Modern trends in the development of school chemical education. Problems of pre-university chemical education in Russia The place of chemistry in the school education system

1 The concept of modernization of school education, approved by the government of the Russian Federation in 2002, presupposes the introduction of variability and differentiation of the education system. According to sociological surveys conducted in 2002 before the start of the reform, about 70% of 9th grade students assume that they can decide on the possible field of their future professional activity. This made it possible in the senior classes to implement a student-centered learning paradigm. Starting from grade 10, students are given the right to independently choose the trajectory of their further education: humanitarian, medical-biological or physical-mathematical. The restructuring of the educational system ends in 2010, so the moment comes to comprehend and evaluate the results of reforming school education.

An analysis of the results of reforming the learning process in a general education school allows us to draw some unpleasant conclusions:

1) A fifteen-year-old student is not able to objectively assess his abilities, predict the scope of his future professional activity and formulate real educational goals. As a result, a student who chose a physical and mathematical or, even more so, a humanitarian profile of education in the 9th grade, realizes the error of his decision by the time he graduates from high school, but he practically cannot change the situation, since school la deprived him of the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities, for example, in chemistry. Such a situation is faced by teachers working at preparatory courses. The young man is eager to enter the Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, but cannot do this due to objective reasons, even involving the tutoring system. As a result, the state is deprived of chemists.

2) It can be stated that the country is undergoing a “forced humanitarization” of education. According to Rosobrnadzor, in 2009, more than 60% of school graduates passed the Unified State Exam in social studies. The basic plan of secondary schools in Russia does not contribute to the development of motivation among schoolchildren to study chemistry, mathematics and physics. The choice of learning path should be based on two components: the student’s personal priorities and the relevance of the knowledge, skills, and competencies acquired by him in the modern realities of the country’s economic development. It is known that at present the Russian state has an overabundance of economists and lawyers, but there is a shortage of specialists in the field of chemistry, metallurgy, and applied sciences. The technical progress of a country and the standard of living of its population are determined, first of all, by the state of its main industry, including the chemical industry. Innovation should be not only in electrical engineering and computer technology, but also in mechanical engineering and the chemical industry. Natural science education of youth is the foundation of the country's development; chemistry cannot be excluded from the number of natural science disciplines, it is at their center. Consequently, the school should already guide the student towards choosing an educational path with further practical output.

3) An unjustified reduction in the number of hours devoted to the study of the discipline - chemistry, leads to a loss of student interest in the subject, as such, as well as in the success of comprehending this science due to the superficiality of its presentation. In connection with the transition to specialized education, there was a reduction in teaching hours in chemistry at the basic level to one lesson per week. Chemistry as an academic subject is relegated to the background. Obviously, chemistry is one of the most difficult sciences for students to perceive among all school disciplines. The reasons for this are probably several factors: 1) the specificity of the conceptual apparatus, approaches, algorithms for solving problems, and the logic of science; 2) the lack of qualified teaching staff, since no one can challenge the well-known truth about the priority role of the teacher in the student’s further choice of his direction of study; 3) reducing the number of hours devoted to the study of this discipline. For chemistry, as a science in general and technical science in particular, the last two factors are the most destructive. Thus, schoolchildren study physics and mathematics in physics and mathematics specialized classes, literature, history, Russian language - in the humanities, chemistry is studied in chemical and biological profiles, the students of which are mainly aimed at entering medical higher education institutions. -nia. As a result, university applicants enter chemical technology faculties according to the “residual principle”: if I didn’t get into anywhere, I’ll go to study chemistry. There is only one conclusion - it is urgently necessary to change priorities in education: from humanitarization to natural science. It should become fashionable to be a chemist, physicist, metallurgist, but not an economist, lawyer, or public relations specialist. The former power of the Russian chemical industry can be restored by worthy, qualified specialists who should be trained by technical universities.

Chemistry is one of the fundamental natural sciences, therefore its study is necessary for the formation of a scientific worldview. The original language of chemistry and its unique patterns contribute to the development of imaginative thinking and creative growth of specialists. Chemistry studies the composition, structure, properties of substances and their transformations during reactions and physical and chemical processes. Chemistry plays an important role in the life of every person and in his practical activities. The importance of chemistry in technology is especially great, since the targeted control of chemical processes makes it possible to obtain new materials whose properties satisfy the needs of the technical process in energy, electronics, mechanical engineering, etc.

The crisis in school chemistry education is obvious to every university teacher. The problem of teaching chemistry to students at higher technical universities has become especially relevant at the present time, which is associated, first of all, with the introduction of specialized education in secondary educational institutions. But the innovation hit chemical education with the greatest severity. In secondary school, chemistry is deliberately studied only in chemical and biological specialized classes, the graduates of which subsequently choose mainly medical education or a classical university education. The specificity of training in technical higher educational institutions is that a chemistry student must have approximately equal knowledge in the fields of mathematics, physics and chemistry. Only in this case, in the future, he will become a competent specialist in demand by production. In addition, all students of non-chemical fields and specialties at technical universities study chemistry in the first year as part of the main natural science disciplines. School specialized education has led to the fact that applicants who do not have an adequate level of mathematics and physics are admitted to chemical and technological specialties at the university, and chemistry to non-chemical specialties. Teaching students in technical fields and chemistry majors is becoming more and more difficult every year. School graduates do not know the basics of chemistry: they do not know how to create formulas for compounds, cannot distinguish an oxide from an acid, have no idea about the structure of substances, etc.

