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Unit 8.5 Testing Products
In this unit students are asked to test several brands of
plastic wrap for strength. This problem-solving activity
applies concepts from chemical bonding in polymers.
Video program cues: 30:00 — 39:00
Training teachers for the new world
Teachers’ forum
"And if people want to become
chemistry teachers, they need to have the ability to take
something and break it down into a way of layering it, and
look at the simple essence of it, and building up from there.
Because just like you can’t have somebody run a kilometer
race if they are not trained, you've got them thinking in
different sorts of ways."
Irene Walsh
St. Andrews Episcopal School,
Maryland
"The hardest thing is, twenty years
ago, I was obviously trained in the traditional way, I don’t
have an educational degree, I have a chemical degree, it
has been really hard. The benefit I had was that I was working
with a group of colleagues who were all of bright mind and
had the same intent to go and find the everyday experience,
to go out and find the everyday connections to the real
world. To try to find the stuff to bring to the classroom
and relate it to kids, has been really, really hard because
there are no sources for a teacher to go to and find it,
and just use it."
Caryn Galatis
Thomas Edison High School, Virginia
Reading
Moore, J.W. Education versus Training (1998), 'Journal
of Chemical Education, Vol. 75, No. 2, p: 135.
Polymer strength laboratory
Al DeGennaro has his students experiment with properties
of polymers in the laboratory.
Activity
Link
- Click on "Educational Services" and on that
page, click on "Faces in Polymers" for a complete
unit
on polymers, including activities and history.
Reading
Kim, A.; Musfeldt, J.L. (1998) Understanding Chemical Structure/Physical
Property Relationships in Polymers through Molecular Modeling
and Thermal Analysis Techniques, 'Journal of Chemical
Education, Vol. 75, No. 7 pp: 893-897
| Proceed
to Unit 8.6 |
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