AHA! Chemistry with Prof Bob
  • Home
  • Modules
    • 02 The nature of matter >
      • 0201 Atoms: Building blocks
      • 0202 Classification of matter
    • 05 Chemical reaction, chemical equations >
      • 0500 Overview, preview
      • 0501 Amount of substance, mole
      • 0502 Avogadro constant: How many?
      • 0503 Avogadro constant: Why that number?
      • 0504 Chemical formulas: What do they mean?
      • 0505 What can equations tell us?
      • 0506 Limiting reactants
    • 09 Solutions >
      • 0901 What is a solution?
      • 0902 Miscibility of liquids
      • 0903 Like dissolves like?
      • 0905 Dissolution of ionic salts in water
      • 0906 Can we predict solubilities of salts?
      • 0907 Solution concentration
      • 0908 Chemical species, speciation
      • 0909 Solutes: Electrolytes or non-electrolytes?
      • 0910 Electrolytes - strong or weak?
      • 0911 Concentrated, dilute, strong, weak
      • 0912 Species concentration vs. solution concentration
      • 0913 Weak electrolytes: Getting quantitative
    • 11 Dynamic chemical equilibrium >
      • 1100 Equilibrium: An overview
      • 1101 Visualising dynamic equilibrium
      • 1102 The jargon of equilibrium
      • 1103 Equilibrium constants
    • 22 Evidence from spectroscopy >
      • 2200 Overview, preview
      • 2201 Spectroscopy: Quantization of energies
      • 2202 Light: Wave-particle "duality"
      • 2203 UV-Visible spectroscopy
      • 2204 Beer's law
    • 27 Communicating chemistry >
      • 2700 Overview, preview
      • 2703 The jargon we use
  • TOC
  • Index
  • Teachers' area
    • T01 Communicating chemistry
    • T02 Beer's law
    • T03 Professional amnesia of the chemistry teaching professio
    • T04 Law of equilibrium
    • T05 Visusalizing dynamic chemical equilibrium
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​​2700   Communicating chemistry:

Overview, preview

Prof Bob says ....

There is surely nothing more universally important to the teaching/learning process, whether in chemistry or political history, than an awareness of the challenges involved in communication between two or more people.

Even in everyday conversations between friends about mundane things, we so often hear (amongst those other people, of course) the exclamation "But I thought you meant ......!" And if one more person who is giving me instructions tells me "You can't miss it" I swear that I will  .... [I'm trying to think what I will do] ....

​And why didn't those who designed the directional signs on our freeways do a course in communication?

"Ah" they say "I know what I meant. It was obvious to me."

So much more probable is a communication mismatch between teacher and student, having such different levels of knowledge and exposure in the subject. As well as being so much more important!

​So much for the generalities .....
​

Communication in chemistry

What a complex world is chemistry! What challenges for communication ....

In what follows, "talker" and "talkee" may refer to teacher and student(s), but not necessarily. They may be two chemists. Or a group of students. Or Bill Banker and Fatima Farmer trying to make sense of the world (if they are still talking with each other).

Do both talker and talkee  realise whether the subject matter is at the macroscopic, observational level, or at the sub-microscopic, invisible, imagined level? For example, when talker ambiguously asks "What is the shape of water?"

Do both talker and talkee  appreciate when the subject matter is "fact" derived from experimental data, and when it is rationalisation of the evidence through modelling? Or that there may be several sensible models to explain the evidence? Is hybridization of orbitals a "fact"? Oh yeah .. have a look at the wording of relevant questions in some textbook exercises and exam papers!

Do both talker and talkee make clear distinction between the reality and the representation? For example, is the talker contemplating what is happening in a reaction mixture, while the talkee is concentrating on the equation for the reaction?

Do both talker and talkee have exactly the same understanding of the meaning of words particular to the field of chemistry - like entropy, electron affinity, ionic bonding, and standard state?

Do both talker and talkee have exactly the same understanding of the meaning of words used in chemistry that are also used in everyday life, sometimes with entirely different meanings - such as dispersion, saturation, weak, equilibrium, resonance, and complex?

Do talker and talkee have similar abilities of visualization of the sub-microscopic world of a reaction mixture?

Do both talker and talkee understand when the focus of modelling is a single molecule (bond angle, dipole, covalent bond), and when modelling necessarily requires visualization of a multi-molecular system (evaporation, hydrogen bonding, the liquid state)?

Do talker and talkee have similar abilities to "see" in three dimensions drawings of the structures of molecules?
​

Chapter 27 modules

Through the modules in this chapter, Prof Bob will try to develop an awareness of possible pitfalls in communicating chemistry - or, to take a more positive outlook, an awareness of issues that can contribute to successful communication in chemistry.

No attempt will be made to be comprehensive, nor to follow a strictly logical sequence. Each module will have a message. 
​

Module 2701 .... Coming soon
​
Module 2702 .... Coming soon

​
Science education research supports the experiential perception that many students do not understand the meaning of technical words: they remain just that - words. Chemistry has its own jargon, as well as some that it shares with related subjects such as physics, and some taken from everyday language - but perhaps with a different meaning. In Module 2703: The jargon we use, Prof Bob gives us a taste of what it might be like to be a student in a class thick with a flurry of words that he/she does not know - but which perhaps sound somewhat familiar. This is a message for all of us teachers.
​
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  • Home
  • Modules
    • 02 The nature of matter >
      • 0201 Atoms: Building blocks
      • 0202 Classification of matter
    • 05 Chemical reaction, chemical equations >
      • 0500 Overview, preview
      • 0501 Amount of substance, mole
      • 0502 Avogadro constant: How many?
      • 0503 Avogadro constant: Why that number?
      • 0504 Chemical formulas: What do they mean?
      • 0505 What can equations tell us?
      • 0506 Limiting reactants
    • 09 Solutions >
      • 0901 What is a solution?
      • 0902 Miscibility of liquids
      • 0903 Like dissolves like?
      • 0905 Dissolution of ionic salts in water
      • 0906 Can we predict solubilities of salts?
      • 0907 Solution concentration
      • 0908 Chemical species, speciation
      • 0909 Solutes: Electrolytes or non-electrolytes?
      • 0910 Electrolytes - strong or weak?
      • 0911 Concentrated, dilute, strong, weak
      • 0912 Species concentration vs. solution concentration
      • 0913 Weak electrolytes: Getting quantitative
    • 11 Dynamic chemical equilibrium >
      • 1100 Equilibrium: An overview
      • 1101 Visualising dynamic equilibrium
      • 1102 The jargon of equilibrium
      • 1103 Equilibrium constants
    • 22 Evidence from spectroscopy >
      • 2200 Overview, preview
      • 2201 Spectroscopy: Quantization of energies
      • 2202 Light: Wave-particle "duality"
      • 2203 UV-Visible spectroscopy
      • 2204 Beer's law
    • 27 Communicating chemistry >
      • 2700 Overview, preview
      • 2703 The jargon we use
  • TOC
  • Index
  • Teachers' area
    • T01 Communicating chemistry
    • T02 Beer's law
    • T03 Professional amnesia of the chemistry teaching professio
    • T04 Law of equilibrium
    • T05 Visusalizing dynamic chemical equilibrium
  • Aha! Whatever
    • Playful dolphins
    • The University of Western Australia
    • Kings Park
  • Prof Bob?
    • Family
    • Travel
    • Perth
    • At work
  • Travelling
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • In four days for two days