Tim G Harrison

Lectures: electronic presentations versus chalk and talk – a chemist’s view.

An extensive survey of undergraduate Chemistry lectures from years 1-4 during 2004- 2005 has been undertaken. They were categorised according to the method used for delivery, where category 1 used only electronic media to deliver courses, category 2 used a mixture of electronic and non-electronic and category 3 used non-electronic only. Analysis of student questionnaires, coupled with interviews with a selection of students and lecturers from each category, revealed that the impact of the method of lecture delivery is very slight indeed. Non- electronic methods were preferred, but the differences were not significant. The main problems identified with electronic presentations were: that too much material was covered, hard copies of the notes were not provided, the presentation contained particularly complicated diagrams or seemingly irrelevant images, and lectures were presented too quickly. In addition, it was observed that there was a tendency for lectures given using electronic media to have fewer (or no) breaks, natural or otherwise. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (1), 73-79]

Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation

This chapter will describe some simple models that have been used to explain the basic principles of the Earth’s climate to primary school students (aged 4–11), secondary school students (aged 11–16), post-16 students (16–19), and the general public (all ages) including those with disabilities. It will then describe a range of handson practical activities that demonstrate aspects of the climate system at the appropriate level. Assessment and impact of these activities on the learner’s level of cognition are then presented showing that the hands-on approach is a most effective way of communicating such concepts irrespective of the age of the learner. Furthermore, the varied impacts of a ‘‘lecture demonstration,’’ that is, a talk where points are illustrated by exemplar experiments that visually portray the science concept, are presented. The many misconceptions that surround the understanding of the Earth’s climate system are discussed and how teachers and other science communicators can deal with such issues in a classroom setting. The sourcing and use of the myriad datasets linked with the Earth’s climate that are freely available for schools’ projects are discussed with illustrations drawn from projects undertaken already. Often the impact of such engagement activities on the provider themselves is ignored; here the tangible benefits to all providers involved are discussed with some case studies as illustrations. Finally, the future prospect for the Earth’s climate is nearly always portrayed as negative. In this chapter, the idea of stabilization wedges is discussed and ways that the worse case scenarios for climate change can be averted. Using a variety of metrics, it is possible for a wide range of learners to appreciate the impact of any mitigation strategy, that is, literally ‘‘speaking in a language they can understand.’’The first € price and the £ and

A secondary School Teacher Fellow within a university chemistry department: the answer to problems of recruitment and transition from secondary school to University and subsequent retention?

price are net prices, subject to local VAT. Prices indicated with * include VAT for books; the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the €(A) includes 10% for Austria. Prices indicated with ** include VAT for electronic products; 19% for Germany, 20% for Austria. All prices exclusive of carriage charges. Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. All errors and omissions excepted. W.-Y. Chen, J. Seiner, T. Suzuki, M. Lackner (Eds.) Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation

Benefits to Secondary School Chemistry Teachers Who Have Brought Their Students to Engagement Activities with a University Chemistry Department for Several Years; Continuing Professional Development by Diffusion?.

In the UK the changes that have taken place in secondary school science education over the last 20 years are considerable. The national curriculum for sciences has once again been changed and has just been introduced to the current Year 10 (fifteen year olds) in September 2006. The most recent AS/A level (exams at 18) syllabuses (now called specifications) were unitised in 2000 and are to be changed again for September 2008. The International Baccalaureate and School Diplomas are mooted to be the way that secondary education is heading. However, changes to the scheme of work in all science subjects has been a moving target where topics within a subject have been in and out and even changed from one science discipline to another during this turbulent period. A quandary indeed for a University Science Department to maintain congruence at the A level – year 1 undergraduate interface and allow students to have a smooth transition from secondary school or college to University (e.g. Rynne and Lambert, 1997). The School of Chemistry at Bristol University, like many others in the UK, have set up a teaching advisory board (TAB) comprising secondary school teachers, academics and other interested parties. The TAB has proved to be a very helpful mechanism for exchange of ideas but is limited in that secondary school teachers can usually only commit to one or two (unpaid) meetings a year, and the focus of each meeting must be narrow for it to achieve depth of investigation. School-university transition is not the only problem that all University Science departments struggle with in the UK, retention and recruitment are also major items on the agenda. The well-publicised demise of several Chemistry Departments has highlighted the danger, and in recent years the need to raise the profile of Science, and in particular Chemistry and Physics, has been paramount (Woods and Morris, 2005). What can be done in response to such problems? Barnes (1999) suggested that academics should return to the classroom. Bristol ChemLabS has taken the step to recruit a School Teacher Fellow (STF), and here we outline the potential benefits to all concerned of recruiting a School Teacher Fellow.

An estimate of the global budget and distribution of ethanol using a global 3-D atmospheric chemistry transport model STOCHEM-CRI

Outreach is often seen as only having an impact on the school students taking part rather than also having an impact on the accompanying teachers participating in university led outreach activities. A group of secondary school science teachers who have been long-term engagers in chemistry outreach at a single Higher Education Institution have been interviewed and their feedback has been grouped into several categories of impact; Pedagogical Content Knowledge, updating subject knowledge, access to the university, funding for projects, access to Learned Societies, networking opportunities and changing or otherwise affecting teaching practice. Many of these are aspects of continued professional development (CPD) that teachers are picking up subconsciously during the engagement.

Distinct mechanism for antidepressant activity by blockade of central substance P receptors.

The atmospheric global budget and distribution of ethanol have been investigated using a global 3-dimensional chemistry transport model, STOCHEM-CRI. Ethanol, a precursor to acetaldehyde and peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), is found throughout the troposphere with a global burden of 0.024–0.25 Tg. The atmospheric lifetime of ethanol is found to be 1.1–2.8 days, which is in excellent agreement with estimates established by previous studies. The main global source of ethanol is from direct emission (99%) and the remainder (1%) being produced via peroxy radical reactions. In terms of removal rates of ethanol in the atmosphere, oxidation by hydroxyl radicals (OH) accounted for 51%, dry deposition 8% and wet deposition accounted for 41%. Globally there are significant concentrations of ethanol over equatorial Africa, North America and parts of Asia with considerably higher concentrations modelled over Saudi Arabia and Eastern Canada. Through comparison of measured and modelled ethanol data, it is apparent that the underestimation of the source strength of ethanol and the coarse resolution of the STOCHEM-CRI model produce the discrepancies between the model and the measured data mostly in urban areas. The increased vegetation and anthropogenic emissions of ethanol lead to an increase in the production of acetaldehyde (by up to 90%) and peroxyacetyl nitrate (by up to 10%) which disrupts the NOx-ozone balance, promoting ozone production (by up to 1.4%) in the equatorial regions.