It's the Time to Upgrade the Chemistry Book for Grade Eight

Education is the most significant part to change both personal and professional life, it directs students to know how to read, write, calculate, and communicate. It constructs a good academic and social skills to reach a high success and leverage their performance. Similarly, it gives people the tool that they need to navigate the world. Subsequently, it is the process of facilitating learning and knowing. In addition, education is not an end but a means to an end. That is why we educate ourselves to fit into life. However, most of the education is received through books specifically at the very beginning of our lives with the help of our teachers at school and parents at home. Those books are meant to nourish our intellectual growth. Then the book is to deliver ideas and concepts to students in an understandable way specifically when it comes to link the theoretical aspect to real-life models. However, the educational system in most Lebanese public schools is based on the theoretical knowledge more than the practical one. 

Chemistry is a fundamental branch of science, truly is the central science. Chemistry means a lot of dollars. Everything around us is made from chemicals. Like, medicines, nutrients so by using chemistry we are able to cure most of the dangerous disease. And also geology because why do we wear diamonds and not calcium carbonate on our fingers? Chemistry not neutral to get a good job, but moreover a fun which makes over life interesting. Today’s education system in Lebanon is challenging but needs some changes such as chemistry book. However, this book has advantages that make students feel comfortable and flexible with the material. So each chapter in this book includes a glossary in which it explains the meaning for each the chemical words. So, the students will be able to understand in deep the meaning of every word. As well, in each chapter, we have pictures that describe each activity in the lesson. This will help students to imagine the material and know how the procedure is going in each step. In addition, under each picture, there is a title written in italic form. This draws students’ attention. Moreover, at the end of the book we have the periodic table, so students time by time will memorize the elements and know how the elements were organized in this table and according to what. The subtopic was totally organized in order, smoothly flow from one idea to another. Besides, we have a summary at the end of each chapter, in which the students will be able to know the most important idea. Consequently, to solve any questions. 

   Together we build through education! But what about the heart of education does not contain new curriculum and strategy to follow it. It doesn’t need problem-solving skills? Or what the blooms taxonomy, is it useful in our education? Such questions being introduced obviously presents themselves when we were not able to define them clearly in the context of a chemistry book for grade 8, keeping in mind that such book is being directed to affect a complete generation of students.

According to Bantwini, because the educational system was characterized by racism, discrimination, and inequalities. Then the attention has been focused on the desired educational change and neglects how the curriculum change should be implemented. That is why new curriculum still persists toward the insufficiency (Bantwini, 2009:169).  

The chemistry curriculum in grade 8 was not varying from along of time. This is not effective because most of the content topic was not explained during the year. In the other hand, in each chapter, not all the objective and indicator are tested experimentally in the chemistry book. For instance, color change, explain the difference between physical and chemical change and relate heat or light etc. … this will develop a kind of misunderstanding toward the students. Likewise, students will not be interested in the subject because the whole thing was explaining blindly and was not see the result how it was work. As well as we see most of the students don’t like the chemistry because of the weakness that was found in the book and consequently this will effect on the teachers' role. Also, this is due to the concept of the idea that was given in a way that just to cover the information and not to develop our knowledge and experience, or the material that was not mentioned in our lab to do the experiment. So the teachers don’t have the capacity to teach their students how to analyze or to expenditure the critical thinking. Thus, the teachers in the class use the lower level of blooms taxonomy such as recall knowledge, comprehension, and application. As well they don’t have the ability to develop their strategy. In addition, the chemistry book for grade eight was not linked to each other at the beginning of each unit. Then the students learned every chapter but they don’t know what they will start and in what they will start and in what they will end. This makes students to understand each topic separately and they will not have the full empowerment to see the relation between the organized topics in one unit.  

Moving to the problem that has appeared at the end of each chapter, insight and science and society, we found that they were stated as a text, students in this case, will feel confused to think about them because most of the time they use a strength of compounds and elements that they never study it before. This makes students stay away from those concepts. But, we don’t want to skip the time, which is not included in the book. Most of the time teachers will leave that important information so its role will be just an excess of pages and information. Moreover, each unit was not ended by problem solved that summarized all the information in each chapter. In this book all the units are organized in the same way, so sometimes teachers feel difficult to apply the different strategy in the class or use cooperative model to plan their lesson.

As Colin Powel has best said, “success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence”. Even the chemistry book of grade 8 is currently under some weakness, solutions do exist to improve its ways and means of delivering information. The curriculum should be developed as planned, progressive, purposeful and systematic process in order to create positive improvement in the educational system. And as we know curriculum development plays a vital role. However, the continual improvement needs to pass through the chart of figure 1 to define and manage its successful implementation. In this report, we went through the process of gathering, processing and analyzing the data to improve the book without having the ability to check before implementing them. However, this report could form a great suggestion and solid foundation that tackle student’s learning from the chemistry book to be assessed at a later stage.

