Research-oriented chemistry teacher: Teaching and learning of chemistry concepts and phenomena (part IV): Historical approach on chemistry education

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.