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Unit 2.2
Observing Change
This unit emphasizes the important role of observation
in science and how observations can be related to structures
and processes on the microscopic scale.
Video program cues: 4:15 — 14:05
Observing
magic
“Hello, my name is Alain
Nu, Mystery Expert. You may ask yourself what a mystery
expert is doing in Reactions in Chemistry —
well, it just so happens that the word 'mystery' is in the
word 'chemistry'. And so, to give you an idea of mysteries
in chemistry, let me give you a couple of my own thoughts
about mystery. You see, people are curious about mystery
not because of its information but because of its lack of
information. Unlike a puzzle that remains to be solved,
the beauty of mystery is experiencing that which is unsolved,
and perhaps the notion that things are not always as they
appear.”
Alain Nu
Mystery Expert
Readings
Kimbrough, D.R. and DeLorenzo, R. (1998)' Solving the Mystery
of Fading Fingerprints with London Dispersion Forces, 'Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 75, No. 10, pp: 1300-1301.
Camacho-Zapata, R. and Lopez-Garriga, J. (2000)' ‘Integration
of Pre-college Chemistry Education and the GLOBE (Global
Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) Program’,
'Journal of Chemical Education, Vol. 77, No. 12,
pp: 1586-1589.
Visualizing the microscopic
Teachers' forum
“When we started this
whole thing, someone commented about seeing the atom. We
all know that you have never seen an atom; that has never
occurred. And on a physical level we never can. So, to get
them to understand that it is all representational, is [to
explain] basically that we have got a good story which seems
to work, but that we toss it out every time that it quits
working. This is implicit, to get from the large scale to
the small scale, to understand that it is a good story.”
Tom Pratuch
Annandale High School, Virginia
“[We need] to emphasize
that these stories that we have are logical explanations
of what has been observed and to warn them not to learn
chemistry but to understand chemistry, because, if we observe
something new that does not fit in with our preconceived
notions, we need to change the story so that it is logically
consistent with what we have observed.”
Dr. Michael Clarke
Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Washington, D.C.
“A lot of times it is
the job of students come up with analogies that address
the invisible, like when they see a picture taken by an
electron microscope, you may talk about how you might make
a hand-print in clay, or — do you remember that device
with all the pins? You could put your hand in and it could
keep the shape of your hand. When you see the shape, are
you really seeing the hand? Is your hand really there? This
helps the students develop what we had already developed
for ourselves.”
Veatta Berry
Thomas A. Edison High School, Virginia
“One big misconception
that kids have is that the air is actually not there; that
there is nothing around us. If you have one of those scales,
you could put two balloons on it and they balance out…
then you fill one with air. The kids are convinced that
the balloons will still balance out. That’s a really
concrete way of showing them that the air is really there.”
Gannon Sugimura
Annandale High School, Virginia
“Sometimes challenge them
to figure out a way to show something that you’ve identified
as a misconception and get them to discuss it.”
Sharon Walton
Watkins Mill High School, Maryland
“On the first day of class,
what I focus on is letting them do something.”
Tom Pratuch
Annandale High School, Virginia
“Really it’s thinking
about… as a teacher, how you understand chemistry yourself.
What do you really picture in your head, and thinking how
you are going to get the students to see the same picture.
I tell my kids that I see particles moving around in my
head; I have this picture, I see it. I know you don’t,
so I’m going to help you see it.”
Veatta Berry
Thomas A. Edison High School, Virginia
Readings
Wilson, E. (2000)' Single Molecules React Via Microscope
Tip, 'Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 78, No.
40, pp: 13-14.
Niaz , M., (1999) Should We Put Observations First? Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 76, No. 6, pp: 734.
JCE Classroom Activity #28, (2000)' More Than Meets the
Eye: Nonvisual Observations in Chemistry (Gettys, N.S. and
Jacobsen, E.K., eds.), 'Journal of Chemical Education,
Vol. 77, No.9, pp: 1104A-1104B.
Glue-Ball Laboratory
Felix Muhiga introduces the observation of chemical change.
Activity
How to teach for thinking
“The bottom line is that
we’re there not to make them chemists, but to teach
them a way of thinking.”
Tom Pratuch
Annandale High School, Virginia
"Along the line that you try to teach them
a way of thinking, and how you figure out what something
is when you can’t even see it. You get shoe boxes and
put some different kinds of objects in them, like bolts
and ping-pong balls or a brick, and pass those boxes out
and have them not being able to open, but shake them around
and let them observe. From their observations, try to figure
out what kind of thing is in there. Explain how people,
because of the background they had, came to an understanding
of what the atom is like.
Irene
Walsh
St. Andrews Episcopal School, Maryland
"I traditionally started out the first year
of chemistry course with the old candle study: write out
as many observations as you can. It’s usually a homework
assignment the first day. We go through an observation,
talking about it being quantitative and qualitative. Then
we start talking about what’s burning. They list the
regular things: the candle is burning, the air is burning.
Then we successfully go through a logical reasoning to prove
that nothing is burning. Then, we go back and collect some
more physical evidence like passing a note card in the flame
and finding it’s hollow. We come up with a list of
observations, which is a couple of pages long, and they’re
just amazed, because they don’t sit and think about
the world around them. They subsist in it but they don’t
think about why things are the way they are, what things
are made up of. At the end of this conversation, they start
to talk about all these things about the candle that they
hadn’t ever thought about. I tell them that there is
a whole book written about the burning of the candle…
and they just can’t believe it.
Caryn Galatis
Thomas A. Edison High School, Virginia
Readings
Research, Discovery, and Education (2001) editorial in Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 78, No.4, pp:431
Goodisman, J., (2001) Observations on Lemon Cells Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 78, No.4, pp:516-519
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