In the materials of the III All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to methods of teaching chemistry, many reports point out the shortcomings of school chemical training; Teachers from both peripheral universities and Moscow talk about this. Here are fragments of some reports.

• “Secondary comprehensive school does not provide graduates with the necessary level of knowledge that would allow them to begin studying in higher education without difficulty” (S.A. Matakova, G.N. Fadeev, Moscow, Moscow Higher Technical School)
• “...the volume of chemical knowledge, skills and abilities of secondary school graduates is constantly decreasing. Recently...Russia’s lag behind advanced countries in many areas of chemistry has been increasing” (S.S. Berdonosov, Moscow , ).
• “Our schoolchildren remain undeveloped and for the most part do not understand the importance of scientific knowledge” (E.E. Minchenkov, Moscow, ).
• “Chemistry is one of the fundamental areas of knowledge that determines the development of other important areas of science and technology. Its study is a necessary component in education. But at present, the school curriculum in chemistry hardly fits into the hours allotted for its study, and this cannot but affect the attitude of schoolchildren to the subject, which is becoming more and more disdainful" (N.E. Fedorova, N.E. Sidorina, Samara).
• “In the first year of study at universities, the problem of chemical education of applicants is acute... Thus, a survey of first-year students showed that the majority (70-90%) consider chemistry a difficult subject, and their school knowledge is insufficient to study her at the university" (N.M. Vostryakova, I.V. Dubova, Krasnoyarsk).

The authors of the reports try to answer the eternal Russian questions “who is to blame?” and “what to do?”, but in this case we need to know: what exactly do school graduates not know and cannot do in chemistry? A partial answer to this question is found in two reports. In one of them (A.M. Der-kach, St. Petersburg), the main gaps in the knowledge and skills of applicants include:

• misunderstanding of the meaning of chemical formulas and symbols, indices and coefficients (many try to learn formulas and entire chemical equations by heart);
• poor knowledge of the main classes of inorganic and organic compounds, inability to give examples of the main representatives of these classes;
• lack of understanding of the differences between chemical and physical phenomena;
• confusion in the concepts of valency, oxidation state and electronegativity;
• complete absence of even basic ideas about chemical production, about the management of chemical processes.

Another report (I.B. Gilyazova, Omsk) presents the results of a “control section”, with the help of which the knowledge of basic concepts, laws and theories of chemistry was determined by four groups of subjects: 1) students of the 11th grade of school, 2, 3) 1st and 4th year students of the Pedagogical University, studying in the direction of “Natural Science Education (Chemistry)” and 4) first-year students of the master’s program “Chemical Education”. Knowledge was tested:

Concepts: atom, molecule, chemical element, chemical compound, oxidation state, valency, chemical bond, chemical reaction, chemical equilibrium;

• atomic-molecular theory, theory of chemical bonding, theory of electrolytic dissociation, theory of the structure of organic substances;
• laws of conservation of mass of matter, constancy of composition, periodic law.

The results of this interesting study are presented in the table.

But if the shortcomings of school teaching were reduced only to gaps in knowledge of chemistry, then this would be half the problem. The trouble is the decline in the overall development and erudition of young people. They do not know the relationship between a gram and a kilogram, a liter and a milliliter, they do not know how to calculate log rhymes, draw graphs, carry out geometric addition of vectors, etc. They associate the possibility of solving a calculation problem only with a formula, with the presence solution algorithm, but most first-year students cannot think and propose their own solution. Another disadvantage is biased high self-esteem, reluctance or inability to exercise self-control. Of course, the degradation of modern youth occurs not only due to the fault of the school, but also under the influence of “values” driven in by television and other media, the broadcasts and publications of which are formed according to the laws of the market.

Thus, we can conclude that with the transition of school education to a differentiated system, the concept of which presupposes the possibility of students choosing an educational profile, it negatively affected, first of all, the quality of training of schoolchildren in natural sciences, and especially chemistry. It is necessary to recognize and restore the priority of natural sciences in the general education of schoolchildren as quickly as possible.

Bibliography

1. Order of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation “On approval of the schedule of activities for the introduction of specialized training at the senior level of general education and the schedule for improving the qualifications of education workers in the context of the introduction of specialized training” // Standards and monitoring in education. - 2003. - No. 4. - P. 3-9.
2. Lunin V.V. Problems of chemical education in Russia // Chemistry and society. Facets of interaction: yesterday, today, tomorrow: Proceedings of the Anniversary Scientific Conference - Moscow, November 25-28, 2009. - Moscow: Moscow State University, 2009. - P. 30.
3. Innovative processes in chemical education: Materials of the III All-Russian scientific and practical conference. - Chelyabinsk, October 12-15, 2009. - Chelyabinsk: GPU, 2009. - P. 31-34.

