{"title":"Impact of Cedzyna Reservoir on Selected Physicochemical Parameters of River Water Quality (Swietokrzyskie Mountains, Poland)","authors":"J. Przybylska, J. Kaleta, R. Kozłowski","doi":"10.2478/cdem-2019-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/cdem-2019-0010","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The monitoring of selected physicochemical parameters and chemical composition of water was conducted in 2017-2018 in the Lubrzanka river and the Cedzyna reservoir (Swietokrzyskie Mountains, Poland). The results indicate that the impact of reservoir on the quality of river water depends on natural characteristics of the catchment as well as on the present anthropogenic pressure. Retention of water in the reservoir caused seasonally diversified changes in analysed parameters, including an increase in water temperature, retention of major ions, nutrients and trace elements. Further research is needed to assess the risk of contamination of lower course of the river with metals deposited in reservoir’s bottom sediments.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"24 1","pages":"117 - 125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42306607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Verifying the Weight of Different Learning Tasks in Student Assessment by Chemistry Teachers","authors":"Miroslav Prokša, Anna Drozdíková, Zuzana Haláková","doi":"10.2478/cdem-2019-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/cdem-2019-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Learning tasks are a great motivation tool in chemistry teaching, necessary in the exposure and fixation part of a teaching process, and also often used when diagnosing the depth and type of student knowledge. Our research analysed the relationship between the student assessment in chemistry and their success in solving memory, algorithmic and conceptual tasks at symbolic, submicroscopic and macroscopic levels. The testing focused on chemical equilibrium, because this topic is appropriate to design and test the tasks. The collected data was evaluated by one-factor ANOVA analysis. We expected that, in comparison to average and weak learners, the excellent ones should be significantly more successful in tackling all the types of tasks and at all levels. However, our findings indicate that this assumption is invalid in the case of conceptual tasks, i.e. the understanding the depth of chemical concepts does not always correlate with the student assessment.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"24 1","pages":"89 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2019-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46637700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Level of Mastery of the Concept of Chemical Reaction Rate by 9th Grade Students","authors":"Renáta Michalisková, Miroslav Prokša","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper, we focused on the results of research, which we have conducted to ascertain the knowledge of Slovak students who have just finished their lower secondary education concerning the topic of chemical reaction rate. The study was attended by a total of 320 15-year-old graduates of basic chemistry education belonged to several schools. Students’ knowledge was found through didactic test consisted of 1 item related to clustering and several two-level tasks. The results were analyzed in terms of deeper insight into the students’ understanding of the issue and students’ misconceptions were also identified. The findings related to the problems connected with acquiring the concept of chemical reaction rate, especially in relation to the students’ grasp the mentioned topic at submicroscopic, macroscopic and symbolic levels of representation were analyzed. We managed to investigate the students’ various difficulties associated with mentioned topic. Several problems were found. Students have a problem with understanding the basic term “chemical reaction rate”, relating it to bodies in motion, which they know from physics lessons and everyday life. They also have problems to distinguish and interconnect information at different levels of representation. Students often do not know which factors affect the rate of reaction and how. They do not understand the concepts of concentration and catalyst and do not distinguish the terms temperature and heat. Students’ knowledge is often only formal and lacks a real conceptual understanding of the problem. Their solving of problems does not go beyond the algorithmic level of solution and they are not able to solve tasks that are not typically school-related issues.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"81 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42300091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What the Old Microbiologists Knew...","authors":"A. Nowak","doi":"10.1515/CDEM-2018-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDEM-2018-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Amazing is the fact that although the organisms have been known since the end of the seventeenth century, effective study of this group of organisms started after about 160 years, in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The origins of science about bacteria were very difficult, there were many unknowns and conflict information. The research results provided by various scientists created complete chaos. From today’s perspective, it is difficult to imagine how it was possible, do research in such conditions, and obtain reliable results? Yet despite these difficulties, knowledge of our predecessors was neither so small nor so doubtful as might be supposed. On the contrary, it was surprisingly big and wide. What our predecessors knew about bacteria and especially their importance in nature? They knew that bacteria live everywhere, knew about their unlimited spread in the biosphere. The role of microorganisms in the mineralization of organic matter was known, as well as the circulation of matter in nature and role of bacteria in cycles of nutrient elements, and the solar energy as the driving force behind these changes. Today - although we understand these mechanisms much more accurately, we know a lot details and individual changes - but the basic outline of the functioning of the biosphere, valid until today created our predecessors. A look back at the beginning of the microbiology teaches us, how much can be achieved with seemingly primitive methods, if accompanied by a passion for research and imagination.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"31 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43161344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learners’ Understanding of Chemical Equilibrium at Submicroscopic, Macroscopic and Symbolic Levels","authors":"Miroslav Prokša, Anna Drozdíková, Zuzana Haláková","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract It is not easy for secondary school learners to comprehend the concept of chemical equilibrium at the level of understanding. In this context, a feedback is important for the teachers to optimize their help to students in constructing this concept. We designed and tested sets of particularly prepared tasks, the solution of which reflects the depth of understanding of the basic concept in macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representation. Difficulties in understanding the chemical phenomena and concepts do not result only from the existence of these three levels or from their explanation using abstract concepts, but also from the lack of interconnection between these representations. Consistent interconnection of these levels can lead to an internal conflict in students, and consequently to a more profound understanding of the concept or relationships between concepts at multiple levels of representation to understand them or to change the meaning of one to another. There is also a close connection with the aspect of memory, algorithmic and conceptual approaches to solving educational situations, which extends dimensionally and reinforces the need for a more comprehensive grasp of learners’ mastery of the given concept. The teacher cannot expect that the learners without intensive training, e.g., only by observing the macroscopic representation, can interpret the essence of the submicroscopic representation. Therefore, these aspects need to be consistently involved in the model of learners’ cognitive process early enough to apply them in the educational practice without any problems.