An Innovative Guidebook for Introductory Chemistry Laboratories Based on Realistic Contexts

现有的普通化学课程实验工作符合学科的严格要求，但往往不能激发学生的学习热情，也不能激发学生进一步学习科学的积极性。该项目将通过编写一本改造现有实验室实验的指南来重振实验室。这些实验被放置在适合当地社区的现实世界环境中。学生成为当地组织(工业、商业、咨询、监管、政府等)实验室的“化学家雇员”。并将这些实验重新制定为该组织实验室的当前项目。技术细节保持不变，但“场景”赋予了实验室工作新的意义。这个项目的第一阶段已经证明了这个想法可以激发学生对化学的兴趣。第二阶段将扩展、测试和改进这种方法，探索高中化学课程的适用性，并制定一个通用指南，允许其他教师改变他们的实验室课程。为20名与会者举办的讲习班将开始传播项目成果。

The existing experimental work in general chemistry courses meets the stringent requirements of the discipline, but often does not induce enthusiasm in students nor motivate them to further study of science. This project will reinvigorate laboratories by producing a guidebook for transforming existing laboratory experiments. The experiments are placed in a real- world context appropriate for the local community. Students become "chemist employees" in the laboratory of a local organization (industrial, business, consulting, regulatory, governmental, etc.) and work on these experiments reformulated as current projects of that organization's laboratory. Technical details remain constant, but the "scenarios" give the laboratory work new meaning. Phase I of this project has already demonstrated that the idea works to excite students about chemistry. Phase II will extend, test, and refine the approach, explore applicability to high school chemistry programs, and produce a general guide that will allow other teachers to transform their laboratory programs. A workshop for 20 participants will initiate dissemination of the project results.