Bibliographic link

Knyazeva E.M., Stas N.F., Kurina L.N. PROBLEMS OF PRE-UNIVERSITY CHEMICAL EDUCATION IN RUSSIA // International Journal of Applied and Fundamental Research. – 2010. – No. 9. – P. 11-16;
URL: https://applied-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=874 (access date: 12/17/2019). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"

Performance at the second
Moscow Pedagogical Marathon
educational subjects, April 9, 2003

Natural sciences around the world are going through difficult times. Financial flows are leaving science and education for the military-political sphere, the prestige of scientists and teachers is falling, and the lack of education of the majority of society is rapidly growing. Ignorance rules the world. It comes to the point that in America, right-wing Christians are demanding the legal abolition of the second law of thermodynamics, which, in their opinion, contradicts religious doctrines.
Chemistry suffers more than other natural sciences. Most people associate this science with chemical weapons, environmental pollution, man-made disasters, drug production, etc. Overcoming “chemophobia” and mass chemical illiteracy, creating an attractive public image of chemistry is one of the tasks of chemical education, the current state of which in Russia we want to discuss.

Modernization program (reforms)
education in Russia and its shortcomings

The Soviet Union had a well-functioning system of chemical education based on a linear approach, with the study of chemistry beginning in middle school and ending in high school. An agreed scheme for ensuring the educational process was developed, including: programs and textbooks, training and advanced training for teachers, a system of chemical olympiads at all levels, sets of teaching aids (“School Library”, “Teacher’s Library” and
etc.), publicly available methodological journals (“Chemistry at school”, etc.), demonstration and laboratory instruments.
Education is a conservative and inert system, therefore, even after the collapse of the USSR, chemical education, which suffered heavy financial losses, continued to fulfill its tasks. However, several years ago, a reform of the education system began in Russia, the main goal of which is to support the entry of new generations into the globalized world, into the open information community. To achieve this, according to the authors of the reform, communication, computer science, foreign languages, and intercultural learning should occupy a central place in the content of education. As we see, there is no place for natural sciences in this reform.
It was announced that the new reform should ensure a transition to a system of quality indicators and education standards comparable to the world. A plan of specific measures has also been developed, among which the main ones are the transition to 12-year schooling, the introduction of a unified state exam (USE) in the form of universal testing, the development of new education standards based on a concentric scheme, according to which by the time they graduate from the nine-year school, students should have a holistic understanding about the subject.
How will this reform affect chemical education in Russia? In our opinion, it is sharply negative. The fact is that among the developers of the Concept for the Modernization of Russian Education there was not a single representative of natural science, therefore the interests of the natural sciences were completely not taken into account in this concept. The Unified State Exam in the form in which the authors of the reform conceived it will spoil the system of transition from secondary school to higher education, which universities created with such difficulty in the first years of Russian independence, and will destroy the continuity of Russian education.
One of the arguments in favor of the Unified State Exam is that, according to reform ideologists, it will ensure equal access to higher education for various social strata and territorial groups of the population.

Our many years of experience in distance learning, associated with the Soros Olympiad in Chemistry and part-time admission to the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, shows that distance testing, firstly, does not provide an objective assessment of knowledge, and secondly, does not provide students with equal opportunities . Over the 5 years of the Soros Olympiads, more than 100 thousand written works in chemistry passed through our department, and we were convinced that the general level of solutions very much depends on the region; in addition, the lower the educational level of the region, the more decommissioned works were sent from there. Another significant objection to the Unified State Exam is that testing as a form of knowledge testing has significant limitations. Even a correctly designed test does not allow an objective assessment of a student’s ability to reason and draw conclusions. Our students studied the Unified State Exam materials in chemistry and discovered a large number of incorrect or ambiguous questions that cannot be used for testing schoolchildren. We came to the conclusion that the Unified State Examination can only be used as one of the forms of monitoring the work of secondary schools, but in no case as the only, monopolistic mechanism for access to higher education.
Another negative aspect of the reform is related to the development of new education standards, which should bring the Russian education system closer to the European one. The draft standards proposed in 2002 by the Ministry of Education violated one of the main principles of science education - objectivity. The leaders of the working group that compiled the project proposed thinking about abandoning separate school courses in chemistry, physics and biology and replacing them with a single integrated course “Natural Science”. Such a decision, even if made for the long term, would simply bury chemical education in our country.
What can be done in these unfavorable internal political conditions to preserve traditions and develop chemical education in Russia? Now we move on to our positive program, much of which has already been implemented. This program has two main aspects - content and organizational: we are trying to determine the content of chemical education in our country and develop new forms of interaction between chemical education centers.