Figure 1: Seven-Step Improvement Process

Once again, the curriculum improvement will open the door to well define the chemistry book in a well-defined time plan. The importance of changing the curriculum is thus to preserve the identity of the book.  The book should have a backward design that develops understanding by applying stage 1: identify the desired results to approach the planning of this design. Also, they can use to state the objective of all the units so students can develop a good known. For example, in unit two “pure substances” ought to have at the beginning of the unit a summary of all the chapters and how they are linked together. Because most of the activity was not explained as it should be then the better solution is to separate the theoretical idea from the experimental one and instead of their activity, put sample exercise at the end of each subtopic that was related to the concept and to the applying formulas that were explained in it. So, in this case, students will develop their theoretical information and also they will enable to practice how to do the practical one. Simultaneously, students develop manipulative skills, use inexpensive materials and include clear and explicit directions that are easy to follow. Those both activities (theoretical and practical one) are the starting point for developing concept and generalization that are related to the life experience. And in this case, the teacher will enable to use the higher level of blooms taxonomy, then the analysis for each experiment should be clear, easy to apply, and take its time. The classification of blooms taxonomy from the lower level to higher level is shown in Figure 2.

  

Figure 2: Classification of Blooms Taxonomy

Book require to have case study that motivates them through critical question and research so instead of text, more preferred to use diagrams, graphs and something interesting that attract and guide them how to make a research or how to develop a small prototype so instead of explaining it in class, students take their time to think, advance, and understand it at home. Moreover, students know how much information is valuable. Also, students will be more mature to solve and identify the problem in our environment and in our society. This will enhance their performance by using self-directed learning in which students can learn by their self. Furthermore, students time by time will be like a researcher so they will be able to make a difference between knowing what to do, and knowing how, when, and why to do it and this remember us by the stage 1 of backward design.

         Besides, chemistry book should have a problem solved the question at the end of each unit. This will allow students to understand in depth the knowledge and skills that let them know the key to each question and then reach the development idea. Involve students higher level thinking questions. So the chapters ought to be grouped extra exercises that collect the most important idea and should be in terms of the cognitive level.

Reference:

1-Bantwini, D.B. (2009). District professional development models as a way to introduce primary
school teachers to natural science curriculum reforms in one district in South Africa. Journal of
Education for Teaching, 35 (2): 169-182.

2-

 

Benefits of Animal Testing

Introduction

         "Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is 'Because the animals are like us. Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is because the animals are not like us" (R. Magel, 2010). Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction. Animal testing has become an inflammatory discussion nowadays since the point of views varies concerning animal testing. Some people agree with animal testing while others refuse this issue. Knowing that, if animal testing abolished completely, human life is going to be threatened. Since experimenting on animals discovers cures and medicines for several diseases, many human lives can be saved. Although many people dismiss animals experimenting and consider it unethical, animal testing rests on logical contradiction, whether experimenting on animals should be abolished for ethical reasons, or should be applied for its beneficial results on science, humanity, animals themselves and on the environment.                  
                                                    Animal Testing for Scientific Purposes:

Animal testing can be deployed for scientific research. For instance, it develops biomedical researchers to ensure the safety of the production of new drugs. Animal experiments allow science to be improved and new drugs to be performed to treat people from numerous diseases such as diabetes, HIV, and cancer. Several experiments tried on animals not only for performing and obtaining new drugs but also for ensuring its safeness and its side effects on human. Kristin Gebbie, a member of the Office of National AIDS Policy, stated that the importance of animal models in biomedical research is indisputable throughout the history (Franco, 2013 ). For example, thalidomide a medicine for pregnant women manufactured and tested on animals in order to make sure of its safety. It would be a gigantic crime if the drug were given directly to the pregnant women since that would have led to physical deformation in the infant. As a result, such test can avoid societies from retardant and abnormal individuals who can burden on it. Therefore, ensuring the safety of the drug is one benefit from animal testing.                                                                                                                                   

