Naslov
Teaching chemical thermodynamics: with or without mathematics?

Autori
Bruckler, Franka Miriam ; Stilinović, Vladimir ; Bilać, Željka

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
Research in the Didactics of Sciences Monograph / - Krakov, 2010, 66-70

Skup
4th International Conference on Research in Didactics of the Sciences

Mjesto i datum
Kraków, Poljska, 07.07.2010. - 09.07.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
teaching chemical thermodynamics ; mathematical models ; interdisciplinary teaching

Sažetak
Chemical thermodynamics is one of the subjects in chemistry that are at the same time fundamental to understanding of chemical processes and (not only) mathematically quite complex. Depending on the school level, one can choose between various approaches for teaching chemical thermodynamics, from purely intuitive to the mathematically formal. Chemistry students learn about chemical thermodynamics in corresponding courses in physical chemistry, usually after they have completed the prescribed mathematics courses. Thus, they should be able to relate the mathematical concepts to the physicochemical phenomena. Many chemists feel that the mathematically formal approach is directly opposed to the more phenomenological, and complain that by using the mathematical formalism one looses the understanding of the processes. The „other side“ often uses the argument that the intuitive, phenomenological, approach is not exact. Depending on the teacher's preferences and the prescribed curricula, students usually learn to deal with chemical thermodynamics either predominantly with or without much mathematical formalism, and even if the classes offer both approaches at the same time, they mostly exist as two parallel approaches: there is a definite lack of connections and understandable interrelations between the two versions of describing thermodynamic concepts, even in literature. An additional problem is that many students forget, or even never learn, how to mathematically model real-life phenomena by the mathematical techniques they learn in the corresponding mathematics courses. We demonstrate that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive, but go hand in hand, and that neither one can be self-sufficient. At university level, there is no need to exclude the mathematical approach, since the students have sufficient mathematical background to use and understand it. There is a necessity to improve the quality and in some cases the content of mathematics courses, in order to enable students to understand and develop mathematical models and their limitations. Even more, teachers of physical chemistry should have sufficient mathematical training in order to be able to explain when a mathematical model is sensible, why it is so and what are it's limitations. Our claims are founded on informal interviews both with chemistry students and teachers, on results of exams in mathematics and physical chemistry courses, and participant observation in student groups and in the meetings of the Educational section of the Croatian chemical society. The first-named author, being a lecturer for mathematics courses for chemistry students, has incorporated some of the chemical thermodynamics topics that are modeled by multivariable calculus techniques in the mathematics lectures ; the effects are still to be tested. We hope to give suggestions to chemistry teachers how to decide on whether a mathematical model is appropriate and if it is, what are it's limitations due to the fact that every mathematical model is only an approximation of reality and is only reliable if the presumptions it was made under are valid.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Matematika, Kemija, Pedagogija

POVEZANOST RADA