New state standard
chemical education

Chemistry education starts at school. The content of school education is determined by the main regulatory document - the state standard of school education. Within the framework of the concentric scheme adopted by us, there are three standards in chemistry: basic general education(grades 8–9), base average And specialized secondary education(grades 10–11). One of us (N.E. Kuzmenko) headed the working group of the Ministry of Education to prepare standards, and by now these standards have been fully formulated and are ready for legislative approval.
When starting to develop a standard for chemical education, the authors proceeded from the development trends of modern chemistry and took into account its role in natural science and in society. Modern chemistry – this is a fundamental system of knowledge about the world around us, based on rich experimental material and reliable theoretical principles. The scientific content of the standard is based on two basic concepts: “substance” and “chemical reaction”.
“Substance” is the main concept of chemistry. Substances surround us everywhere: in the air, food, soil, household appliances, plants and, finally, in ourselves. Some of these substances were given to us by nature in ready-made form (oxygen, water, proteins, carbohydrates, oil, gold), the other part was obtained by man through a slight modification of natural compounds (asphalt or artificial fibers), but the largest number of substances that were previously in nature did not exist, man synthesized independently. These are modern materials, medicines, catalysts. To date, about 20 million organic and about 500 thousand inorganic substances are known, and each of them has an internal structure. Organic and inorganic synthesis has reached such a high degree of development that it is possible to synthesize compounds with any predetermined structure. In this regard, the foreground in modern chemistry comes
applied aspect, which focuses on relationships between the structure of matter and its properties, and the main task is to find and synthesize useful substances and materials with desired properties.
The most interesting thing about the world around us is that it is constantly changing. The second main concept of chemistry is “chemical reaction”. Every second, an innumerable number of reactions occur in the world, as a result of which some substances are transformed into others. We can observe some reactions directly, for example, the rusting of iron objects, blood clotting, and the combustion of automobile fuel. At the same time, the vast majority of reactions remain invisible, but it is they that determine the properties of the world around us. In order to realize one’s place in the world and learn to manage it, a person must deeply understand the nature of these reactions and the laws to which they obey.
The task of modern chemistry is to study the functions of substances in complex chemical and biological systems, analyze the relationship between the structure of a substance and its functions, and synthesize substances with given functions.
Based on the fact that the standard should serve as a tool for the development of education, it was proposed to unload the content of basic general education and leave in it only those content elements whose educational value is confirmed by domestic and world practice of teaching chemistry at school. This is a minimal, but functionally complete knowledge system.
Standard of basic general education includes six content blocks:

• Methods of knowledge of substances and chemical phenomena.
• Substance.
• Chemical reaction.
• Elementary fundamentals of inorganic chemistry.
• Initial ideas about organic substances.
• Chemistry and life.

Basic Average Standard education is divided into five content blocks:

• Methods of learning chemistry.
• Theoretical foundations of chemistry.
• Inorganic chemistry.
• Organic chemistry.
• Chemistry and life.

The basis of both standards is the periodic law of D.I. Mendeleev, the theory of the structure of atoms and chemical bonds, the theory of electrolytic dissociation and the structural theory of organic compounds.
The basic intermediate level standard is designed to provide high school graduates, first of all, with the ability to navigate social and personal problems related to chemistry.
IN profile level standard the knowledge system has been significantly expanded, primarily due to ideas about the structure of atoms and molecules, as well as the laws of the occurrence of chemical reactions, considered from the point of view of the theories of chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics. This ensures that high school graduates are prepared to continue their chemical education in higher education.

New program and new
chemistry textbooks

The new, scientifically based standard of chemical education has prepared fertile ground for the development of a new school curriculum and the creation of a set of school textbooks based on it. In this report, we present the school curriculum in chemistry for grades 8–9 and the concept of a series of textbooks for grades 8–11, created by a team of authors from the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University.
The chemistry course program at a basic secondary school is designed for students in grades 8–9. It is distinguished from the standard programs currently operating in Russian secondary schools by more precise interdisciplinary connections and precise selection of material necessary to create a holistic natural-scientific perception of the world, comfortable and safe interaction with the environment in production and everyday life. The program is structured in such a way that its main attention is paid to those sections of chemistry, terms and concepts that are in one way or another connected with everyday life, and are not “armchair knowledge” of a narrowly limited circle of people whose activities are related to chemical science.
During the first year of chemistry (8th grade), the focus is on developing students' basic chemical skills, "chemical language" and chemical thinking. For this purpose, objects familiar from everyday life (oxygen, air, water) were selected. In the 8th grade, we deliberately avoid the concept of “mole,” which is difficult for schoolchildren to understand, and practically do not use calculation problems. The main idea of ​​this part of the course is to instill in students the skills of describing the properties of various substances grouped into classes, as well as to show the connection between the structure of substances and their properties.
In the second year of study (9th grade), the introduction of additional chemical concepts is accompanied by consideration of the structure and properties of inorganic substances. A special section briefly examines the elements of organic chemistry and biochemistry to the extent provided for by the state education standard.

