Malta’s education framework has always emphasised the need for students to acquire a basic knowledge of scientific concepts and technological innovations in view of following a career that is science related.
Although most of the initiatives taken by the education authorities throughout the years pointed in the right direction and most teachers did their utmost to present science as an exciting, engaging and creative subject, it is common knowledge that the average student is still miles away from developing a positive attitude towards science learning.
Many of our students, some of whom are competent enough to follow a science-oriented education, are not being exposed to holistic enquiry-based learning which presents the three main branches of natural sciences as a voyage of discovery through the physical processes of energy and its transformations, the nature of materials and the world of living organisms.
This year, chosen by professional science organisations worldwide as the International Year of Chemistry, provides a unique opportunity to education authorities and science teachers to put more emphasis on the need to promote chemistry by integrating basic chemistry concepts within the science curriculum, possibly starting as early as the first years of primary education.
As with all natural sciences, chemistry is based on observation, hypothesis and experimental evidence. But one also needs insight and imagination – to guess and predict, check and create, learn and relearn.
All this leads to a deep understanding of scientific concepts that promote and disseminate further innovation and research.
Chemistry is concerned with an enormous diversity of materials – so massively diverse that they constitute the whole universe. Some of these materials, known as ores, occur naturally and are the result of a natural development that has carried on since the initial stages of creation, since the Big Bang.
The sense of inquisitiveness and the curious minds with which humanity has been endowed have urged and pushed forward scientists since antiquity to apply their know-how to uncover principles, rules and notions that augmented scientific knowledge.
As a result of this, the last hundred years have been characterised by discoveries and inventions that revolutionised the world of science. Worthy of mention in the field of chemistry are: nuclear fission as an energy source proposed and advocated by Enrico Fermi and later exploited by Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein in the Manhattan Project during World War II; the production of new elements made artificially in the laboratory with the bombardment of alpha particles on certain atomic nuclei put forward by Irene and Frederic Curie; the discovery of the amino acid composition of proteins by Miller-Urey.
Less significant and impressive than these but equally vital and important as a means of improving our quality of life were the discoveries that preceded the manufacturing processes of detergents, plastics, synthetic fibres, textiles and innovative medication.
These materials, branded either for durability or effectiveness, or both, have changed the way we live and work but they have also posed new problems with regard to environmental issues and hazardous waste.
Scientists, particularly chemists, are striving incessantly to strike a balance between new products and the impact these make on the environment.
While matter is immeasurably diverse and varied, within this diversity there is a common factor that constitutes the nature of matter.
The earliest known historical aspect concerned with the structure of matter is a good starting point. The Greek philosopher Democritus, more than two millennia ago, pioneered a simple atomic theory stating that matter is composed of atoms, an atom being the simplest unit of matter. Through his theory, Democritus acknowledged that an atom is a discreet unit of matter.
However, science had to wait until 1803 for the better, though far-from-complete development of the atomic theory. Proposed by John Dalton and favoured by Amadeo Avogadro and Ludwig Boltzmann, the new atomic theory acknowledged the fact that atoms of a particular element are identical but atoms of different elements can be distinguished from one another by their respective relative atomic masses.
Dalton’s atomic theory could not be upgraded and extended until the discovery by Eugene Goldstein of the proton in 1885. Goldstein found out that protons are subatomic particles found in all atoms. While acknowledging the fact that atoms of different elements contain different numbers of protons, Goldstein found out that all protons are identical.
In 1897, J.J. Thomson concluded that cathode rays, investigated 20 years earlier by William Crookes, were also constituents of all atoms. He renamed these ‘electrons’ and deduced from experimental and mathematical evidence that all electrons are also identical.
The same happened in 1932 when James Chadwick discovered the neutron, a subatomic particle residing within the atomic nucleus of all atoms, except hydrogen. All neutrons, he found, are also identical.
This similarity in the building blocks of atoms, and so in the basic structural composition of matter is overwhelming, in the sense that all materials, despite their dissimilarity in physical or chemical properties and whatever their nature, are basically constituted from simple and similar particles.
Chemistry celebrates the widest diversity of materials possible but at the same time, it celebrates the similarity of the basic components of matter. The International Year of Chemistry is not just a manifestation of the global recognition of diversity but also an acknowledgement of the harmonising and orderly properties of the basic structural arrangement of matter.
Keeping in mind the fact that chemistry is that branch of science that renders itself easily into patterns, orderly arrangements and tabulated formats, one should consider including chemistry experiments that entice and fascinate students within a holistic science curriculum.
Students are fascinated by beautiful laboratories and high-tech equipment but they are more fascinated by their own discoveries and the meaningful results they obtain from their experiments.
Mr Falzon is Education Officer for Chemistry.
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