case studies in chemistry reading 34, page 499. case studies in chemistry chemistry has many...
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Case Studies in Chemistry
Reading 34, page 499
Case Studies in Chemistry
Chemistry has many teaching styles:
- traditional lecture style
- problem based learning
- guided inquiry learning
- team / group learning
Case studies: - widely used in business, law, medicine and engineering
- now being developed for use in teaching science
- developed by Canisus College, Buffalo, New York
- brings CSI into the classrooms
Case Studies in Chemistry
Why use case studies:
- claims to make laboratory more interesting, challenging,
and relevant to students
- teach course content in an interesting manner
- demonstrate the real world significance of content
Case Studies in Chemistry
Example given: - based on an actual case of murder in London
- dark skinned body is found in a river with no head or limbs
- pollen found in the stomach indicate an recent arrival
from overseas
- other evidence suggests the boy is from Nigeria
- analysed strontium level in bones
- compared strontium levels in bones with levels in soil from
different regions of Nigeria to get the region of origin
Case Studies in Chemistry
Class work: - students are given data on strontium levels in bones and
soil from different regions of Nigeria
- advanced students were given doctored samples for their
own testing (not likely in NZ schools)
- had to do statistical analysis on the information
- write a report on methods used and results obtained
Case Studies in Chemistry
Are case studies effective? - two person teams most effective (equal participation)
- requires students to think about the data given to them
- decide which data points will be used
- draw conclusions from their data
- practice writing reports (real world skills)
- cross-subject projects
Case Studies in Chemistry
Where to from here? - web site (reference 6) has numerous case studies
- all cases have teaching notes and forms to help teaching
- many case studies are based on actual events
- most seemed to be aimed at university students
- wide range of subjects and topics
- ethical questions often involved, but researching the topics
exposes students to chemical processes or knowledge
- chemistry examples
ethanol from corn or biodiesel from soybeans
energy drinks – best value for money
Case Studies in Chemistry
Where to from here? - web site encourages you to modify the cases to local
conditions
- case studies in other subjects,
e.g. biology, physics, food science, astronomy, weather
- also links to numerous other web sites
- good base to use when thinking about what or how to
design a case study.
- possible examples -
- what would be the effect of urea in milk instead of melamine?
- how does the Reginal Council balance water supply and demand in a local river?
Case Studies in Chemistry
Possible difficulties: - little practical work (science fair projects?)
- mainly exercises in manipulating raw data, debating
issues, report writing
- probably not suitable for lower level classes due to
multi-disciplinary nature of cases
- time consuming – curricilum constraints (extension work?)
- probably few N Z related resources