To develop a chemical view of the world, the course draws broad correlations between the elementary chemical knowledge acquired by children in the class and the properties of those objects that are known to schoolchildren in everyday life, but were previously perceived only at the everyday level. Based on chemical concepts, students are invited to look at precious and finishing stones, glass, earthenware, porcelain, paints, food, and modern materials. The program has expanded the range of objects that are described and discussed only at a qualitative level, without resorting to cumbersome chemical equations and complex formulas. We paid great attention to the style of presentation, which allows us to introduce and discuss chemical concepts and terms in a lively and visual form. In this regard, the interdisciplinary connections of chemistry with other sciences, not only natural, but also humanities, are constantly emphasized.
The new program is implemented in a set of school textbooks for grades 8–9, one of which has already been printed, and the other is being written. When creating textbooks, we took into account the changing social role of chemistry and public interest in it, which is caused by two main interrelated factors. The first is "chemophobia", i.e., the negative attitude of society towards chemistry and its manifestations. In this regard, it is important to explain at all levels that the bad is not in chemistry, but in people who do not understand the laws of nature or have moral problems.
Chemistry is a very powerful tool in the hands of man; its laws contain no concepts of good and evil. Using the same laws, you can come up with a new technology for the synthesis of drugs or poisons, or you can come up with a new medicine or a new building material.
Another social factor is the progressive chemical illiteracy society at all levels - from politicians and journalists to housewives. Most people have absolutely no idea what the world around them consists of, do not know the elementary properties of even the simplest substances and cannot distinguish nitrogen from ammonia, or ethyl alcohol from methyl alcohol. It is in this area that a competent chemistry textbook, written in simple and understandable language, can play a great educational role.
When creating textbooks, we proceeded from the following postulates.

The main objectives of the school chemistry course

1. Formation of a scientific picture of the surrounding world and development of a natural scientific worldview. Presentation of chemistry as a central science aimed at solving pressing problems of humanity.
2. Development of chemical thinking, the ability to analyze the phenomena of the surrounding world in chemical terms, the ability to speak (and think) in chemical language.
3. Popularization of chemical knowledge and introduction of ideas about the role of chemistry in everyday life and its applied significance in the life of society. Development of environmental thinking and familiarization with modern chemical technologies.
4. Formation of practical skills for safe handling of substances in everyday life.
5. Arousing keen interest among schoolchildren in the study of chemistry, both as part of the school curriculum and additionally.

The main ideas of the school chemistry course

1. Chemistry is the central science of nature, closely interacting with other natural sciences. The applied possibilities of chemistry are of fundamental importance for the life of society.
2. The world around us consists of substances that are characterized by a certain structure and are capable of mutual transformations. There is a connection between the structure and properties of substances. The task of chemistry is to create substances with useful properties.
3. The world around us is constantly changing. Its properties are determined by the chemical reactions that occur in it. In order to control these reactions, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the laws of chemistry.
4. Chemistry is a powerful tool for transforming nature and society. Safe use of chemistry is possible only in a highly developed society with stable moral categories.

Methodological principles and style of textbooks

1. The sequence of presentation of the material is focused on studying the chemical properties of the surrounding world with a gradual and delicate (i.e., unobtrusive) acquaintance with the theoretical foundations of modern chemistry. Descriptive sections alternate with theoretical ones. The material is evenly distributed throughout the entire training period.
2. Internal isolation, self-sufficiency and logical validity of the presentation. Any material is presented in the context of general problems in the development of science and society.
3. Constant demonstration of the connection of chemistry with life, frequent reminders of the applied importance of chemistry, popular science analysis of substances and materials that students encounter in everyday life.
4. High scientific level and rigor of presentation. The chemical properties of substances and chemical reactions are described as they actually occur. The chemistry in textbooks is real, not “paper”.
5. Friendly, easy and impartial presentation style. Simple, accessible and competent Russian language. Using “stories”—short, entertaining stories that connect chemical knowledge to everyday life—to facilitate comprehension. Wide use of illustrations, which make up about 15% of the volume of textbooks.
6. Two-level structure of material presentation. “Large print” is a basic level, “small print” is for deeper learning.
7. Widespread use of simple and visual demonstration experiments, laboratory and practical work to study the experimental aspects of chemistry and develop students’ practical skills.
8. Using questions and tasks of two levels of complexity for deeper assimilation and consolidation of the material.

We intend to include in the set of teaching aids:

• chemistry textbooks for grades 8–11;
• guidelines for teachers, thematic lesson planning;
• didactic materials;
• a book for students to read;
• Chemistry reference tables;
• computer support in the form of CDs containing: a) an electronic version of the textbook; b) reference materials; c) demonstration experiments; d) illustrative material; e) animation models; f) programs for solving computational problems; g) didactic materials.

We hope that the new textbooks will allow many schoolchildren to take a fresh look at our subject and show them that chemistry is a fascinating and very useful science.
In addition to textbooks, chemistry Olympiads play an important role in developing schoolchildren’s interest in chemistry.

