The project now focuses on creating a scientific context in which students can develop and use scientific notions of heat and work. It is considered important that students should not reject the everyday life meanings of these words but that they learn to distinguish between the scientific and the everyday life context and recognize the value of both. In most textbooks descriptions of chemical bonding are preceded by structural models of free atoms in which a nucleus is surrounded by a 'cloud' of electrons. Moreover, they are often presented as facts rather than models, thereby making it difficult for the students to switch from one model to another. It presents chemical bonding within a chemical context, i.e. without relying too much on a physical model of the atom.
Emphasis is on the structure of molecules rather than on atomic structure.
Up till now little is known about teachers' activities and related problems with respect to teaching electro chemical concepts and procedures. The first part of this research project addresses teachers' strategies and conceptions in current classroom practice. Research data are obtained by means of classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with teachers. The first results reveal a number of strategies and difficul ties as well as reasons why teachers act as they do. The second part of the project focuses on effects of an interactive in-service course in teaching electrochemistry.