Fall 1998 CONFCHEM Switching Students on to Science

....but how do we teach chemistry to non-chemists?
Geoff Potter
Faculty of Applied Sciences
University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK
tel: +44(0) 117 965 6261 ext 2983
fax: +44(0) 117 976 3871
Geoff.Potter@uwe.ac.uk

Summary:
Chemistry as one particular science - Chemistry is a wide ranging science and has to be taught to many students who will not become chemists. Many of these students will have already lost interest in chemistry. The traditional approach to chemistry teaching is generally ineffective for these students. I suspect that other sciences can make similar statements. My experience is in post-school chemistry education but I believe the problems and posssible solutions are the same whatever the age of the student.

‘Hard’ and ‘soft’ sciences - I suggest that the onset of loss of interest may begin when the teaching introduces concepts (= ‘hard’) which are mainly abstract rather than descriptions (= ‘soft’). But traditional chemistry (and science?) teaching, particularly at tertiary level, starts with concepts and abstractions and so is not suitable for non-chemistry students (and non-scientists?).

Do fundamentals obscure understanding? - I believe they do for non-chemists (and non-scientists), especially when elaborate descriptions are built on them.

An alternative teaching approach - I believe the approach for these students must be to start from topics in their experience and work down into the chemistry (science) showing the chemist’s (scientist’s) approach and the relevance of the chemistry (science). We won’t produce Chemists (or Scientists) but we will have given them a better understanding.

Evaluation and further exploration - I welcome this opportunity to discuss and develop these ideas.