Modern system of chemistry olympiads

The system of Chemistry Olympiads is one of the few educational structures that survived the collapse of the country. The All-Union Olympiad in Chemistry was transformed into the All-Russian Olympiad, retaining its main features. Currently, this Olympiad is held in five stages: school, district, regional, federal district and final. The winners of the final stage represent Russia at the International Chemistry Olympiad. The most important from the point of view of education are the most widespread stages - school and district, for which school teachers and methodological associations of cities and regions of Russia are responsible. The Ministry of Education is responsible for the entire Olympiad.
Interestingly, the former All-Union Olympiad in Chemistry has also been preserved, but in a new capacity. Every year the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University organizes an international Mendeleev Olympiad, in which winners and prize-winners of chemical olympiads from the CIS and Baltic countries participate. Last year, this Olympiad was held with great success in Almaty, this year in the city of Pushchino, Moscow region. The Mendeleev Olympiad allows talented children from the former republics of the Soviet Union to enter Moscow State University and other prestigious universities without exams. The communication between chemistry teachers during the Olympiad is also extremely valuable, as it contributes to the preservation of a single chemical space on the territory of the former Union.
In the last five years, the number of subject Olympiads has increased sharply due to the fact that many universities, in search of new forms of attracting applicants, began to hold their own Olympiads and count the results of these Olympiads as entrance exams. One of the pioneers of this movement was the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, which annually conducts correspondence and intramural Olympiad in chemistry, physics and mathematics. This Olympiad, which we called “MSU Entrant”, is already 10 years old this year. It provides equal access to all groups of schoolchildren to study at Moscow State University. The Olympiad takes place in two stages: correspondence and full-time. first - correspondence– the stage is of an introductory nature. We publish assignments in all specialized newspapers and magazines and distribute assignments to schools. Almost six months are allotted for a decision. We invite those who have completed at least half of the tasks to second stage – full-time tour, which takes place on the 20th of May. Written tasks in mathematics and chemistry allow us to determine the winners of the Olympiad, who receive advantages when entering our faculty.
The geography of this Olympiad is unusually wide. Every year, representatives of all regions of Russia take part in it - from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, as well as several dozen “foreigners” from the CIS countries. The development of this Olympiad has led to the fact that almost all talented children from the provinces come to study with us: more than 60% of students at the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University are from other cities.
At the same time, university Olympiads are constantly under pressure from the Ministry of Education, which promotes the ideology of the Unified State Exam and seeks to deprive universities of independence in determining the forms of admission of applicants. And here, oddly enough, the All-Russian Olympiad comes to the aid of the ministry. The ministry’s idea is that only participants in those Olympiads that are organizationally integrated into the structure of the All-Russian Olympiad should have advantages when entering universities. Any university can independently hold any Olympiad without any connection with the All-Russian Olympiad, but the results of such an Olympiad will not be counted towards admission to this university.
If such an idea is formalized into law, it will deal a rather strong blow to the university admission system and, most importantly, to high school students who will lose many incentives to enroll in the university of their choice.
However, this year admission to universities will follow the same rules, and in connection with this we want to talk about the entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University.

Entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University

The entrance exam in chemistry at Moscow State University is taken at six faculties: chemistry, biology, medicine, soil sciences, the Faculty of Materials Sciences, and the new Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics. The exam is written and lasts 4 hours. During this time, schoolchildren must solve 10 problems of varying levels of complexity: from trivial, i.e., “comforting” ones, to quite complex ones, which allow differentiating grades.
None of the tasks requires special knowledge beyond what is studied in specialized chemistry schools. Nevertheless, most problems are structured in such a way that their solution requires thinking, based not on memorization, but on knowledge of theory. As an example, we would like to give several such problems from different branches of chemistry.

Theoretical chemistry

Problem 1(Department of Biology). The rate constant for the isomerization reaction A B is equal to 20 s–1, and the rate constant for the reverse reaction B A is equal to 12 s–1. Calculate the composition of the equilibrium mixture (in grams) obtained from 10 g of substance A.

Solution
Let it turn into B x g of substance A, then the equilibrium mixture contains (10 – x) g A and x d B. At equilibrium, the rate of the forward reaction is equal to the rate of the reverse reaction:

20 (10 – x) = 12x,

where x = 6,25.
The composition of the equilibrium mixture: 3.75 g A, 6.25 g B.
Answer. 3.75 g A, 6.25 g B.

Inorganic chemistry

Problem 2(Department of Biology). What volume of carbon dioxide (NO) must be passed through 200 g of a 0.74% solution of calcium hydroxide so that the mass of the precipitate formed is 1.5 g, and the solution above the precipitate does not give color with phenolphthalein?

Solution
When carbon dioxide is passed through a solution of calcium hydroxide, a precipitate of calcium carbonate is first formed:

which can then be dissolved in excess CO2:

CaCO 3 + CO 2 + H 2 O = Ca(HCO 3) 2.

