Chemistry for Everyone

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 78 No. 7 July 2001 • Journal of Chemical Education 905

Overview

Many outreach programs for children and in-serviceactivities for elementary school teachers have been described inthis Journal. However, few articles have described completeundergraduate courses and programs that provide sciencecontent and science teaching methodology for future teachers(1–3). This article describes a chemistry course at EasternMichigan University designed for future elementary schoolteachers. More than 500 students per year are currentlyenrolled in our Chem 101 course.

Chem 101 is part of a package of four science coursesrequired of students in our elementary education program.Teaching methodology is integrated into each of the fourcourses; no additional science methods course is needed.Chem 101 is three semester credits and includes two hoursof lecture and a two-hour laboratory per week for a 15-weeksemester. The laboratory is moderately discovery based. The useof mathematics and quantitative aspects also is at a moderatelevel. Most experiments are written in the form of three orfour closely related activities, at least one of which is easilyadaptable to the elementary school classroom.

History and Development

In 1973, the science and science education requirementsfor future elementary school teachers at Eastern MichiganUniversity consisted of two science courses from differentdepartments and a separate science methods course. Themethods course often was taken as much as three years afterthe content courses and was not connected directly to thecontent of these courses. Moreover, the menu of sciencecourses consisted of introductory content courses usuallytaken by a variety of students to meet our basic studiesrequirement, and not at all designed to meet the needs ofthe future teacher. Most students took introductory biologyand earth science. Few selected chemistry or physics.

The source that guided the development of our originalChem 101 course more than any other source is PreserviceScience Education of Elementary School Teachers (4). Buriedin an appendix was an extensive list of specific objectivesrelated to the composition, characteristics, and structure ofmatter. It had been placed there to flesh out the more generalstatements and guidelines presented in the body of thatpublication. The material in that appendix was very germaneto my needs. I set out to design a laboratory course that woulddevelop competence in as many of these areas as was reason-

able. This was the basis for the first iteration of the labora-tory course, and is still the framework for our current course,both laboratory and lecture.

We soon approved the following science educationsequence for all future elementary school teachers: Physics 100,Chemistry 101, Earth Science 202, and Elementary Science303 (Biology). All were three-credit courses, and the newprogram required the same number of credits as the previousone. We broke with tradition in specifying this sequence, asit probably is the reverse of the order in which students wouldelect to take the courses. We believe the principles of physicsare the most basic of all the sciences and therefore should comefirst. Many of the physics principles lead naturally intochemistry. The language and some of the content of chemistrylead naturally into earth science, especially the chemical aspectsof that discipline.

The biology course is placed last for two reasons. First,biology is the most complex of all of the sciences because itdeals with living, interacting organisms. Second, the teacherswho had taught the previous elementary science methods coursewere from the Biology Department. They had many goodcontacts with area schools that we could continue to use.Biology would serve as our capstone course and would involvemore extensive teaching experiences in actual classrooms.Having the courses in a prescribed sequence also meant theinstructors could assume that students had some familiaritywith certain subject matter and laboratory procedures.

In another radical decision, we integrated the sciencecontent of each course with teaching methodology. Our stu-dents would not take a separate methods course later. We sawadvantages in being able to take time at the appropriatemoments in each course to devote attention to how to teachcertain topics. Keep in mind as you read this article that Chem101 is only one-fourth of the science education component.While the amount of methodology in any one course may notseem very extensive, we believe that the sum of it in the fourcourses is greater than that in one, separate, unconnectedmethods course that is taught at a much later date.

We currently use our own text and the laboratory manualin course-pack form for the chemistry class. The text is fairlytraditional in its coverage of major subjects. However, materialhas been carefully selected for the intended audience. We buildon themes with experiments to support them: the particulate(atomic) nature of matter, the kinetic nature of matter, andthe electrical nature of matter. Heavy emphasis is given tophysical properties and changes, chemical properties andchanges, and acid–base chemistry.

