International Year of Chemistry is a great opportunity to get children and youth interested in this rather difficult but yet how interesting subject and show its practical application in everyday life. Exactly, such a challenge was taken up by the organisers of a cycle of special “Chemistry Lessons” designed by the largest chemical company in Poland i.e. PKN ORLEN.
In this way, the corporation wants to shape the awareness of the chemistry presence in every aspect of our life. In the program, in a few hundred secondary schools all over the country, both in large cities as well as in smaller places, extraordinary lessons are organized. The project is addressed to the secondary school students because it is at this stage of education when the students embark on their adventure with science.
The main topic of the interactive classes is production, processing and practical application of crude oil. In order to make the students interested in the subject matter, the organizers expanded the lectures by multimedia presentations - films, animations and images. The experiments conducted during the classes in a mobile lab are the supplementation of the theoretical part. Students have the opportunity to get the first hand experience in the concept and principles of the distillation process of the crude oil in the refinery. Other elements of the oil processing which cannot be demonstrated in the class-room environment can be observed by the participants in a specially produced film. The children will also find out in which products which normally are not associated with oil this resource is used. The classes also consist of the lecture about the importance of oil in the world economy. The instructors explain to the students why the prices of oil are quoted in dollars, what is a barrel and what is its volume. For the most active students who get involved in the classes, the organisers prepared surprise awards.
The adoption of such unusual formula of lessons is aimed at stimulating the interest of the students in chemistry, showing its practical aspects and the impact on everyday life. Those who will be bitten by the bug for chemistry during unusual classes will be able to broaden their knowledge on the Internet educational portal: www.poczujchemie.pl the launch of which is planned still this month. The main heroes of the portal are fervent and crazy scientists who carry out chemical and physical experiments. They will show, explain and teach that one can play with chemistry and draw fun from it, at the same time of course maintaining appropriate safety measures. The service will have many interactive elements including: quiz in which a student will be able to check his knowledge, experiments which can be conducted on the monitor screen and for the most involved ones – the competition for original film showing an interesting experiment in chemistry.
The series of the “Chemistry Lesson” classes, whose press patron is “Polska", represents one of the educational projects which PKN ORLEN planned on the occasion of the International Day of Chemistry celebrated this year.
Source: Polska Metropolia Warszawska, page no.: 8, 2011-09-26, by: Anna Nagel
On this subject also in:
Polska Kurier Lubelski, page no. 9, Trochę inna lekcja chemii [A Bit Different Chemistry Lesson]