Drugs and vaccines are not only tested on animals to set up their safety but also to set up their effectiveness. The purpose is to manufacture drugs that are effective in achieving the goal by putting down the disease. One example is human immunodeficiency virus, which is known by HIV, that does not affect animals but it is a retrovirus that affects humans. The Immune system of chimpanzees has an effective response to HIV (Wikipedia, 2011). However, chimpanzees exposed to SIV can develop HIV in a relatively short time. Thus, tenofovir and AZT, which are a few HIV drugs, have been tested on chimpanzees, and scientists were able to notice how effective the drugs are and the way they work. This can help in finding a possible cure for HIV. In addition, it is unethical to test a vaccine that prohibits HIV infection in healthy body humans in order to see its effectiveness. Knowing that the efficacy of HIV vaccine did not develop until many experiments were done on animals which can restrict its unbelievable side effects like a tumor. Pollution, chemical substances, and toxic gases allow the appearance of new diseases that still strange to scientists such as H5N1. For that reason, several studies were done on animals to recognize the way the disease functions, the symptoms it causes, and the way it can be treated. Franklin Truel of the foundation for biomedical research has stated, “Every major medical advanced of this century has depended on animal research”. For example, H5N1 is a disease that affects humans which is transmitted from animals specifically birds. Recent studies show that after several experiments, scientists can discover well effective vaccines, which protects humans from catching such a harmful disease. Thus, animal testing allows scientists to find cure for the new diseases.                                                                                                                                             Animal Testing Benefits Humans

            Animals’ experimentation arises many therapeutic benefits that are crucial to save humans from diseases. British law stated that new medicines of a drug should be tested at least on two different kinds of live mammal (BBC, 2014). Some chemical substances are harmful that cause death to humans, while these have no destructive effects on animals. For example, penicillin, commonly used in our daily lives, is such antibiotic that decreases human’s suffering; also it can be used as an anti-inflammatory drug that was discovered by an experiment on guinea pigs (Greek MD, 2000). In 1922, Insulin took from a dog and revolutionized to treat diabetes people. In the 1970s, vaccines and antibiotics were discovered for leprosy disease (Nurunnabi, Dil Afroz, & Nur Alam, 2013).  Thus, testing pharmaceutical products on an animal is not that dangerous as on human, and it can lead to curative benefits.

 Animal testing is also advantageous for having well-being and healthy people. Anesthetic is a chemical drug that causes unconsciousness, discovered in the middle of 1800s by a test done on animals. Such a product makes surgeries easier and results more beneficial for patients whose body tissues would not irritate anymore. Another experiment done on cats and dogs established a gem that can treat eye’s disorder, besides the study of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Studies show that there is a possibility to acquire animal organs by a process called xeno-transplantation that benefits humans. Jose Delgado, a researcher, made an experiment on the hypothalamus, the lower part of the brain, by inserting an electrode and sensing it. The experiment showed that the aggression was due to stimulating a specific area of the brain. Such knowledge is only known through an experiment on animals; if such a test is performed on humans, it may lead to their death.                                                                                                        

Other Benefits for Animals themselves & Environment:

While humans get benefits from animal experiments, animals themselves get a great advantage from that. Biological researchers on animals lead scientists to know how animal body organs are related and how they function. If an animal faces a problem with its body organ, it is possible to identify the treatment method to cure that organ effectively. According to a study done in 1990, many effective drugs aid animals to have a better health. Furthermore, experiments on animals rise to discover heart worm medication that was considered as the best treatment for dogs, since hundred of them died before discovering it. Another example, experiments enhance the nutrition quality for cats, and that is why in modern societies cats have stronger and healthier bodies. Theories concerning this issue show that cats have longer lives and have great immune deficiency due to animal’s researchers. 

 SIV is a disease that leads animal’s death and it transfers among them rapidly. Animal testing helps scientists in their work to create a vaccine that limits SIV infection. This process was well done by building an animal lab on 28 January 2006 which known as Oxford Animal Lab. Such results can protect animals from many other diseases as far as animal testing is getting more expansion and development. Theories show that animal testing can improve environmental situations, where many beneficial results can occur within it. An environment has consisted of materials and living organisms that interfere with its prosperous and protection. Animal testing can organize the chain of a specific animal species. For example, endangered species like Panda is known as an important genus for the environment. Through animal testing, those species can be protected and get out from the endangered ones which keep a great balance of the environment. Actually, cloning is one of the greatest scientific achievements that preserve the existence of many species can be considered as one of animal testing. Consequently, such thing maintains the stability of the ecological side.

Is it wrong to Experiment on Animals?

