Chemistry Laboratory Equipment Drawing Software

I found an excellent program for designing laboratory materials and assemble the devices we use in her laboratory.

I hope you find it useful!!

Regards.

Here's the link: chemistry laboratory

Common Laboratory Equipment.

MAKING CHEMISTRY TEACHING RELEVANT

Although school chemistry programs set out to develop conceptual understanding in students and an appreciation of the way scientists do things, the relevance of the teaching in providing a useful education is suspect. The stress on conceptual understanding and the appreciation of the nature of science tends not to be relevant for functionality in our lives i.e. relevant to the home, the environment, future employment and most definitely for future changes and developments within the society.

Rather, the understanding tends to be geared to internal concepts within the subject itself. Concepts such as atomic structure, or chemical bonding are almost universally section headings in chemistry courses, yet in daily life, for example - improving the quality of the air for our health, is potentially a much more relevant starting point.

Attitudes towards the learning of chemistry are important and for this the need for interacting with issues in society by utilising the conceptual chemistry acquired is important but insufficient and there is a need to go further and incorporate the making of rational decisions geared to societal concerns. However, these are areas that are rarely considered in many chemistry courses.

The Meaning of Chemistry Education

But is chemistry education ‘chemistry through education’, or ‘education through chemistry’ ? It other words, does it need to be considered as a component of chemistry as a body of knowledge, or as a component of education?

The following table gives a comparison illustrating the differences in emphases between ‘chemistry through education’ and ‘education through chemistry’.

It is clear that the term ‘education through chemistry’ stresses education. And the medium through which this education takes place is the subject of chemistry.

A Shift of Emphasis

There is a need for a shift of emphasis tin the teaching of chemistry. The shift is from learning chemistry as a body of knowledge to promoting the educational skills to be acquired through the subject of chemistry. And as attempts to gain ‘education through chemistry’ simply by gaining knowledge are shown to be unsuccessful, the approach needs to shift from one bound by subject chapter headings, or sections to one which more closely relates to the issues and concern within society. Also, to ensure relevance of the conceptual learning within chemistry for social issues, there needs to be a shift from an introduction of the issue followed by the conceptual learning towards the interacting with the issue in a social context and then, as an important step, making use of the conceptual chemistry that is being learned to arrive at a socio-scientific decision.

Here is the link to read the complete article: link

Allotropes Of Carbon

Hello! Seeking information for my practice group, I found this interesting video on carbon allotropic varieties. This topic is what I am teaching right now.

For those who are a bit forgotten of chemistry that were in high school, I remind you that this topic is within organic chemistry.

Carbon allotropic varieties are the different ways in which carbon presents and who are in the same physical 

phase.

I think this simple video, is a very good tool to teach this topic!

Hope you like it and find it useful!

Here is the link where you can watch the video:Video

Hi everybody! Hope you're enjoying the last days of vacation!

I wish you a happy spring and we are seeing the next English class!

Regards

Changes in Water Chemistry Leave Lake Critters Defenseless

Why do plankton matter? York biology Professor Norman Yan, the study's senior author, says these tiny creatures are critical to our survival. "Without plankton, humans would be quite hungry and perhaps even dead. Much of the world's photosynthesis, the basis of all of our food, comes from the ocean's plankton. The oxygen in every other breath we take is a product of phytoplankton photosynthesis," says Yan.

Yan together with the study's lead author Howard Riessen, a professor of biology at SUNY College at Buffalo, studied the effect of changes in water chemistry on plankton prey defenses. Specifically, they examined how lower calcium concentrations affect Daphnia (water flea) exoskeleton development. These low calcium levels are caused by loss of calcium from forest soils, a consequence of decades of acid rain and multiple cycles of logging and forest growth. The results are published this week in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"At low calcium levels the organisms grow slower and cannot build their armour," says Riessen. "Without suitable armour, they are vulnerable to ambush by predators," he says.

