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copperastic
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no chemistry in your school
Hi, I was just wondering who doesn't have chemistry in their school. I don't but i do in high school but im only in 6th grade.
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bismuthate
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Last year my school (also 6th grade) decided to skip over the unit on chemistry
so that (and a lot of wrong info in our text books) pissed me off.
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HgDinis25
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Quote: Originally posted by bismuthate  | | Last year my school (also 6th grade) decided to skip over the unit on chemistry
so that (and a lot of wrong info in our text books) pissed me off. |
I think we can all agree that, if you really want to learn chemistry, school is the last place you should go...
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Fantasma4500
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some in my high school are furious because chemistry was one of the few classes that was made as class you can choose whether to be in or not
anyhow school chemistry is just a weird thing, when i declined to have german class in school i learned many times more german by playing online games
with germans once in a while even tho i had no clue on what they were saying, somehow just managed to learn it out of nowhere more and more
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat | some in my high school are furious because chemistry was one of the few classes that was made as class you can choose whether to be in or not
anyhow school chemistry is just a weird thing, when i declined to have german class in school i learned many times more german by playing online games
with germans once in a while even tho i had no clue on what they were saying, somehow just managed to learn it out of nowhere more and more
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Haha true, I learned English (I'm Portuguese) by reading English chemistry literature and by watching series and by playing online games xP
I agree with bismuthate, wrong text book information pisses me off. This year's text book states, for instance, that ammonia is flammable at room
temperature. C'mon that's a little bit exagerated but my teacher completed the sentece stating that lighting an ammonia solution in water could cause
an explosion. -.-
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Zyklon-A
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Not true, school is a great place to learn chemistry. They wont have exciting experiments usually, but as far as learning the basics, having a teacher
beats teaching yourself.
And why would you be surprised if 6th grade doesn't have a chemistry class? I have never seen chem being taught in elementary, although physical
science does cover chemistry a little.
I doubt I will even take a chemistry class in high school at all, because I have an above high school level knowledge of chemistry already. I will
take chemistry at a community collage this year, (next school year,) for dual credit. (Even though I'm only in tenth grade.)
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by Zyklonb |
Not true, school is a great place to learn chemistry. They wont have exciting experiments usually, but as far as learning the basics, having a teacher
beats teaching yourself.
And why would you be surprised if 6th grade doesn't have a chemistry class? I have never seen chem being taught in elementary, although physical
science does cover chemistry a little.
I doubt I will even take a chemistry class in high school at all, because I have an above high school level knowledge of chemistry already. I will
take chemistry at a community collage this year, (next school year,) for dual credit. (Even though I'm only in tenth grade.) |
Nobody is talking about excinting experiments. We're talking about the basics being taught wrongly. Just read my other post ont his topic, and you'll
see the tip of the iceberg of how badly school works here in Portugal.
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DraconicAcid
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Chemistry in grade 6? When I was in grade 6, we had a general "science" class that barely mentioned atoms. We didn't actually do chemistry until
grade 9.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid | | Chemistry in grade 6? When I was in grade 6, we had a general "science" class that barely mentioned atoms. We didn't actually do chemistry until
grade 9. |
Yes, that too hapens here. However, inside the all general science theme, we had a part relating to chemistry (basic of the basic, like H2O is water),
if I recall correctly.
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Zyklon-A
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| Quote: |
Nobody is talking about excinting experiments. We're talking about the basics being taught wrongly. Just read my other post ont his topic, and you'll
see the tip of the iceberg of how badly school works here in Portugal. |
I wasn't talking about "excinting " experiments either.
In America, classes rarely give misinformation, AFAIK.
They do many tests, to make sure.
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Tsjerk
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Where do you come from where you are saying they give you misinformation? I have never seen anything like that while I was being educated, at most
some oversimplifications, but they usually get back on that trying to teach you new stuff...
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk | Where do you come from where you are saying they give you misinformation? I have never seen anything like that while I was being educated, at most
some oversimplifications, but they usually get back on that trying to teach you new stuff...
|
If you're talking to me, I'm from Portugal.
I can give you a few examples. For instance
- My chemistry teacher shouted at me for having 0.1 M acetic acid out of the fume hood for too long ( Vinegar is 1M) and when I said that vinegar was
1M she started screaming again and simply wouldn't answer;
- She also said that there are no plastic pasteur pippetes, and she calls them eye droppers;
- She said that lighting an ammonia solution could cause an explosion of burning ammonia;
You may think that this is an isolated case, but I know another teacher who said chlorine doesn't react with water and another one who couldn't
explain sodium's reaction with water...
