NSS Chemistry Learning

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NSS ChemistryLearning Teaching Strategies

• Active Reading and Writing Tasks

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Objectives of the Workshops

1. To promote the use of active reading and writing
   tasks in the learning and teaching of chemistry
2. To share experiences in conducting reading and
   writing tasks in the chemistry lessons
3. To discuss on how to develop activities from
   different resource materials
4. To discuss on how to assess students' reading and
   writing tasks

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1. Why promoting reading and writing in
chemistry?

• IMPORTANT?

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Reading and Writing 1

• Suggested Learning and Teaching Activities in
  NSS
• Topic II Reading articles or writing essays on
  the applications of materials such as graphite
  and aluminium in relation to their structures.
• Topic V Searching for information or reading
  articles about the discovery of polyethene and
  the development of addition polymers.
• Topic VI Reading articles on how Valence Shell
  Electron Pair Repulsion (VSEPR) theory can be
  used to predict the shapes of molecules.

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Reading and Writing 2

• Where in the curriculum?
• Topic VII
• Introduction Through searching for information
  and critically reading materials about
  electrochemical technology, students should
  appreciate the contribution of chemical knowledge
  to technological innovations, which in turn
  improve our quality of life
• Reading articles about the industrial processes
  involved in the production of aluminium from
  aluminium ore.
• Reading articles about new developments in fuel
  cell technology and lithium cells.

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Students do not like reading?

• Students problems?
• Lack of interest
• Lack of skills
• Textbooks problems?
• Not fun / Not attractive
• Hard to read
• Lots of digressions
• Lots of irrelevant information

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Some opinions

• Reading for information and enjoyment
• Promotion of science learning alongside the
  development of language ability
• Copying notes from the board or from worksheets
  does little to encourage language skills (OFSTED,
  1995, par. 26)
• Dominance of doing over reading and thinking?
  (Turner Dimarco)

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Nature of Science

• More than practical skills
• More than information processing skills
• Chemists do need reading and writing skills

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Nature of Science??????

• Doing science
• ??????
• Organizing scientific information
• ??????
• Explaining events scientifically
• ???????
• Challenging science
• ??????
• Veel, 1997

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Some Learning Targets of NSS Chemistry Curricula

• Practical skills
• Information handling skills
• Communication skills oral, reading and writing
• Do we have good support from language subjects?
• Can students transfer their skills learnt in
  language subjects to chemistry?

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Themes for Reading

• Curriculum bound?
• Curriculum linked?
• For enhancing scientific literacy values and
  attitudes, STSE connection
• For enhancing interest in chemistry

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Helping students to read

• How to distinguish
• trivial details from important generalizations?
• interesting information from important
  information?
• How to facilitate students have not master the
  reading skills to read?

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Student 1

• I read through a section quickly. I try to
  figure out why it was put there and then Ill go
  back and underline as few words as possible.

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Student 2

• I underlined with the highlighters. I used two
  colors. I wanted to give one color more
  importance than the other. It would mean more to
  me later.

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1. ?? ??????????
2. ?? ?????????
3. ?? ????????????????
4. ????? ??????????

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Resources for Reading and Writing
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Chem4Kids
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Science News for Kids
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Science Magazine

• Catalyst http//www.philipallan.co.uk
• Chemistry Review
• ChemMatters
• Chem 13 News, U of Waterloo, Canadahttp//sciborg
  .uwaterloo.ca/chem13news/index.html
• Education in Chemistry

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AL Chemistry Exam Papers
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• ???????????????? 
• http//www.cmi.hku.hk/index.htm

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• ?SIR????
• URL http//i.am/chemsir
• ? 1????????????
• ? 2?????????
• ???????

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Reference Book Wellington and Osborne.
(2001). Language and Literacy in Science
Education. Buckingham Phildelphia, Pa. Open
University Press.
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Reading and writing tasks as NSS Chemistry SBA
tasks?
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Examples of SBA Tasks

1. critical reading, analysis and reporting on the
   contribution of chemistry to the understanding of
   the material world
2. designing a poster or pamphlet aimed at
   persuading people to follow the principles of
   green chemistry
3. writing a report to present the scientific
   knowledge and concepts acquired after a visit to
   an industrial plant, and
4. developing a multimedia artefact to illustrate
   the synthesis of polymers.

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Thank You!