Syllabus: CHM 594: Modeling Instruction in High School Chemistry II

Summer 2009 at Arizona State University

Prerequisites: In-service teacher of chemistry or physics, or instructor approval.
CHM 594 or instructor approval.

Course objectives and content: In the first chemistry workshop, you were introduced to principles of modeling instruction in general, then learned how organizing a chemistry course around a series of particle models of increasing complexity could make the experience more coherent to students. You were given tested instructional materials for the eight units that we consider the core of a high school chemistry course, and you worked through the activities alternately in the roles of student or teacher. You practiced Socratic questioning techniques necessary to promote meaningful classroom discourse.

In the second workshop, you will be given the opportunity to debrief your efforts to implement a modeling approach in your chemistry classes; you will then explore draft materials for units that address the following topics/concepts:

Unit 9 – Models of the atom
After a reprise of the models used thus far, we explore evidence for and features of the Rutherford and Bohr models of the atom.

Unit 10 – Periodic Table and bonding
Using what we’ve learned about the Periodic Table, we develop a model that accounts for covalent bonding that does not require electron configurations and orbital diagrams.

Unit 11a – Energy & temperature
We know that when chemical energy of the system changes, the thermal energy also changes, eventually resulting in a transfer of energy between the system and the surroundings. We adopt a "kinetic" view of temperature to account for the direction of energy flow.

Unit 11b – Entropy: the probable direction of change
We adopt a "probability" view to account for the direction of processes involving both structural and thermal change; this approach puts the “dynamics” back into thermodynamics.

Unit 12 – Equilibrium
We use the “kinetic” model developed in Unit 11a to model a variety of processes as they approach and reach the state of equilibrium.

Because these concepts are ones with which teachers have less direct experience, as much emphasis will be placed on deep discussion of this chemistry content as on pedagogy.