CHEM 101: Thirty Years of Experienceswith a Chemistry Course for ProspectiveElementary School Teachers WDonald B. PhillipsDepartment of Chemistry, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197; donald.phillips@emich.edu

Chemistry for Kidsedited by

John T. MooreStephen F. Austin State University

Nacogdoches, TX 75962

David TolarR. C Fisher School

Athens, TX 75751

Chemistry for Everyone

906 Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 78 No. 7 July 2001 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu

The course, unlike some designed for the non-sciencestudent, is moderately mathematical and quantitative. We donot reduce the difficulties that many students have withmathematics by avoiding mathematics. However, numbersin quantitative problems have been simplified. If studentsunderstand the concept, they should be able to do the arith-metic in their head. For instance, students do calculationsinvolving Avogadro’s constant, moles, and grams. We usesimple multiples or fractions of Avogadro’s constant, suchas 3.0 × 1023 or 6.0 × 1024. This approach is continuedthroughout the text for other quantitative applications.

We go out of the way to involve graphing in many ways.Students draw many graphs during their laboratory work andinterpret several more in the lecture portion of the course.They determine absolute zero by extrapolation of their owndata. Both Boyle’s and Charles’s laws also are derived fromgraphical and mathematical analysis of student data.

Students are introduced to competency-based learningand an alternative means of evaluating laboratory work whenthey have to demonstrate certain competencies and answerquestions asked orally by the instructor or laboratory assistant.Examples include reciting the names and colors for the modelsof the elements and using ball-and-stick models to differentiateamong atoms, molecules, compounds, and mixtures. Studentsalso must receive the instructor’s approval of setups, such asan electrolysis apparatus or distillation apparatus, before theyare allowed to continue their work. The course is also, to asignificant extent, discovery based.

The highlight of the laboratory is the development andteaching of an elementary-school chemistry lesson to a peergroup. The class is divided into groups of five and eachstudent in a group is given a different commercially availableteacher’s guide or student manual for a chemistry lesson.Presentations involve five different elementary chemistry lessons.After students teach their lessons to their peer group, we bringclasses of students, usually 4th or 5th graders, into our Chem101 labs and our students again teach their prepared lessonsone-on-one for a laboratory period.

Students get additional practice in teaching situationsin the program’s other science courses. This begins in thephysics course with the presentation of simple demonstrationsto peers and culminates in the biology course with extensiveteaching in an elementary school classroom. We believe thatit is essential for students to have multiple opportunities tomake presentations, even very early in their college career.Our sequence of four science courses, each integrated withmethodology, provides a gradual introduction to these teachingexperiences.

The original five lessons came from programs availableat the time the course was developed. We used two lessonsfrom the Elementary Science Study, Mystery Powders andBalloons and Gases, and one lesson from the ScienceCurriculum Improvement Study, Interaction and Systems (5–7 ). Two other sets of booklets were purchased originally forour student’s use: Chemical Change from the Experiences inScience program and Chemistry Workshop 2—UnderstandingMixtures (8, 9). Neither of these is currently in print, but wecontinue to use them because they give a good balance to ourset of five experiments in terms of activities, content, andintended age level. Their activities complement the rest of our

course and overlap minimally with our other experiments.(The emphasis of each lesson is described in the supplementalmaterial.W)

Originally, all five of the publications were available inbooklet form, a feature that at the start was important to uswhen we had to purchase large numbers of teacher’s guidesand student manuals. We selected these booklets over text-books not only because of the cost, but because we could findin them concentrated chemistry content in a form suitablefor use in Chem 101.

Although two of the booklets no longer are available,there are many other current sources from which one couldselect suitable material for a chemistry course for futureelementary school teachers. These include textbooks andlaboratory manuals designed for non-science majors (10).Other good sources of activities to supplement more tradi-tional texts and laboratory manuals include Fun with Chemistrymaterials from the Institute for Chemical Education (11),WonderScience magazine (12), and booklets from the GreatExplorations in Math and Science Series, GEMS (13). The ACSHome Page (http://www.acs.org) contains much relevantinformation under sub-addresses relating to curriculum,education, and resources.

The Chem 101 Faculty

Chem 101 faculty have consisted of tenured and tenure-track faculty as well as lecturers. We have also had retired orformer public school teachers teach some sections. Of theten teachers involved with teaching the course in the last twoyears, four were tenured or tenure-track faculty, four werelecturers, and two were lecturers who had been public schoolteachers.

