Introduction
Sustainability is defined by the EPA as "the policies and strategies that meet society's present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1). President Obama has addressed sustainability, noting that in the next 100 years, Energy, Clean Drinking Water, and Food Production are going to be critical priorities for the success of our nation. The president further noted that to improve the quality of life for all Americans, we need to renew our commitment to science, technology, and innovation (2). With this in mind, the question for us as educators becomes, 'how can we create future critical thinkers and problem solvers that will understand the necessity of sustainability and yet still be prepared to tackle the upcoming energy and water crises of our planet?'
Teachers agree that there should be more hands-on activities. However, in a recent staff development of Science teachers, I conducted a survey and was shocked to find that only 14% of the teachers surveyed conducted any laboratory experiments (labs) or demonstrations (demos) in their classrooms. Surprisingly, the reason most often cited for this was not the lack of equipment. Rather, most teachers surveyed felt that students did not have enough of "the lab basics", were not emotionally ready, or were not "mature enough" to participate in labs. Teachers usually justified their statements with an addendum that expressed that, because of these deficiencies in skills, students would not be able to "get anything out of the lab anyway". I thought about what an unfortunate predicament this was for our students. Because students did not have any experience in labs, they would not be allowed to participate in labs. The second reason for not conducting labs or demos was that the labs were "too complicated to setup and breakdown". Upon further questioning, I determined that teachers looked at the issue from this perspective: if one lab or demo was performed per week, then there would be 38 labs or demos to prep for and clean up after. Further, the space requirement and organization of chemicals and equipment could become daunting. The third reason cited for not conducting labs and demos was that the labs held no relevance to the students and did not help to further their transference of learning (and scoring) on state exams. Transference of learning is a major issue in urban school environments, since our students do not necessarily have the same opportunities to explore and experience the world as other students in neighboring rural districts. Also, teachers felt that labs were "not useful because following directions and going through a lab [did not] help students understand the science or how to answer the question right on the [state end of course test]". This viewpoint seemed inherently illogical to me, as the whole purpose of hands on experimentation is to learn how to transfer information from one context to another. Transference is essential since our students are entering a global society in which original content stays the same but the framework that distributes that content is ever evolving. My unit will address these three issues to overcome the 'roadblocks' that are dissuading/preventing teachers from implementing labs and demos in the classroom.
This unit is designed for High School Chemistry students, which usually includes 10 th, 11 th, and 12 th graders. It is designed to extrapolate an entire year's worth of engaging, hands-on activities from the three foundational experiments in this unit, with the students becoming 'master high school chemists' by year's end. By using the repetition of materials and procedures from experiments, there will be an added benefit to the teacher of minimal preparation time, as well as minimal cleanup time, since the students will gradually take on more responsibility for this part of the process. By focusing on everyday life products such as diesel, soap, gasoline, and clean water that are all created from 'everyday items', students will be able to relate the value of Chemistry in 'Everyday Things'.
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