Putting things together, taking things apart, and explaining why: Reports on chemistry research

1. Putting things together, taking things apart, and explaining why: Reports on chemistry research Donald J. Wink Department of Chemistry (MC 111) University of Illinois at Chicago 845 W. Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607 dwink@uic.edu

2. Putting things together and taking things apart… UIC Chemical Education & Learning Sciences GroupStephanie Cunningham, Jeong-Hye Hwang, Mike Dianvosky, Sarah Brennan, Marlynne Nishimura, Carolyn Sehorn Sharon Fetzer Gislason, UIC Department of ChemistryJulie Ellefson, William Rainey Harper CollegeMaria Varelas, UIC College of EducationGabriela Weaver, Purdue UniversityPratibha Varma-Nelson, Northeastern Illinois University Olive-Harvey College: David Zoller Moraine Valley Community College: Ewa Fredette College of DuPage: Susan Shih, Mary Newberg, Carolyn Dockus Loyola University Chicago: David Slavsky, Rachel Shefner, Patrick Daubenmire, Adam Tarnoff Purdue University: Fred Lytle Northeastern Illinois University: Veronica Curtis-Palmer, Ana Fraiman Harold Washington College: Dennis Lehman, Mike Davis, Dana PerryGeorgia State University: Jerry Smith Truman College: Sheila McNicholas, Yvonne Harris New York University: Jim Canary, Bobby Arora, Kent Kirshenbaum Chemistry: Duncan Wardrop, David Dickson, Dan Zavits, Richard Kassner, Scott Shippy Education:Stacy Wenzel Mathematics: Phil Wagreich, John Baldwin Computer Science: Tom MoherBiology: Aixa Alfonso, John Lussenhop, Mary Ashley, Earth and Environmental Sciences: Roy Plotnick

3. Putting things together and taking things apart… • National Science Foundation: • CPLP: The Chemical Professional Laboratory Program for General Chemistry; DUE 96-53080. • UV-Visible Spectrophotometers for the CPLP Network; DUE 98-51220 (PI Julie Ellefson Kuehn, Harper College). • University of Illinois at Chicago - Community College: Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation; DUE 98-52167 (PI Philip Wagreich). • The University of Illinois at Chicago Graduate Fellows in K-12 Education Program; DUE 99-97537. • A Series of Workshops in the Chemical Sciences; DUE 00-89417 and 03-41138 (PI Jerry Smith, Georgia State). • Revision of Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Curriculum; DUE 01-26958 (PI Jim Canary, NYU). • Integrated Science Courses for Elementary Education and Non-Science Majors; DUE 03-11624 (PI Maria Varelas, UIC). • Scientists, Kids, and Teachers (SKIT): A GK-12 Partnership with the Chicago Public Schools; DGE 03-38328. • CASPiE: The Center for Authentic Practice in Science Education; CHE 04-18902 (PI Gabriela Weaver, Purdue). • Chicago Public Schools / Gates Foundation: • Inquiry to Build Content: Science Approach A. Instructional Development System for the Chicago Public Schools (PI David Slavsky, Loyola University Chicago).

4. Putting things together and taking things apart… This presentation: • What does it mean to do research? • What are the opportunities in chemistry research: three examples • Science in the service of learning Dewey’s primacy of science Gopnik: maintaining the child

5. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” USING THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD1. FORMULATE YOUR RESEARCH OBJECTIVES2. PERFORM BACKGROUND RESEARCH3. FORMULATE A HYPOTHESIS4. DESIGN THE EXPERIMENT5. CONDUCT THE EXPERIMENT6. REPORT THE RESULTS Illinois Junior Academy of Sciences, Science Projects: Policy and Procedures Manualhttp://www.niles-hs.k12.il.us/jacnau/IJAS/IJAS P&P Manual 06-08.pdf

6. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” 3. FORMULATE A HYPOTHESISBased on the background research, write a statement that predicts the outcome of the experiment. Many hypotheses are stated in an “if . . . then” statement where the “if” statement pertains to the independent variable, and the “then” statement pertains to the dependent variable. For example, if plants are grown under various colors of light, then the plants grown under blue and red lights will show the greatest increase in biomass. Science Projects: Policy and Procedures Manual

7. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” • 5. Conduct the experimentIf you get results that seem wrong or inconsistent, do not just throw them out. Try to figure out what happened. Maybe the data is correct and your hypothesis is flawed. Try to explain these “outliers” in your report. • Science Projects: Policy and Procedures Manual

8. Putting things together and taking things apart… Science research: an inquiry view Scientific inquiry refers to the diverse ways in which scientistsstudy the natural world and propose explanationsbased on the evidence derived from their work. Inquiry also refers to the activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. National Science Education Standards

9. Putting things together and taking things apart… Two trends in inquiry / science • Disciplinary end…“focusing on cognitive goals similar to those in the established scientific disciplines—the development of explanations or models that account for some particular phenomena…” • Engineering end… “technologically oriented projects and activities…involve the manipulation of structures or the fabrication of artifacts to accomplish some preset goal—goals that are primarily material rather than intellectual.” • Rudolph, J. L. (2005), “Inquiry, Instrumentalism, and the • Public Understanding of Science,” Sci. Ed., 89, 803-821.

