International Conference of Chemical Education - ROME - July 2012

1. Alfredo Tifi
ITT Divini, San Severino Marche (MC)
a.tifi@divini.org
ICCE – ECRICE - ROME July19° 2012

2. So, it is one better than
two?
Less lab time has stimulated reflections:
1. What the laboratory is for? Beyond fun
2. Talk & Reflect more on past experiments
vs claiming for "next episodes"
3. Relevance for the syllabus
4. Adapting the syllabus to lab concreteness
5. More emphasis on evidences from
everyday life plus class demonstrations

3. 1/6 adaptable IBSE principles
Any important chemical concept should be
referable to experimental evidence
Atoms emitting light
Atoms having nuclei http://rcl.physik.uni-kl.de/
Ions having charges

4. 2/6 adaptable IBSE principles
few meaningful experiments acting as
milestones in the syllabus, e.g.:
combustion of magnesium
flame test
distillation of Coca Cola
diffusion of potassium permanganate
reaction Zinc plus Iodine
...

5. 3/6 adaptable IBSE principles
Language first: talk in advance about
instruments, tasks, prepare the imaginery
preview certain phenomena
use background dictionary
elicit focus questions, investigations
ask to plan the experiment
compare different plannings
…

6. 4/6 adaptable IBSE principles
Prepare everything in advance: your
students have 30 minutes to do the
experiment.
So they can't waste time to make the queue
at the balance to weigh, to search for
materials, to prepare solutions or to
accomplish lengthy filtering or
evaporation tasks.

7. 5/6 adaptable IBSE principles
Things to scaffold:
• reporting,
• discussing
• testing
the experiment and related contents through
in-school and out-of-school web2
environment permit extended interactions,
as in Google Apps www.divini.net/chimica/

8. 6/6 adaptable IBSE principles
Continue to scaffold and practice the use of
concepts, repeating simulated experiments
and descriptions and reviewing past
experiments,
Accepting that the students won't master
those concepts, won't be autonomous
problem-solver.

9. An example of IBSE syllabus Diary
at: https://sites.google.com/a/divini.org/classe-1e-chimica/home/attivita
ACTIVITY CONCEPTS
1. Sep. 21. Evaporating Investigation
DI-water & tap water
Volume units,
2. Oct.5-26. Measuring absolute/relative
mass & volume error, sig. figs.
density, atoms
distributions in solids,
liquids and gases
3. Nov. 5-7 Mixing subs
Property, chem/phys
transfs. Substance

10. 4. Nov. 25, 28 Mg Chemical combination,
combustion elementary and
compound
substances
5. Dec. 5 Zinc + Iodine
Atomic weight ratio,
composition ratio,
formula.
6. Dec. 19 Decompos.
Decomposition,
of Zinc iodide
element vs elemental
substance.
7. Dec. 19-Jan. 26
forming/separating
identity of a substance
mix. Cu/CuSO4
homo/heterog.

11. 8. Jan. 23-30 Solubility Solubility, saturated
of salts in water/NaCl solution, causes of
30% different solubilities
9. Feb. 27 Diffusion Molecular motion
(KMnO4, HCl-NH3) Temperature
brownian motion,
Dynamic models of
soccer ball pressure,
solution formation
T-shirt air drying.
and evaporation.
Chemical reaction as
molecule collisions

12. 10. Mar 2 - 9. Weigh the more on pressure,
pressure of air with a other insights on kinetic
syringe, Boyle law model (qualitative)
with syringe plus
body balance,
hampered straw
sucking
investigating real atoms
11. Mar 12-19. plus challenging models
Rutherford
experiment
rcl.physik.uni-kl.de/

13. 12. Mar. 26. Light from Electromagnetic wawes
atoms (light from wawelenght & frequency
gases H, He &
Planck equation:
emission spectra)
frequency/energy
relation, photons.
13. Apr. 2, 4. Flame test Symbols & formulas
as problem solving:
spectral lines and likeness
which element atoms
of electronic structures of
are responsible for
same elements.
the observed
colours? Bohr model, levels &
electronic transitions

14. 14. Apr. 16. Game: Bohr model, levels &
"How the atom electronic transitions
works" Planck equation:
http://www.mhhe.com/physsci/ast
ronomy/applets/Bohr/frame.html wavelenght/frequency/
energy,photons, spectra.
Nucleons, Isotopes, Z, N, A,
noble gas element, octet,
charged atoms (ions) +
15. Apr. 18, 20, 23; May ionisation energy,
2, 4. Game: "Build an dimension, core/valence
Atom" shell model, periodic
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation
/build-an-atom trend, atomic weight

15. 16. May 7. Investigate: PTE Group-family
a) "recognize alkali equal number of different
metal atoms“ atoms
b) "calculate masses of Ions, ionic solid,
LiCl, NaCl, KCl".
ion volume or radius
chemical reaction
17. May 14,
equation.
Investigate:
"Differences in Li, Na Core effective charge,
reacting in water" valence electrons, atomic
radius, Ionisation
energy.

16. 18. May 21. Investigate: PTE Group-family
"Halogen tug of war" oxidation-reduction
electron-affinity
chemical reaction equation.
Octet
Core effective charge,
valence electrons, atomic
radius. Electron config.
Periodic trends.
Formula weight, relative
19. May 25. Atom
atomic weight ratios;
mass/number
calculations balancing ionic compound
formulas.

17. 20. May 28 - June 7. Periodic Table: metals,
Demos: oxidations of nonmetals, semimetals.
elemental electron configurations,
substances (Ca, Mg,
ions; ionic bond, covalent
Fe, Cu, C, S) in
bond, metal bond;
water, HCl, air.
formulas of ionic
compounds, Lewis
End of Year notation; covalent
... molecules and
formulas; octet rule;
redox reactions.
To be contd. in 2012-13
All that was less than any
textbook proposes.

18. Thank you very much
for your attention
Alfredo Tifi
Website to access the diaries
www.divini.net/chimica
Email address
a.tifi@divini.org