The dependence of the sediment mass on the amount of CO 2 substance has the following form:

If there is a lack of CO 2, the solution above the precipitate will contain Ca(OH) 2 and give a purple color with phenolphthalein. By the condition of this staining, there is no, therefore, CO 2 is in excess
compared to Ca(OH) 2, i.e., first all Ca(OH) 2 is converted into CaCO 3, and then CaCO 3 is partially dissolved in CO 2.

(Ca (OH) 2) \u003d 200 0.0074 / 74 \u003d 0.02 mol, (CaCO 3) \u003d 1.5 / 100 \u003d 0.015 mol.

In order for all the Ca(OH) 2 to pass into CaCO 3, 0.02 mol of CO 2 must be passed through the original solution, and then another 0.005 mol of CO 2 must be passed through so that 0.005 mol of CaCO 3 dissolves and 0.015 mol remains.

V(CO 2) = (0.02 + 0.005) 22.4 = 0.56 l.

Answer. 0.56 l CO 2 .

Organic chemistry

Problem 3(chemical faculty). An aromatic hydrocarbon with one benzene ring contains 90.91% carbon by mass. When 2.64 g of this hydrocarbon is oxidized with an acidified solution of potassium permanganate, 962 ml of gas is released (at 20 °C and normal pressure), and upon nitration, a mixture containing two mononitro derivatives is formed. Establish the possible structure of the starting hydrocarbon and write the schemes for the mentioned reactions. How many mononitro derivatives are formed during the nitration of a hydrocarbon oxidation product?

Solution

1) Determine the molecular formula of the desired hydrocarbon:

(C):(H) = (90.91/12):(9.09/1) = 10:12.

Therefore, the hydrocarbon is C 10 H 12 ( M= 132 g/mol) with one double bond in the side chain.
2) Find the composition of the side chains:

(C 10 H 12) = 2.64/132 = 0.02 mol,

(CO 2) = 101.3 0.962/(8.31 293) = 0.04 mol.

This means that two carbon atoms leave the C 10 H 12 molecule during oxidation with potassium permanganate, therefore, there were two substituents: CH 3 and C(CH 3) = CH 2 or CH = CH 2 and C 2 H 5.
3) Let us determine the relative orientation of the side chains: upon nitration, only the para isomer gives two mononitro derivatives:

When the product of complete oxidation, terephthalic acid, is nitrated, only one mononitro derivative is formed.

Biochemistry

Problem 4(Department of Biology). With complete hydrolysis of 49.50 g of oligosaccharide, only one product was formed - glucose, the alcoholic fermentation of which produced 22.08 g of ethanol. Establish the number of glucose residues in the oligosaccharide molecule and calculate the mass of water required for hydrolysis if the yield of the fermentation reaction is 80%.

N/( n – 1) = 0,30/0,25.

Where n = 6.
Answer. n = 6; m(H 2 O) = 4.50 g.

Problem 5(Faculty of Medicine). With complete hydrolysis of the pentapeptide Met-enkephalin, the following amino acids were obtained: glycine (Gly) – H 2 NCH 2 COOH, phenylalanine (Phe) – H 2 NCH(CH 2 C 6 H 5) COOH, tyrosine (Tyr) – H 2 NCH( CH 2 C 6 H 4 OH)COOH, methionine (Met) – H 2 NCH(CH 2 CH 2 SCH 3) COOH. From the products of partial hydrolysis of the same peptide, substances with molecular masses of 295, 279 and 296 were isolated. Establish two possible sequences of amino acids in this peptide (in abbreviated notation) and calculate its molar mass.

Solution
Based on the molar masses of the peptides, their composition can be determined using the hydrolysis equations:

dipeptide + H 2 O = amino acid I + amino acid II,
tripeptide + 2H 2 O = amino acid I + amino acid II + amino acid III.
Molecular masses of amino acids:

Gly – 75, Phe – 165, Tyr – 181, Met – 149.

295 + 2 18 = 75 + 75 + 181,
tripeptide – Gly–Gly–Tyr;

279 + 2 18 = 75 + 75 + 165,
tripeptide – Gly–Gly–Phe;

296 + 18 = 165 + 149,
dipeptide – Phe–Met.

These peptides can be combined into a pentapeptide as follows:

M= 296 + 295 – 18 = 573 g/mol.

The exact opposite sequence of amino acids is also possible:

Tyr–Gly–Gly–Phe–Met.

Answer.
Met–Phe–Gly–Gly–Tyr,
Tyr–Gly–Gly–Phe–Met; M= 573 g/mol.

Competition for the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University and other chemical universities has remained stable in recent years, and the level of training of applicants has been growing. Therefore, to summarize, we assert that, despite difficult external and internal circumstances, chemical education in Russia has good prospects. The main thing that convinces us of this is the inexhaustible flow of young talents, passionate about our beloved science, striving to get a good education and benefit their country.

V.V.EREMIN,
Associate Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University,
N.E.KUZMENKO,
Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University
(Moscow)

Lecture No. 3

System of content and construction of a school chemistry course.