10. Putting things together and taking things apart… Science research: a revolutionary view “Effective research scarcely begins before a scientific community thinks it has acquired firm answers to questions like the following: What are the fundamental entities of which the universe is composed? How do these interact with each other and with the senses? What questions may legitimately be asked about such entities and what techniques may be employed in seeking solutions?” Thomas Kuhn Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd Ed.

11. Putting things together and taking things apart… Chemistry research What are the fundamental entities? How do they interact? What can be asked about them? What techniques can be used to study them?

12. Putting things together and taking things apart… Is chemistry different? Chemistry differs from biology…“Throughout most of the past century, biologists have generally eschewed the possibility, or even the value, of an overarching theory of life… Typically, explanations in the biological sciences are provisional and partial, and the criteria by which they are judge are, and always have been, as heterogeneous as their subject matter.” Evelyn Fox Keller, Making Sense of LifeCambridge: Harvard, 2002

13. Putting things together and taking things apart… Is chemistry different? Chemistry differs from physics…“Only when we have this final theory will we know for sure what is a principle and what an accident, what facts about nature are entailed by what principles, and which are the fundamental principles and which are the less fundamental principles that they explain.” Steven Weinberg, Can Science Explain Everything? Anything?The New York Review of Books, May 31, 2001

14. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry • A good catalyst: • Selective • Active • Reproducible

15. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry • A good catalyst: • Selective • Active • Reproducible

16. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry • A good catalyst: • Selective • Active • Reproducible

17. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry • A good catalyst: • Selective • Active • Reproducible

18. Putting things together and taking things apart… Taking things apart: analytical chemistry

19. Putting things together and taking things apart… Taking things apart: analytical chemistry

20. Putting things together and taking things apart… Taking things apart: analytical chemistry

21. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry

22. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry

23. Putting things together and taking things apart… Putting things together: synthetic chemistry

24. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

25. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

26. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

27. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

28. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

29. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

30. Putting things together and taking things apart… Explaining why: mechanistic chemistry

31. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” USING THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD1. FORMULATE YOUR RESEARCH OBJECTIVES2. PERFORM BACKGROUND RESEARCH3. DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT / EXPECT TO HAPPEN4. DESIGN THE EXPERIMENT5. CONDUCT THE EXPERIMENT6. REPORT THE RESULTS

32. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” Wants / Expectations of Chemical Research:

33. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” • Wants / Expectations of Chemical Research: • Synthesis: We want to make a new compound.

34. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” • Wants / Expectations of Chemical Research: • Synthesis: We want to make a new compound. • Analysis: We want to find out what is in something

35. Putting things together and taking things apart… “The Scientific Method” • Wants / Expectations of Chemical Research: • Synthesis: We want to make a new compound. • Analysis: We want to find out what is in something • Hypothesis: We want to explain “why”

36. Putting things together and taking things apart… Revisiting Rudolph: • “In a perfect world…Knowledge would come to be seen as part of a recursive process where human needs provide the context for the development of intellectual tools that not only meet the needs for which they were created, but also lead to understandings of the world that open up new possibilities for reflective action.” • “…students would be brought to see how questions in the disciplines emerge from human needs and social conditions in much the same way new technologies do, and not from just idle curiosity.”

37. Putting things together and taking things apart… The integrated premise: Barad “What approaches might be employed in the interest of capturing something of the complex nature of the relation-ship between science and culture, rather than seeking causal explanations for one strictly in terms of the other? …Approaches that enable students to see the beauty, power, and delight in doing science, without placing science at a distance from other human practices?” Barad, K. “Reconceiving scientific literacy as agential literacy,” in Doing Science + Culture, Reid, R., and Traweek, S., eds., New York: Routledge, 2000.

38. Putting things together and taking things apart… The Community of Truth For each group of students… …the instructor must negotiate the acceptance of relevance. …the conclusions that students reach about the content must be valued.…students must be given and accept a role in deciding whether something is relevant, supporting their own openness to the material. Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach, Jossey-Bass, 1996

39. Putting things together, taking things apart, and explaining why: Reports on chemistry research Donald J. Wink Department of Chemistry (MC 111) University of Illinois at Chicago 845 W. Taylor Street Chicago, IL 60607 dwink@uic.edu