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Information literacy is increasingly acknowledged as a contextual and social practice in teaching and research and can be beneficial to further our understanding of laboratory learning. However, there is a need for in-depth insight into the lived information practice in chemistry to develop contextualized information literacy instruction. This work explores the negotiation of information between beginners and experienced members of the chemistry community in a problem-based beginner laboratory. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study following the documentary method by audio-recording the students’ first lab session on-site. The reconstruction of the students’ information practice shows how beginners learn about group-specific knowledge through participation. The results highlight the importance of corporeal information to give meaning to textual and social information in the chemistry laboratory. Exemplified by the concept of acidification, our findings show how social and textual information alone is insufficient for beginner students’ understanding of tacit information. Physical experience and social guidance are necessary to develop shared conceptions between people in the chemistry laboratory practice. Beginner laboratory instruction could benefit from this work’s results by teaching beginners about the corporeal, social, and textual information modalities and showing how they connect in practice.

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A cognitive and a guidance dimension can describe the support of students' conceptual understanding in inquiry-based science education. The role of guidance for student learning has been intensively discussed. Furthermore, inquiry learning may pose particular challenges to students with low language proficiency. The present intervention in primary school (54 teachers, 1,070 students) aimed to examine the effects of additional guidance. Therefore, the control group uses a science unit mainly addressing the cognitive dimension of inquiry. In the 3 treatment groups, this unit was enriched with guidance through scaffolding instructional discourse, formative assessment, or peer-assisted learning. The results (43 teachers, 873 students) confirm that in each intervention condition, students' conceptual understanding significantly improves. In the formative assessment group, students' mean conceptual understanding is higher than in the control group. Moreover, formative assessment and scaffolding instructional discourse provided particular support to the conceptual understanding of students with poor language proficiency.

Copyright of Chemkon - Chemie Konkret is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Chemkon - Chemie Konkret is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In experimental courses, the experiment of the oscillating deflagration of a methanol‐air mixture on a copper or platinum wire often introduces heterogeneous catalysis. Various authors have developed this experiment for about 30 years. However, regardless to its toxic effects the use of methanol in this experiment poses some hazards, e.g. the formation of formic aldehyde during the reaction. Due to the hazard classification of methanol and formic aldehyde, the realization of this experiment in chemistry classes should be considered as critical. This post now presents a new school experiment on the oscillatory reaction of alkanes with atmospheric oxygen by resorting to historical context‐knowledge on the heterogeneous catalytic effects of platinum. The use of household petroleum ether also allows students to do the experiment from the 4th grade onwards and simplifies the handling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From medical technology like plastic syringes, cannulas and ampoules to blister packs or tea light cups – experimental instructions using low‐cost equipment are supposed to be a solution for cost‐ and time‐efficient, environmentally friendly as well as motivating lab work even with high numbers of students. However, there are no empirical studies in science education that evaluate the use of such equipment with regard to these aspects. Therefore, a study is presented with N=89 secondary school students who have carried out a low‐cost distillation and were questioned afterwards about their practical experiences and their perception towards the equipment. The results of the qualitative survey are presented in a category system, which will then be used to derive practical implications for the general application of low‐cost equipment in science teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Chemkon - Chemie Konkret is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The SuFiS project (studying and researching in the school laboratory) enables the integration of theory and practice in the training of teaching students as part of a teaching‐learning arrangement. This project offers students direct exchange with teachers and close cooperation with their student groups. During the first part students develop teaching materials with the support of the supervisors. In the second part the students present and explain their material to teachers in the setting of a teacher training with the possibility to discuss and reflect the practical aspects of their material with the participants. The third part takes place in the school laboratory, where they test the student material with student classes. This gives them a broad insight into their later professional lives. The SuFiS project offers students first‐hand experience in planning, carrying out and reflecting on learning situations with school classes. It combines didactic theory, its translation into practice, the observation of learning situations and the reflection on learning processes. Since theory and practice are equally present in this course, prospective teachers are better prepared for school practice and the second training phase of the teacher training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral mural paintings can be traced back to the earliest human history. The composition of the colours and their application on a suitable surface have been continuously developed. Silicate paints are a significant development from recent times. In this article the basic principles of the chemistry of silicate paints and simple experiments for integration into a cross‐disciplinary chemistry class are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translation abstract Silicones always find new applications as advanced materials and are 'crossover artist' between the inorganic and organic chemistry. As components of everyday products, they are becoming more frequent in the consciousness of the consumer. For example, in joint sealants and bakeware they are the obvious main ingredient, but in cosmetics not recognizable at first glance. In this paper five simple experiments for the analysis of model systems of cosmetic products are introduce, which discuss structure-property-relationships on a phenomenological level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: heterogeneous catalysis; oscillatory reaction; historical context-knowledge; substitution; Heterogene Katalyse; Oszillierende Reaktion; Historischer Erkenntnisstand; Substitution EN heterogeneous catalysis oscillatory reaction historical context-knowledge substitution DE Heterogene Katalyse Oszillierende Reaktion Historischer Erkenntnisstand Substitution 659 659 1 10/19/22 20221001 NES 221001 B Das Titelbild b zeigt den Moment der Verpuffung während der Verbrennung von n-Pentan am Platindraht als Katalysator. Dieser und weitere Versuche werden in der Rubrik "Das Experiment" vorgestellt. Heterogeneous catalysis, oscillatory reaction, historical context-knowledge, substitution. [Extracted from the article]