Abstract
Historical approach is one way of supporting the learning of concepts and phenomena of chemistry, and nature of chemistry. In this article, project works dealing with the topics to chemistry (organic reactions and synthesis, acid and alkali oxides, mass and mole, Le Châtelier’s principle, atom models, electrochemistry, gas laws, and periodic table of elements) by the students of Central Topics of Chemistry Teaching II course are being presented. First, based on research literature, a summary on how history is used to teach each topic is presented in English or in Finnish, with the results of a case study regarding each topic. In most of the presented studies, it was noted that using historical approach increased the interest towards the subject. All designed materials and lesson plans can be found online: www.luma.fi/materiaalit. They can easily be implemented in chemistry teaching on different levels of education.
Highlights
This article describes an investigation carried out to test and develop the historical teaching method in chemistry using organic reactions and synthesis, in particular the Fischer–Speier esterification reaction
As part of the study, a lesson was designed for an International Baccalaureate (IB) class
The epistemological motivations were to teach the process of scientific knowledge development, science as a community endeavour as well as the scientific approach to synthesis
Summary
This article describes an investigation carried out to test and develop the historical teaching method in chemistry using organic reactions and synthesis, in particular the Fischer–Speier esterification reaction. A lesson plan and a Prezi presentation were devised, introducing the students to the methods of organic synthesis via esterification. This content was contextualised within a historic perspective. The second part of the study involved a multiple-choice questionnaire based on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) using a Likert scale with seven options as well as two open-ended short-answer questions. These were used to examine student motivation as defined by self-determination theory and perceptions about how scientists work as well as the value of history in scientific development
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