The Odyssey of a plastic bottle in the school laboratory (Or how the worthless can become useful)(*)
(*)This work has been partially funded by the European Commission (project “Hands-on Science” contract number 110157-CP-1-2003-1-PT-COMENIUS-C3). Neither the Commission nor the authors of this work may be held responsible for any use of the information provided here.
Leonidas Tzianoudakis**, Yiannis Siskakis*** & Sofia Papagiannaki***
**Responsible person for the Laboratorial Science Centre of Rethymno (EKFE)
***Collaborators at the EKFE of Rethymno
Abstract. During the latest years an attempt has initiated in Greece in order to update the school science laboratories of secondary education, an attempt which is under development. Nevertheless, the use of simple materials in laboratory activities during science lessons is more or less a familiar practice and in many cases a one-way route for the teachers.
The reasons are many. Indicatively we mention the insufficient laboratory facilities, the familiarity of students with simple everyday materials, the more successful way of connecting theory and practice in this mode, the low cost of the materials and the grater safety of the students.
The Laboratorial Science Centre of Rethymno (EKFE) has started an attempt to record and videotape decades of experiments which can be conducted with simple and worthless (low cost) materials and has already published 2 CDs and 2 DVDs in the teaching units of fluids and heat.
The whole approach in the use of simple experimental devices starts with the choice of the necessary materials, which can also be assigned to students as a team work project. The materials will later constitute the contents of a small suitcase, which will be useful and easy to move around. (Reference to the materials).
It is rather impressive how the same object can be used in multiple experiments. Indicatively we mention the plastic water bottle, which can be the basic medium for more than 10 different experiments. Empty aluminium can be used in experiments from different teaching units such as static electricity, hydrostatics, heat, atmospheric pressure, energy and various chemical reactions. In a great number of experiments a lot of simple materials can be used such as a balloon, a coin, a mirror, etc. (Demonstrations, references to particular experiments).
The experiments with simple materials are resourceful for qualitative observation and verification of natural laws and they usually have the advantage of simplicity, they are completed in a short time, they can also be used in a front faced laboratory and they may demonstrate with clarity the teacher’s objectives. They have disadvantages in the field of quantitative measurements and in the approach of natural laws through mathematical logic.
The experiment with simple materials must function in a complementary way and not substitute the measurement experiment or the experiment, which uses the modern laboratory facilities. It should be also used in the appropriate situation in a way that its “coefficient of teaching performance” should … tend to one!
Keywords. Hands-on experiments with simple materials, suitcases of experiments, second
Paper presented at the HSci 2006 - 3rd International Conference on Hands-on Science, 4th - 9th
September, 2006, Braga, Portugal, proceedings published by University of Minho
(http://www.hsci.info/hsci2006/index.html).