CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTS - A EUROPEAN APPROACH

The role of Chemistry experiments in the classroom during the Chemistry classes is of paramount importance. Due to the fact that national examinations doesn't access or assess practical skills related to the work in the Chemistry laboratory, the role of the Chemistry experiments is decreasing in favor of problem solving or other theoretical skills of the secondary students.

In order to promote the role of the experiments and of the experimental works in the Natural Sciences classes and to increase the amount of this kind of activities in the teaching process, seven upper secondary schools joined forces together to create three pedagogical tools, in form of an Open Educational Resource, which promote this general aim. 

Taking in account that many Chemistry experiments are presented by the on-line resources, via recorded videos, in a showy way not always complying with the pedagogical rules, there is a pedagogical approach on how a Chemistry video has to be recorded and what minimal information has to contain in order to fulfill the minimum requirements that makes a recorded Chemistry experiment a pedagogical tool (presenting the name of the experiment or of the depicted process, presenting the hazards related to the manipulation of chemicals -while using GHS symbols-, writing down the balanced chemical equation, explaining the experimental steps and the chemical process, describing the waste management). 

EKPEDEFTIRIA VASSILIADI 🇬🇷 Greece

Höhere Technische Bundes- Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt Dornbirn 🇦🇹 Austria 

Ozel Samsun Egitim Sentezi ins.tic.san.A.S 🇹🇷 Türkiye

Stichting Onderwijsgroep Galileï 🇳🇱 Netherlands 

Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Comenius College 🇳🇱 Netherlands 

One objective of the project was to create, by the involved schools, a collection of Chemistry videos, recorded with all necessary information (presented above) which makes the recording a pedagogical tool usable in the classroom. This collection contains 190 chemistry experiments and is made available on-line on a dedicated YouTube channel created within the partnership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5isd3pO1xZY7bQ54uLmZIw. 

A second aim of the project was to edit a Handbook of Chemistry Experiments which cover the theoretical aspects related to the recorded Chemistry experiments. The content of the published book goes beyond the chemical process itself presenting aspects related to the preparation of an experiment, the materials and equipment necessary to perform it, the hazards related to the use of different chemicals along with the waste management of the products, the proper reference citation, etc offering a tool for the Chemistry teachers working with the book or for the students who are asked to perform a certain experimental procedure in the laboratory. The English and Romanian versions of the book were printed on paper and distributed among chemistry teachers, both those attending the international dissemination conference held in Zalau on April 7th 2017 while those who live farer received the book by post. 

Spanning 441 pages, this comprehensive experimental chemistry handbook serves as a practical guide tailored for lower and upper secondary education, published in four languages: English, Romanian, Greek, and Turkish. The 190 chemistry experiments are indexed by chapter for easy navigation and seamless integration into chemistry lessons. The handbook functions in synergy with the project's dedicated YouTube channel, where video demonstrations of the experiments are hosted. Furthermore, to support offline learning, these video resources and experimental worksheets can be managed and accessed via the custom-built software application developed as the project's third main output.

In order to cover the situation when on-line tools are not available, a software managing the created video database, making it available off-line, is the third end product envisaged for the project. The software was compiled to run under Windows OS as most of the target group are using this OS. The software was created with much more functionalities as previously estimated. Instead of having an application managing 190 chemistry experiments videos (.mp4 files) and 190 chemistry experimental pages (.pdf files) the partnership gave a "living application" which can be further developed by the end user. According to the user's need the video and experimental database can be further expanded either with the user's own video recordings or with videos chosen on the internet. The software has a powerful filtering capability searching the database through six different parameter making easy to navigate among hundreds of chemical demonstrations. 

On April 7, 2017, the city of Zalău hosted the International Project Dissemination Conference, a key event organized with the active contribution and participation of all project partners. Each partner played an essential role, delivering a presentation that illustrated a key stage in the implementation and development of the project.

The primary target group consisted of science (Chemistry) teachers from various urban and rural schools across Sălaj County. Alongside the teaching staff, the conference welcomed representatives from the Sălaj County School Inspectorate, as well as delegates from local and county public authorities, acting as decision-makers and evaluators in the educational sector.

During the conference, attendees received promotional materials along with the final tangible outputs of the project, designed to serve as practical teaching aids: 1) the Experimental Handbook (printed format); 2) a USB Memory Stick containing the dedicated educational software developed within the project.

These resources are intended to be integrated directly into classroom instruction during Chemistry lessons, offering robust support for conducting hands-on laboratory experiments. The conference was a major milestone, fostering international exchange of best practices and providing the local educational community with concrete tools to enhance teaching and learning.

Ardelean Raluca Nicoleta - presenter of the project and its outputs