 People against animals testing believe that it is unethical. In order to achieve the goals of scientific research, painting and suffering are the symptoms that result from animals experiments which are not taken into consideration as they are found for that purpose. In addition, Experimenters ignores testing on humans (Exner, 2007). Unsuitable conditions lead to pain that causes stress mainly if anesthesia is not used. In addition, animals become poisoned and threatened by diseases due to experimenting. Therefore, it is immorally to experiment on animals. On the contrary, it is immoral to experiment on humans since they impose them to risk. For example, one of the most important experiments done on animals is to see whether a permanent use of drug affects one’s brain or not. Moreover, it is unethical to try experiments on humans since they affect not only people but also their families in a pessimistic way that put them under pressure. Some claim that one can reduce the number of experiments on animals by using alternatives. “Magnetic resonance imaging”, a recent technological scan, can examine patients’ diseases without animal testing and surgical operations. Also, the computer can abolish animal experiments since it can detect the results of drug testing. Though computer examination does not give accurate results, tests should be done on living organ directly. It is unethical to test on humans, so animals are the alternatives. Animals’ body organs are similar to that of humans, and by that, the behavior during the experiment can be monitored and can be detected accurately when foreign substances enter. Vaccines that are beneficial to humans cannot be determined and detected by computer monitoring. In addition, drug testing should be done on animals to notice its consequences not only on cellular atmosphere but also on the whole body. In addition to that, it is impossible to get accurate answers when scientists use the term of “computer model and cell culture test” comparing to organism test.

Conclusion

         Animal testing is a hot argumentative issue nowadays. Concerning this issue people are separated into two groups: one with and other against. Animal testing aid in surviving humans lives. Since in this polluted environment several diseases appeared, and after various experiments on animal, scientists were able to discover some cures that allow people to endure. Although some people abolish animal testing since it is immoral and can be altered with other equipments, animal testing must be applied to benefit the scientific researches, humans, animals, and environment.                                                                       
 

                                                                            

Reference:

       Nurunnabi, A. S., Dil Afroz, R., & Nur Alam, S. (2013). Ethical Debate on Animal        Research. Retrived July, 26, 2015, from http://www.fda.gov/oc/history.

        Franco, N. H. (19 March 2013 ). Animal Experiments in BiomedicalResearch: A Historical Perspective. Retrived July, 26, 2015, from http://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals.

 R. Magel, C. (2010). "CREATURE QUOTES, CHAPTER 13. AUTHORS WITH 1900-1924  BIRTHDATES,". Retrived July, 26, 2015, from http://www.quotegarden.com/butterflies.html.

           BBC. (2014). Animal experimentation - the facts. Retrieved July, 26, 2015 from Ethics      guide:http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/facts.shtml    

    Cornelia, E. (2007). Animal Experiments in Research. Retrieved July, 26, 2015, from http://www.lemmens.de 

     Greek MD, R. (2000). The Discovery and Development of Penicillin. Retrieved from http://www-curedisease.org/pdf/penicillin.pdf.afma

        

Disrupting Poverty: Five Powerful Classroom Practices

The webinar, I attended, was talking about Disrupting Poverty: Five powerful classroom practice. The main objective is to equip the teacher with techniques to follow inside the classroom when it comes to deal with students who are struggling due to poverty. Thus a teacher could build a very successful career by knowing how to approach such situations that may hinder the progress of the session. That’s why the teacher should be ready to develop the certain way of communication that is aligned with adequate teaching techniques. The presenter discussed five powerful classroom culture practices which can be summarized as follows: 

1-      Caring relationship and advocacy

2-       High expectations and support

3-       Commitment to equity

4-       Professional accountability for learning 

5-       The courage and the will to take action. 

The speaker highlighted, based on research, that caring relationship increases student’s effort, engagement, promotes resiliency and improves academic achievement. In high expectation, the teacher must push students’ ability to the higher level. Some of the characteristics of teacher that hold high expectation are to teach content and to use tasks with high cognitive demands, ask frequently high-level questions, provide informative feedback on performance,...etc. On the contrary, teachers with low expectation will put down students’ ability. Consequently, they do not have the courage to give an additional try. Such a discourage in students would increase more when teachers provide less wait-time after posing the question, praise less for success. The third practice is about commitment to equity. At this point, the presenter emphasized the idea with a story. The story centered on a teacher who continuously thinks about how to help students who live in poverty. The teacher made a computer available for any student which imposed on the teacher to guide the students how to build their responsibility. After this, the presenter moved to discuss the fourth technique in the classroom culture practice which is professional accountability.

Every member of the class is responsible to demonstrate accomplishment of the learning. In addition, it important to encourage poverty students to take responsibility for productively participating. As a result, a teacher should focus on what they can control, take risks and consider his/herself on the team as students. Consequently, the teacher should not blame those poverty students and instead contribute to their self-efficacy which is correlated to improved student achievement, less negativity, less criticism of students... Finally, the courage and the will to take action is what defines a real teacher. It is all about doing what we can do!