemist”
Explicit and Implicit Messages
about the Nature of Chemistry
• Non-authentic portrayals are introduced or reinforced
in a variety of unexamined and implicit ways including
static, contrived, and predetermined laboratory
exercises; presentation of chemistry as isolated facts to
be remembered, without a genuine understanding of
how chemists develop explanations; lack of attention to
where ideas come from and how they change over time;
insufficient attention to the processes and tools
chemists use to analyze, interpret, and apply data;
neglect to highlight the imaginative process that is such
a central part of “thinking like a chemist”; and failure to
mention the ethical choices chemists and chemistry
students make about how knowledge is used.
Explicit and Implicit Messages
about the Nature of Chemistry
• Understanding in chemistry develops in fits and
starts, involves a mix of inductive, deductive, and
abductive methods, and at times is moved
dramatically forward by chemists willing to
challenge existing paradigms, and occasionally by
serendipitous discoveries.
• Simplistic or distorted caricatures of science not
only create misconceptions about the nature of
science, but also make it difficult for human
learners to see themselves as meaningful
participants in carrying out science.
Explicit and Implicit Messages
about the Nature of Chemistry
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
• Implicit messages that convey less-than-authentic
understandings of science are ubiquitous, and are
found beyond the opening chapters of chemistry
texts that outline the methods of science.
• But they are sometimes difficult to spot, due to
entrenched patterns for sequencing instruction in
“chemical” education. The flow of ideas in many
learning resources at both the secondary and
first-year postsecondary levels starts with facts
and concepts to be learned – often presented in
isolation from the evidence that underlies those
facts, and then moves to applications of those
concepts.
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
• Example: structure and bonding of molecular
substances
• begins with theories of bonding, such as hybridization and
Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory, before
any evidence of experimental geometries, and without
discussion of the nature and complementarity of different
theories and models to explain that experimental evidence.
• infrared spectroscopy (evidence for connectivity patterns in
functional groups),
• mass spectrometry (evidence for molecular formulas),
• X-ray crystallography (bond lengths and bond angles),
• and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy (map of the
C–H framework of organic compounds)
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
“Sometimes it seems to me that a bond between two
atoms has become so real, so tangible, (and) so friendly
that I can almost see it. And then I awake with a little
shock: for a chemical bond is not a real thing; it does not
exist; no-one has ever seen it, no-one ever can …
Hydrogen I know, for it is a gas and we keep it in large
cylinders; benzene I know, for it is a liquid and we keep it
in bottles. The tangible, the real, the solid, is explained
by the intangible, the unreal, (and) the purely mental.
Yet that is what chemists are always doing…”
- Charles A. Coulson, 1951 Tilden Lecture
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
All chemistry educators, knowingly and unknowingly,
communicate messages about the nature of science.
However, the messages students receive are often
unrecognized or unexamined.
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
The United States Next Generation Science
Standards elaborate on this with
recommendations that the following aspects of
the nature of science should be communicated
implicitly and explicitly in science classrooms:
• Scientific investigations use a variety of methods.
• Scientific knowledge is based on empirical
evidence.
• Scientific knowledge is open to revision in light of
new evidence.
• Scientific models, laws, mechanisms, and theories
explain natural phenomena.
Breathing the Life of Imagination
into Chemistry’s Facts
The United States Next Generation Science
Standards elaborate on this with
recommendations that the following aspects of
the nature of science should be communicated
implicitly and explicitly in science classrooms:
• Science is a way of knowing.
• Scientific knowledge assumes an order and
consistency in natural systems.
• Science is a human endeavor.
• Science addresses questions about the natural and
material world.
Exemplars: Emphasizing the Human
Activity of Carrying Out Chemistry
McNeil [25] uses an innovative pedagogical
strategy for moving university students from
algorithmic application of “rules” for structure
and bonding to deeper conceptual understanding
that emphasizes the strength and limitations of
complementary models to explain a large set of
experimental observations.
“Dueling bonding theories”
Exemplars: Emphasizing the Human
Activity of Carrying Out Chemistry
Chemistry: Human Activity,
Chemical Reactivity
• uses two opening-chapter
narratives to introduce the
power of modern chemistry
to solve important problems
and improve the quality of
life while giving an authentic
glimpse into the way modern
chemistry is carried out in
research groups and
laboratories.
III. CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH
Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be
fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over
every living creature that moves on the ground."
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in
the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
III. CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH
III. CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH
Tetrahedral chemistry education implies that students
and teachers see how chemistry affects virtually every
aspect of modern life – usually, but not always, for the
better; that human activity is fundamentally altering our
planetary boundaries; and that knowledge of chemistry
is crucial in developing strategies to tackle global
sustainability challenges.
III. CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN THE
ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH
Tetrahedral chemistry education implies that students
and teachers see how chemistry affects virtually every
aspect of modern life – usually, but not always, for the
better; that human activity is fundamentally altering our
planetary boundaries; and that knowledge of chemistry
is crucial in developing strategies to tackle global
sustainability challenges.
Planetary Boundaries: A Chemistry
Course Outline?
Figure 1.3 Illustration of the change to seven planetary boundaries from preindustrial levels to
the present. The planetary boundaries attempt to quantify the limits within which humanity
can safely operate without causing unacceptable global environmental change. (Photo credit:
Azote Images/Stockholm Resilience Centre.)
Planetary Boundaries: A Chemistry
Course Outline?
Does secondary and post-secondary chemistry
education, as currently practiced, reflect to any
substantial effect our understanding of the
fundamental role chemistry plays in altering
Earth’s boundaries? What are the implications of
teaching students at more advanced levels who
have learned, starting in elementary school, that
we now live in the Anthropocene Epoch –
defined in large part by changes to the chemistry
of our lithosphere and atmosphere?
Planetary Boundaries: A Chemistry
Course Outline?
Paul J. Crutzen
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1995
“To master this huge shift, we must change
the way we perceive ourselves and our role
in the world. Students in school are still
taught that we are living in the Holocene, an
era that began roughly 12,000 years ago at
the end of the last Ice Age. But teaching
students that we are living in the
Anthropocene … could be of great help.
Rather than representing yet another sign of
human hubris, this name change would
stress the enormity of humanity’s
responsibility as stewards of the Earth. It
would highlight the immense power of our
intellect and our creativity, and the
opportunities they offer for shaping the
future.”
Steps toward Anthropocene-Aware
Chemistry Education
A starting point in highlighting the intellect and
creativity of chemists, and probing the
opportunities chemistry offers for helping to
shape the future (Crutzen, above), would be to
correlate fundamental concepts in chemistry
curriculum with those planetary boundaries
where human activity is substantially impacting
earth systems processes.
Steps toward Anthropocene-Aware
Chemistry Education
The chemistry educator might motivate by
starting, not with atoms, but with a view of the
intricate and elegant chemical structures and
processes that are found in every part of
everyday life, including those that define our
place in geological time. Keeping relevant human
contexts in sight, students can then be guided
through the details of structures, properties, and
reactions of substances.
Steps toward Anthropocene-Aware
Chemistry Education
Exemplars: Anthropocene-Aware
Chemistry Education
One IYC-2011 legacy resource is a comprehensive set of
free, interactive, critically reviewed, and Web-based
learning tools to help students, teachers, science
professionals, and the general public make sense of the
underlying science of climate change.
http://www.explainingclimatechange.com/
Exemplars: Anthropocene-Aware
Chemistry Education
ACS Chemistry in Context
Chemistry Education
and Human Activity
SED 131 – Current Trends in Chemistry Education