Significance of Chemistry

Significance of science: The first activity focuses on the significance of chemistry to society by discussing chemical products that have altered agriculture, food, health, medicine, transportation, electronics, technology, the household, and the environment.  This activity can be adapted to discuss the significance of physics, biology, and the earth and space sciences. For example, one can discuss the significance of biological discoveries to agriculture (plant breeding, bioengineered crops, hormone treatments, cloning, etc.), food (nutritional requirements, metabolic disorders, pasteurization, diabetic diets, etc.), and other areas. Teachers should consider dividing the class into study groups, and assigning each a specific connection to investigate.  Such information can be shared with other students through class presentations or electronically through a newsgroup, website or related medium. Complete this chart from the Sourcebook for Teaching Science, Chapter 4.

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