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"111 - 97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44105144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Determination of Toxicological Parameters of Selected Bioactive Organic Chemicals Using the Ostracodtoxkit FTM","authors":"B. Kudłak, M. Wieczerzak, J. Namieśnik","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Assessment of the impact of pharmaceutical residues on living organisms is very complex subject. Apart from taking into account the toxicity of individual compounds also their presence in mixtures should be taken into account. In this work, attempts were made to assess the ecotoxicity of biologically active substances (with 50 % effective concentration (EC50) values growing from fluoxetine (EC50 = 4.431 nM) >> gemfibrozil ≈ 17α-ethinylestradiol ≈ ketorolac > indomethacin > theophylline ≈ progesterone > naproxen ≈ trypsin > 2-(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)propionic acid > chloramphenicol > acetylsalicylic acid > ibuprofen > ketoprofen > 19-norethindrone to bezafibrate as the least toxic drug among studied ones) to the ISO standardized Ostracodtoxkit FTM bioassay. The Ostracodtoxkit FTM was proven to be very sensitive tool with respect to responding to presence of pharmaceuticals. Results of studies justify the statement that more research is needed in field of assessment of chronic exposure to pharmaceuticals and other newly emerging pollutants especially when they are present in complex mixture.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"113 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41846424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Two English Chemists/Authors/Teachers: John Read and James Riddick Partington","authors":"Z. Szydło","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract John Read and James Partington were both prominent and highly respected academics, chemists, authors and teachers during the middle decades of the 20th century. Their books were widely read throughout this period and played a major role in educating and raising the awareness of chemistry among young people and adults. Today their names are forgotten. The aim of the present article is to re-establish these two remarkable men and to bring them to the forefront of educational programs. An outline is given of their careers as chemists, set against the background of the times they lived in, giving an emphasis to their formidable literary output. Although they had widely contrasting personalities, and were specialists in three different fields of chemistry, Read: organic, Partington: physical and inorganic, they both recognized the great importance of setting chemistry in an historical context. Accordingly, they both wrote many works on the origins and development of chemistry and included much historical material in their textbooks. This added not only a great interest to the subject, but also set it in a broader cultural context, which is so clearly lacking in today’s chemistry teaching programs. A chronological list of their books is given and short contrasting fragments from four of them are analysed. Not only are these books of great interest, but they serve as an outstanding foundation for teaching the principles of chemistry today. A recommendation is made to incorporate one work of each author as compulsory reading material for students today, and in future years.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"37 6","pages":"47 - 69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41286119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Rajfur, P. Świsłowski, Filip Nowainski, Bogusław Śmiechowicz
{"title":"Mosses as Biomonitor of Air Pollution with Analytes Originating from Tobacco Smoke","authors":"M. Rajfur, P. Świsłowski, Filip Nowainski, Bogusław Śmiechowicz","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of the carried out research was the assessment of the possibility to use a popular bioindicator - Pleurozium schreberi mosses as a biosensor of the air pollution in living quarters with the analytes originating from tobacco smoke. The moss bag method of active biomonitoring, popular in environmental studies, was applied; the method is based on exposing mosses collected in clean areas in the locations polluted with, for example, heavy metals. However, this experiment involved exposing mosses in living quarters, in which approximately 10 cigarettes were smoked daily (first room - kitchen). For the purpose of comparison, moss samples were also placed in another room (bedroom), which was potentially not polluted. After three months of exposure, the following heavy metals were determined in mosses: Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb and Hg, using the atomic absorption spectrometry method. Additionally, these analytes were also determined in hair samples from the persons smoking in the room and from other smokers; the determined metal concentrations were compared with the results of the studies carried out using hair samples collected from non-smokers. On the basis of carried out research it was confirmed that, among others, the mosses exposed in living quarters accumulate heavy metals, such as Ni, Zn, Pb and Hg, which originate from tobacco smoke. Higher heavy metal concentrations were determined in hair samples from smokers, compared to hair samples from non-smokers.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"127 - 136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43364232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ecology and Society. Impacted Ecosystems. Part I","authors":"M. Frontasyeva, A. Kamnev","doi":"10.1515/CDEM-2018-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CDEM-2018-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Earth has existed for more than four billion years and has sustained life for three billion. Human beings have existed for just 200,000 years, yet our impact on the planet is so great that scientists around the world are calling for our period in the Earth’s history to be named ‘the Anthropocene’ - the age of humans. The changes we are now making have exacted a heavy toll on the natural world around us, and now threaten the planet’s ability to provide for us all. Problems of Ecology and Society in the new geological era as the Anthropocene - ‘the age of humans’ - are overviewed. The name is widely recognized as a useful classification of the period in which human activity has created and continues to generate deep and lasting effects on the Earth and its living systems. Examples of the interrelated effects of exponential population growth and massively expanding consumption of natural resources called Great Acceleration are given. Updated ‘planetary dashboard’ of environmental, economic and social indicators charts the trajectory of the Anthropocene are briefly summarized.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"29 - 7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48340128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Propylene Oxide Polymerization in the Presence of Layered Double Hydroxides","authors":"Olena Dan, E. Butenko, A. Kapustin","doi":"10.1515/cdem-2018-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cdem-2018-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Propylene oxide polymerization in the presence of layered double hydroxides with different concentration of basic sites on their surface has been studied. It is shown that the polymerization can be catalyzed by both basic and acidic sites. On the basis of kinetic experiments the mechanisms of reaction undergoing were proposed.","PeriodicalId":41079,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry-Didactics-Ecology-Metrology","volume":"23 1","pages":"137 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2018-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49367332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}