Text Set Assignment 11 th Grade Chemistry Acids and Bases Dan Wilson EDC 448 Fall 2012
Guiding Questions 1. What are acids and bases? 2. How do acids and bases interact with one another? 3. What are some real-world applications/examples of acid base chemistry?
Offline Texts
1. Merrill Chemistry Citation: Smoot, Robert C.., Richard G.. Smith, Jack Price, and Tom Russo. Merrill Chemistry: Student Edition. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 1998. Print. Quantitative Analysis: This textbook received a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score of eleven, meaning that eleventh grade students should be able to comprehend its content. This is a 910 page high school chemistry textbook. While the size of the book may seem overwhelming at first, it contains a chapter on acids, bases, and salts that begins by identifying everyday items as acids and bases. The book gives a thorough but understandable overview of acid-base chemistry. The book has clearly labeled sections that make their purpose clear. Although the textbook uses scientific jargon, it clearly defines each unfamiliar term and contains a vast array of pictures, tables, charts, and diagrams to help readers understand abstract concepts.
2. The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry Citation: Gonick, Larry, and Craig Criddle. The Cartoon Guide to Chemistry. New York: Harper Resource, 2005. Print. This book has a chapter dedicated to an informal introduction to acids and bases, a brief and comical overview of acid-base interactions at the atomic level, and a listing of common acid-base conjugate pairs. The illustrations in this chapter should remind the reader of a comic book. While they are less formal than the diagrams one would find in a textbook, they are still very informative and relatively easy to understand. The book identifies everyday items as acids and bases, relating to the reader s prior knowledge base. Because it does not demand very high levels of prior knowledge, excerpts from this book would work well as a casual introduction to the subject of acids and bases.
3. Weird Chemistry: Kitchen Creations Citation: Wetterschneider, Molly F. Weird Chemistry: Kitchen Creations. Chicago: Wright Group/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print. This textbook is written for younger grades but gives definitions of acids, bases, and neutral chemicals by example. Although first-time readers wouldn t realize this, the book is actually introducing different levels of the ph scale, a method of classifying chemicals that is relevant to acids and bases but sometimes hard to understand. While this purpose is not easily identified, the knowledge gained from this text will serve as good background information in the future. The book gives everyday examples of acids, bases, and neutral chemicals, relating to readers prior knowledge. Although the text is well below grade level and does not use much technical vocabulary, the info on acids and bases could serve as a comfortable introduction to the subject before readers are asked to understand a much more complex textbook. Using this book would also benefit members of the class at a lower reading level than their peers.
Online Texts
1. URI Chemistry Dept.: Titration Video Citation: Geldart, Sue. "Experiment 4: Performing a Titration." URI Department of Chemistry. University of Rhode Island, n.d. Web. <http://www.chm.uri.edu/labcam/mpeg/titration_64 0.mpg>. This video was produced by the University of Rhode Island Department of Chemistry to show students in introductory level chemistry labs how to properly complete a titration experiment. Titration experiments are one of the most common types of experiment used for understanding introductory level acid-base reactions. The video would be useful in a high school setting because it provides students with a visual representation of what the technical vocabulary in their textbook or laboratory manual describes. It allows the students associate names with the pieces of equipment to which they belong, understand what proper laboratory technique actually looks like, and how equipment is incorporated into that technique. The video is short but dense with information and utilizes narration.
2. NSF/ACS ChemEd DL Citation: "Welcome! Explore Chemistry with ChemEd DL." Welcome to the Chemical Education Digital Library. National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society, Etc., 2012. Web. <http://www.chemeddl.org/>. The National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society, and other partners produced the Chemical Education Digital Library. This database provides an interactive periodic table, library of rotatable 3-D molecular structures, and other resources. This online text provides visual resources unlike any available in print. The design of the website allows students to find the molecule they need and view its structure. Understanding the structure of acids and bases is crucial to understanding their interactions. The system also associates the structure of the molecule with its written name and chemical formula. This database is useful because it is straightforward while communicating a high level of complex information with reasonable expectations of prior knowledge.
3. Khan Academy: Acid-Base Titration Citation: "Acid Base Titration." Khan Academy. Khan Academy, 2012. Web. <http://www.khanacademy.org/science/ch emistry/acids-and-bases/v/acid-basetitration>. This video by the Khan Academy walks the viewer through an entire acid-base titration problem while clearly explaining each step and the reason for it. The video uses technical terminology that may be a stretch for some viewers, but does so logically and in a way that viewers can easily follow as they are guided to the problem s solution. The chronological order of steps shown in this video serves as an excellent example for students. The purpose of the video is made clear early on and the narrator provides accurate and informative explanation of his written steps. The differentiation of colored text makes the explanation of the solution s steps easier to understand, and the background knowledge expectations of the video are reasonable.
4. The New York Times: Ocean Acidification Citation: Beddington, John, and Jane Lubchenco. "Acid Test for Marine Life." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 June 2012. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/opinion/acid-test-for-oceans-and-marinelife.html>. This article from the New York Times describes the acidification of our oceans due to environmental conditions. It is an adequate text for this set because it applies vocabulary that students should know after learning about acids and bases in a new context that is relevant to current everyday life. The article allows students to relate their prior knowledge of our world s environmental conditions to a subject they are learning in class. While this text requires some prior knowledge, its demands are not unreasonably high. It is written in an informative but causal register and is organized like other news media texts. It should be somewhat comfortable for the reader but also engaging.
5. Acid-Base Slideshow Citation: "Acid-Base Chemistry." Bridgewater State University, 7 June 2009. Web. <http://webhost.bridgew.edu/c2king/other%20teaching %20Stuff/Greener%20chemistry%20curriculum.pdf>. This slideshow taken from an introductory level chemistry course at Bridgewater State University again provides the student with everyday examples of acids and bases, relating to their prior knowledge base. The text utilizes graphic organizers in its organization, and this sets it apart from textbooks and other reference materials because it makes it easier for the reader to differentiate between the two things being discussed. The text goes beyond base-level definitions to more scientifically specific vocabulary and processes. It defines each term and guides readers to an understanding of the processes described by the vocabulary.
6. Purdue University: Titration Problem Guide Citation: "Acid/Base Titration." Purdue University Chemical Education. Purdue University, 2011. Web. <http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/probsolv/stoichiometry/acid-base1/>. This text from Purdue University guides students through webpages of text designed to give a comprehensive understanding of how to complete acid-base titration problems. The pages are divided so that they separate the task at hand from the strategy recommended to complete that task. By the end of completing the tasks, the student has completed the problem. The pages give the completed calculations for each component in the problem and the answer to them in a different color text, so that the user can walk through the entire problem if it is too difficult to understand. This guide is very well organized because it lists the steps to completing titration problems chronologically. In regard to this specific problem-solving process, the guide s prior knowledge demands are relatively low, which could be very helpful because of the difficulty and abstractness of this material.
7. Fight Club (1999) Citation: Fight Club. Dir. David Fincher. Perf. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. Fox 2000 Pictures, 1999. In this film, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, one character pours an extremely dangerous base onto another s hand. The base, lye, is used in soap-making processes like the one discussed in the film. I would not show the entire film to my class, but I would consider showing them this clip. My high school chemistry teacher showed it to my class, and I can remember it resonating with us as a cool example for understanding chemistry. Our class was then more interested in learning about acids and bases; we even were interested in the chemistry of soap-making processes. Showing a film clip like this one is a good way to connect the text to the subject culturally; many high school students have seen this film before and recognize it as an element of popular culture. If possible, it is great to have some level of cultural connection between the students and the material so that the class can really get engaged.