"Calcium is a critical element for Daphnia and many other crustaceans," Riessen says. "Daphnia build their exoskeletons, which include some defensive spines, with calcium to protect themselves from predators. Where calcium levels are low, the Daphnia have softer, smaller, exoskeletons with fewer defensive spines, making them an easy snack."

This phenomenon of reduced calcium is also playing out on a much larger scale in the world's oceans, notes Yan. "Increases in ocean acidity are complicating calcium acquisition by marine life, which is an under-reported effect of global carbon dioxide emissions. Thus marine plankton may also find themselves more vulnerable to predators," he says.

The public is used to stories about changes in water chemistry that lead to large-scale fish kills, says Riessen. "These changes are more insidious. Daphnia might not be a household name, but they are food for fish, and they help keep our lakes clean. Changing the balance between Daphnia and their predators marks a major change in lake systems."

Source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120906141852.htm

Paulo Freire.

Paulo Freire was born in 1921 in Recife, Brazil. In 1947 he began work with adult illiterates in North-East Brazil and gradually evolved a method of work with which the word conscientization has been associated.

Until 1964 he was Professor of History and Philosophy of Education in the University of Recife and in the 1960s he was involved with a popular education movement to deal with massive illiteracy. From 1962 there were widespread experiments with his method and the movement was extended under the patronage of the federal government. In 1963-4 there were courses for co-ordinators in all Brazilian states and a plan was drawn up for the establishment of 2000 cultural circles to reach 2,000,000 illiterates!

Freire was imprisoned following the 1964 coup d’etat for what the new regime considered to be subversive elements in his teaching. He next appeared in exile in Chile where his method was used and the UN School of Political Sciences held seminars on his work. In 1969-70 he was Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Development and Social Change at Harvard University.

He then went to the World Council of Churches in Geneva where, in 1970, he took up a post as special consultant in the Office of Education. Over the next nine years in that post he advised on education reform and initiated popular education activities with a range of groups.

Paulo Freire was able to return to Brazil by 1979. Freire joined the Workers’ Party in Sao Paulo and headed up its adult literacy project for six years. When the party took control of Sao Paulo municipality following elections in 1988, Paulo Freire was appointed as Sao Paulo’s Secretary of Education.

Freire died in 1997

Interesting contribution!

Performing a search to make a good contribution from my blog, I found an interesting page where you can find links to other pages in which there is great deal of information. We can find in teaching strategies, opinions, information materials and very many more on the teaching of science!

I hope it is useful and serve them in their work as teachers.

Here is the link!

Teaching Methods

¿What is a Higgs Boson?

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced this week thanks to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator in the world, achieved a breakthrough that will not only be key to understanding the structure of matter, it opens a window that can revolutionize our understanding of the universe.

Why this particle is known as the Higgs?

Because the British physicist Peter Higgs of the University of Edinburgh, who was conceived theoretically in 1964. Over time, the Higgs theory was strong, and the search for this particle became part of the main goals of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. To show that Higgs was right it took nearly 50 years, the work of thousands of scientists around the world and the construction of this gigantic collider, the largest scientific experiment in human civilization (it cost $ 10 billion).

What properties are what make it so important to the Higgs boson?

The importance of the Higgs' boson ", which is big and heavy, thousands of times more than an electron, for example, is that it is a kind of 'magical creature', capable of conferring mass to all others, as interacts with them. The Higgs boson produces a field around it, that affects everything that gets in the way.

What if there is no 'magic particle'?

Everything in the universe, including us, would float freely around like ghosts, unable combinarnos with other particles. That is, without this particle, matter, as we know it would not exist.

What's with the 'boson'?

Is the name given to the class of subatomic particles that carry with them a force field. Since the force of gravity (the particle, the graviton, has not been found) or electromagnetism, among others.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

This week I was reading about the different types of intelligences. The article I read is called "What Do We Know About multiple intelligences?, Is very interesant and gives an overview on the subject.
I think the basis of this discovery we can make our classes more interesting for studentsand simultaneously achieve greater results.
But they also carry out teaching in this way would take us much longer.