As coordinator of the course, I supply all teachers withas much material and advice as I can give to these chemists-turned-chemical-educators. Probably the best advice I can giveis to encourage them to share with the students many of theirown teaching strategies. For instance, while performing ademonstration, take time to talk about the characteristics ofa good demonstration. Teachers describe how to make acommonly used solution, such as limewater, when it is be-ing used in an experiment. I provide models (ball-and-stickand gumdrop), games (a jigsaw puzzle game similar to thecommercially available Ion Fit CheMAG unit1) to teach formulawriting, and a board game using Froot Loops to modelelectrons when teaching how to write electron-dot formulas(17). Our own textbook and laboratory manual also greatlyassist chemistry faculty with teaching this course.

Evaluation

During the formative years of the elementary scienceprogram, we conducted exit interviews with a sample ofstudents. We also received reports from the supervisors ofstudent teachers when the students completed their studentteaching. Results were positive, showing a decided preferencefor the sequence of science courses over the original program oftwo science courses with a separate methods course. A typicaldescription of our students was that they were “ready, willing,and able to teach science.”

Chemistry for Everyone

JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 78 No. 7 July 2001 • Journal of Chemical Education 907

Student written evaluations currently evaluate the Chem101 course every semester. Faculty are also evaluated everyterm according to the union contract. Tenured and tenure-track faculty use a required written evaluation and periodicallyare evaluated by peers and the department head. Lecturersalso must use the written evaluation, and classroom visits areconducted by the department head.

Summary and Comments

An undergraduate chemistry course intended for futureelementary school teachers that contains integrated teachingmethodology and chemistry content has been developed. Itis part of a required sequence of four science courses: physics,chemistry, earth science, and biology. The program require-ment assures exposure to these four major sciences.

Our studies show that our students are ready, willing, andable to teach laboratory-oriented elementary school science.Perhaps the single best indicator of the success of our programis that the Elementary Science Group Minor is the mostpopular minor of students in the elementary educationcurriculum. Nearly half of our students elect this minor.

WSupplemental Material

A detailed description of the chapter content, experimentactivities, and the composition of the mini-lessons is availablein this issue through JCE Online.

Note

1. Available from CENCO, 3300 CENCO Parkway, FranklinPark, IL 60131, and from several other laboratory suppliers.

Literature Cited

1. Duerst, M. D. J. Chem. Educ. 1990, 67, 1031–1032.2. Jasien, P. G. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 48.3. Kelter, P. B.; Jacobitz, K.; Kean, E.; Hoesing, A. J. Chem. Educ.

1996, 73, 933–937.4. AAAS Commission on Science Education. Preservice Science

Education of Elementary School Teachers; Misc. Publ. 70-5;American Association for the Advancement of Science:Washington, DC, 1970.

5. Elementary Science Study. Mystery Powders; Delta Education:Hudson, NH, 1986.

6. Elementary Science Study. Balloons and Gases; Delta Education:Hudson, NH, 1985.

7. Science Curriculum Improvement Study. Interaction and Systems;Delta Education: Hudson, NH, 1988.

8. Tannenbaum, H. E.; Tannenbaum, B.; Stillman, N.; Stillman,M. Chemical Change; McGraw-Hill: St. Louis, 1967.

9. Rosen, S. Chemistry Workshop-2: Understanding Mixtures;Globe: New York, 1978.

10. Stanitski, C. L.; Eubanks, L. P.; Middlecamp, C. H.; Stratton, W. J.Chemistry in Context, 3rd ed.; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2000.

11. Fun with Chemistry, Vol. 1, 2nd ed., and Vol. 2; Institute forChemical Education: Madison, WI, 1995 and 1993.

12. WonderScience; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC,various dates.

13. Great Explorations in Math and Science (GEMS); Lawrence Hallof Science, University of California: Berkeley, CA, various dates.

14. Phillips, D. B. Sci. Scope 1994, 17, 30–31.15. Intermediate Science Curriculum Study. The Natural World/2;

Silver Burdett: Morristown, NJ, 1976.16. Phillips, D. B. Sci. Teach. 1976, 43, 26–27.17. Frentrup, J. F.; Phillips, D. B. Sci. Teach. 1996, 63, 36–38.18. Elementary Science Study. Gases and “Airs”; Delta Education:

Hudson, NH, 1987.