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Chemistry Experiments A European Approach
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

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. One objective of the project is to create, by the involved schools, a collection of Chemistry videos, recorded with all necessary information which makes the recording a pedagogical tool usable in the classroom. This collection is made available on-line on a dedicated YouTube account created within the partnership. A second aim of the project is to edit a Handbook of Chemistry Experiments which cover the theoretical aspects related to the recorded Chemistry experiments. The book will be written in English and will be translated in four other languages: Romanian, Greek, French and Turkish. The content of the 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. In order to cover the situation when on-line tools are not available, a software managing the created database, making it available off-line is the third end product envisaged for the project. The seven partners are covering a wide European area from six countries: RO (coordinating school), AT, GR, NL (two different schools), FR, TR ensuring diversity, a proper experience sharing among the participants, a wide area for disseminating the end products allowing in the mean time interculturality and an inclusive approach while interacting during the project meetings. The last project meeting will be organized at the coordinating school where an international conference is envisaged, a dissemination event which allow the team to start spreading the end products among the target groups: teachers of Chemistry in secondary schools and, as indirect beneficiaries, the secondary students. Making available the joint result of the partnership in different ways a large coverage of situations is ensured on-line and off-line. Offering the end products of the project as Open Educational Resource (both on the YouTube account and as hard-copy and on the European Commission's dissemination platform) a greater extend of the experimental work in Chemistry, in the involved secondary schools is envisaged. Chemistry teachers, subject of the dissemination activities, will have at their disposal three different pedagogical auxiliaries capable to sustain it during experimental work. Students, the indirect beneficiaries of the project's results, will have at their disposal tolls to better prepare and understand the chemical processes undergoing in the classroom at the Natural Sciences classes.
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