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It wasn’t the first time one of my laboratory assignments had an unexpected outcome, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. I’d selected an inquiry-based experiment. Students designed a procedure to determine the moisture content of several samples of popcorn and decided which sample was “best”. They then reported their results and recommendation to a fictitious company that had “requested” the testing. I reviewed each group’s proposed procedure before actual testing; they all involved multiple steps. Except one procedure. One would simply use a piece of equipment that a student already had at home and had used quite frequently—a moisture tester for popcorn. In the rural community where the school was located, one of the students grew and sold popcorn as a sideline. He already knew the most desirable moisture content for popcorn, the exact piece of equipment to measure it, and how it worked. He helped me make a connection between the science concepts I was teaching and the agricultural knowledge he had already. The teacher became the student that day. Learning is about building connections between old knowledge and new concepts.
National Chemistry Week (NCW) 2006 also has building connections at its heart—literally. The American Chemical Society theme is “Your Home—It’s All Built on Chemistry”, and focuses on how building and construction connect to chemistry.
Patti Mason, author of this month’s JCE Classroom Activity “Chemistry of Cement” emailed me about her experience with sharing the Activity (1). In her classroom, she and her students were surprised to find that a concrete sample containing table sugar was the hardest sample. She mentioned this during a workshop she was leading for agricultural science teachers. One of the participants wasn’t the least bit surprised over the result. With his experience, he already knew of sugar-containing solutions used as retarders when constructing holding pens for livestock. Another “connection moment”. Mary Anne White’s article “Concrete” contains further information about this topic. Don’t miss the photograph on page 1427, which shows a church constructed in Rome that utilizes self-cleaning concrete.
The Chemical Education Today section of this issue is packed with additional resources for this year’s NCW. Droske and Carraher describe natural and synthetic polymers used in home construction, including different types of wood, plastics, and glass. Harris offers an extensive PowerPoint presentation, “Chemical Bonding Makes a Difference!”, which could serve as an accompaniment to the information shared by Droske and Carraher. The presentation includes a comparison of the bonding in cellulose, a main component of wood, and starch, as well as plastics commonly used in construction. Students can also perform a simple activity to compare the physical properties of two such plastics. The presentation is available in this issue of JCE Online.
Atwood turns to some of the health issues that can be associated with a home’s construction. He states that public awareness of radon has waned over the past decade or so, but it still remains a definite concern. His article discusses radon and how it can become a danger in the home, along with methods for detection and remediation.
I found Aerts and True’s article an intriguing description of their experience in remodeling their home for increased energy savings. Maybe too intriguing—it’s giving me lots of ideas to possibly use in my family’s newly-purchased home. Perhaps solar panels are in our home’s future…
These articles and much more in this issue stand ready as a foundation for your NCW 2006 celebration. Help your students make the connections between the homes and buildings around them and the chemistry in your classroom. Start building!
NCW: Past, Present, and Future
Beginning in 2000, each October (and sometimes November) JCE issue highlights a NCW theme. The resources in these issues are great collections for later use in the classroom, long after NCW has passed. To that end, JCE has collected last year’s “The Joy of Toys” items with other materials, such as video from Chemistry Comes Alive!, to create our first Classroom Resource Compilation CD (2). The plan is to offer this year’s building theme as the next Classroom Resource Compilation, and work through past themes as we have the opportunity. We’re also brainstorming for the 2007 theme “The Many Faces of Chemistry”. A tentative idea is to publish several short vignettes written by people in varied careers about how chemistry relates to their job. Do you have someone to suggest as a possible author? (Maybe yourself!) Please share your ideas with me at jacobsen@chem.wisc.edu.
Literature Cited
- Personal communication, June 14, 2006.
- Holmes, J. L. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1104.
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