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DraconicAcid
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| Quote: Originally posted by HgDinis25 | | Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk | Where do you come from where you are saying they give you misinformation? I have never seen anything like that while I was being educated, at most
some oversimplifications, but they usually get back on that trying to teach you new stuff...
|
If you're talking to me, I'm from Portugal.
I can give you a few examples. For instance
- My chemistry teacher shouted at me for having 0.1 M acetic acid out of the fume hood for too long ( Vinegar is 1M) and when I said that vinegar was
1M she started screaming again and simply wouldn't answer;
- She also said that there are no plastic pasteur pippetes, and she calls them eye droppers;
- She said that lighting an ammonia solution could cause an explosion of burning ammonia;
You may think that this is an isolated case, but I know another teacher who said chlorine doesn't react with water and another one who couldn't
explain sodium's reaction with water... |
At lower grades, a chemistry or science teacher is expected to have a teaching degree. They are not required or even expected to have a degree in, or
any expertise in science or chemistry. The school administration will just make do with the teachers they have, and if the regular gym teacher is
short of few hours on his workload, and they need someone to teach chemistry, guess who gets the job? My grade 9 science teacher took the job
expecting to teach phys ed most of the time (but this meant that he was comfortable admitting that he wasn't an expert, and if he wasn't sure about
something, he'd often ask me). My grade 10 chemistry teacher did have some education in chemistry, but was hospitalized part-way through September,
and was replaced by someone who had no idea what she was talking about. We argued about whether combustion produced liquid water or water vapour, and
she tried to prove herself right by lighting a candle, and pointing out the melted wax at the base of the flame, claiming that it was the liquid water
being produced.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid | | Quote: Originally posted by HgDinis25 | | Quote: Originally posted by Tsjerk | Where do you come from where you are saying they give you misinformation? I have never seen anything like that while I was being educated, at most
some oversimplifications, but they usually get back on that trying to teach you new stuff...
|
If you're talking to me, I'm from Portugal.
I can give you a few examples. For instance
- My chemistry teacher shouted at me for having 0.1 M acetic acid out of the fume hood for too long ( Vinegar is 1M) and when I said that vinegar was
1M she started screaming again and simply wouldn't answer;
- She also said that there are no plastic pasteur pippetes, and she calls them eye droppers;
- She said that lighting an ammonia solution could cause an explosion of burning ammonia;
You may think that this is an isolated case, but I know another teacher who said chlorine doesn't react with water and another one who couldn't
explain sodium's reaction with water... |
At lower grades, a chemistry or science teacher is expected to have a teaching degree. They are not required or even expected to have a degree in, or
any expertise in science or chemistry. The school administration will just make do with the teachers they have, and if the regular gym teacher is
short of few hours on his workload, and they need someone to teach chemistry, guess who gets the job? My grade 9 science teacher took the job
expecting to teach phys ed most of the time (but this meant that he was comfortable admitting that he wasn't an expert, and if he wasn't sure about
something, he'd often ask me). My grade 10 chemistry teacher did have some education in chemistry, but was hospitalized part-way through September,
and was replaced by someone who had no idea what she was talking about. We argued about whether combustion produced liquid water or water vapour, and
she tried to prove herself right by lighting a candle, and pointing out the melted wax at the base of the flame, claiming that it was the liquid water
being produced. |
Nop, here it's mandatory to have a degree in either Physics or chemistry to teach Physics and Chemistry (Here it's the same subject).
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Töilet Plünger
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The fact that this thread has to exist is a disgrace. From middle school, kids should have the opportunity to mess around with chemicals, lasers, and
everything else deemed "dangerous."
DraconicAcid: I had the exact same thing happen to me - 6th grade science was just teachers telling us, "Science is FUN!" Like we need a teacher to
tell us that. I had to wait a decade from my first interest in science to finally get into a real chemistry course. I'm a senior in high school and I
still haven't seen things like thermite or alkali metals in water.
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bismuthate
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Let me better explain my previous post, my science book last year had an entire section on chemistry (on the most basic level) which my teacher
decided to skip. My school is not a good school for science (my teacher wouldn't let me do my original science fair idea because it involved HCl) so
I'll probabley want to take highschool chem (plus I'm pretty bad at it so I need practice). The information can be horrible sometimes in my book eg
electrons randomly move around the nucleus, there are only two types of bonds, there are only three states of matter ect.
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DraconicAcid
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| Quote: Originally posted by bismuthate | | The information can be horrible sometimes in my book eg electrons randomly move around the nucleus, there are only two types of bonds, there are only
three states of matter ect. |
It's a simplified version. They have a hard enough time teaching most grade-nine students without throwing in plasma and atomic orbitals.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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bismuthate
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Yes but I feel they should say that they do exist but explain it is for a higher level. They also were horrible at explaining acids and bases. (they
basicaly (heh) said that acids have low pH and bases have high pH and never really explained what pH was.
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DraconicAcid
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| Quote: | | Yes but I feel they should say that they do exist but explain it is for a higher level. |
I've developed the habit of making blanket statements in class, followed by the disclaimer "...as far as this course is concerned".
| Quote: | | They also were horrible at explaining acids and bases. (they basicaly (heh) said that acids have low pH and bases have high pH and never really
explained what pH was. |
That's....pretty pathetic.
Of course, most texts give the Arrhenius definition of acids and bases, and leave it as that...even though no real chemist has used that since the
30s. Apparently ammonia's not really a base...it just reacts with water to make hydroxide ion, which is actually the base...
[Edited on 19-3-2014 by DraconicAcid]
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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HgDinis25
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| Quote: Originally posted by DraconicAcid | | Quote: Originally posted by bismuthate | | The information can be horrible sometimes in my book eg electrons randomly move around the nucleus, there are only two types of bonds, there are only
three states of matter ect. |
It's a simplified version. They have a hard enough time teaching most grade-nine students without throwing in plasma and atomic orbitals.
|
That's exactly the problem. Our education system (at least here in Portugal) is merely designed to assess medium students, and hrow at them a lot of
concepts for them to memorize. They then ask them to throw them up, when it's time to take a test. The concepts may be pathetic but the important part
is not thinking about them, is simply to memorize them (that's why they oversimplify things to the point of wrong concepts). And that's why teachers
don't have a clue what they are talking about. Now, like I said this is for medium students. The least intelligent simply can't memorize nothing and
are forgotten. The most intelligent students, who want to think about concepts, ask a lot of question, REALLY undestand the subject, are disrespected
and many times the teacher simply says: Shut up. Why can she say that? Because she's the teacher.
Education is messed up.
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Texium
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I actually do have a good chemistry teacher. For the most part, she knows what she is talking about, she appreciates that I do my own experiments and
doesn't discourage it.
Unfortunately, the demographic of my school is very… football oriented, and thus, even in my Pre-AP chemistry class, many people act blatantly
disrespectful almost constantly, and the rest just try to push through the course. I seem to be the only one in my class who is even the least bit
interested in the subject matter. They don't realize how lucky they are to be having the opportunity of a decent chemistry education, and they take it
for granted.
I'm hoping that AP chemistry next year will be better, but I'm not expecting all that much out of it.
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Fantasma4500
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i know we have it in my country as low as 7.th elementary school grades.. they decided to run around throwing CuSO4 solution everywhere -- and
eventually into a girls eyes
would not even surprise me if the idiots didnt learn from it
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seba
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We did black powder and flash powder. We detonated perchlorate + sulfur. Did Al + I2 + H2O in the open (cool poisonous violet smoke).
This was primary school (7-8th grade, age 13-14).
At UNI we've had azide and nitrogen triodide detonated in the classroom.
Eastern-Europe rox.
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Steam
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We have college chemistry in our school, and now we will have organic chemistry next year!
I believe that if schools allowed middle school kids with genuine interest in a particular field take more advanced, "hands-on" classes in that field,
teachers wouldn't have to spend their time trying to MAKE kids want to learn a subject. It is hard if you don't have a formal school class or a nice
fat wallet to pay for a privet tutor. Fortunately there is so much information on the web these days that one could learn everything he would in a
middle school class just by watching a few you-tube videos and reading a few articles. Unfortunately you can never replace the motivation and the
drive that an actual grade supplies.
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No information contained in this post should be construed as legal advice from the individual author, nor is it intended to be a substitute for legal
counsel on any subject matter. No reader of this post should act or refrain from acting on the basis of any information included in, or accessible
through, this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer
licensed in the recipient’s state, country or other appropriate licensing jurisdiction.
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Texium
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Yeah, even though the articles, videos, and places like this forum are great for learning about chemistry, people won't start unless something sparks
their interest, and that's what school should do.
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