School chemistry education concept

The changes taking place in the country affected the education system, which was not ready to solve many of the issues that faced it. There was a need to improve the education system (general and secondary). The Education Law of 1992 is the beginning of education reform. The Education Law identified the key problems of secondary school reform, including compulsory 9-year education (since 2007 - compulsory 11-year education). In this regard, the need arose to develop new educational content. The linear education system was replaced by a concentric one.

Linear system- the simplest way to study the material, in which, sequentially, having completed the study of one section, move on to the next. This method is easy to understand, because... designed for memory. Makes it easy to pass exams. The method can develop an idea of ​​chemistry as a science consisting of several main sections, but the connection between the blocks is not captured. Disadvantage: by the end of the course the beginning is forgotten.

Concentric method– the material is presented in stages with periodic return to what has been covered, but at a higher level. The difficulty of the method: the ideas given initially must be included in subsequent material, and not rejected. Students should not relearn, but expand their knowledge. It is believed that the method is designed for more developed students.

The concept was developed and adopted in 1993 by Lisichkin. The unified concept of education is based on the following ideas:

1. Statehood of the educational system, the education system is unified and common for the entire country (preschool, school, higher education).

2. The idea of ​​a differentiated approach is the choice of students at a certain stage of education in those disciplines that arouse the greatest interest. It is carried out through clubs, electives, and specialized education.

3. The idea of ​​humanizing education, to overcome the barrier between science and man. It is necessary to reveal the importance of chemical knowledge for everyday life. The subject of study is not just chemistry, but chemistry in relation to man. Chemistry remains an independent science, integration is possible only in the lower grades (natural science, the environment) and senior grades.

Main directions of modernization of education:

1. Updating the content of education and improving mechanisms for monitoring its quality.

2. Development and adoption of state standards of general education, unloading the content of education.

3. Development and adoption of new exemplary programs for secondary schools based on state educational standards and basic curricula (BUP)

4. Introduction to the Unified State Exam.

5. Introduction of specialized training at the senior level of secondary school.

1 . The new content of education should be diverse, variable and multi-level. The school chemical education system is an integral part of the general education system, the structure of which corresponds to the structure of the school and its main levels. Consists of links: propaedeutic, general(basic 8-9), profile(in-depth 10-11).

Propaedeutic chemical training is carried out in primary school and in grades 5-7 of basic school. Elements of chemical knowledge are included in integrated courses “the surrounding world”, “natural science” or systematic courses. Chemical knowledge at this stage should form an initial holistic understanding of the world. Students should gain an understanding of the composition and properties of some substances, some chemical elements, symbols, formulas, simple and complex substances, reactions of combination and decomposition. Now at this stage, “introduction to chemistry” courses are being developed and introduced (for example, the course developed by Chernobelskaya). A propaedeutic chemistry course for grade 7 includes initial information about chemical phenomena and substances based on atomic-molecular teaching. Taking into account the age-related psychological characteristics of students, the course is action-packed and works with various objects and subjects. Kur is built on the basis of simple experiments and observations. The peculiarity of the teaching methodology in this course is the refusal to memorize, strict scientific definitions, formulations, and the refusal to retell the text. Students receive all information and ideas during actively independent activities; all experiments are carried out independently using drawings. Homework is also creative. The course consists of four sections (35 hours). Section 1 - an idea of ​​atoms and molecules, Section 2 - chemistry, the science of transformations of chemical substances, Section 3 - oxygen - the most common element on earth, Section 4 - the main classes of inorganic compounds.

At the initial stage of studying chemistry, the use of experimental skills is of great importance; creative tasks are well used (for example, solving a chemical crossword puzzle).

By studying a propaedeutic course in chemistry, seventh-graders become familiar with the language of chemistry, receive initial information about substances and their transformations, and master practical skills. The practical implementation of a propaedeutic course allows you to save program time, prepare students to study a systematic course, and create a stable cognitive interest in the subject.

A basic level of– compulsory for all at least 8-9 grades, 2 hours per week. This is a systematic course that includes the most general concepts of general, inorganic and organic chemistry. The volume is stipulated in a special document of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, a mandatory minimum content of basic general education and is mandatory for any school.

Profile level– deepening knowledge in chemistry, the degree of deepening depends on the profile of the school. The volume is stipulated in a special document of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, a mandatory minimum content of basic secondary (complete) education.

The modern content of a school course in chemistry varies among different authors in terms of depth of presentation, structuring, etc. But they definitely contain a minimum of education. Chemistry is an experimental and theoretical science, but our school, due to a lack of material resources, is constantly sliding towards “paper” chemistry. The student places the coefficients, but has no idea what the participants in the reaction look like.

To correct this situation, it is necessary to increase the number of laboratory experiments and improve the equipment of the school laboratory. Modern chemistry should also be reflected in school textbooks.

2. In this regard, the development and adoption of state standards comes to the fore. The problem of standards arose in the early 90s, when the school set a course for the variability of education. Those. schools received freedom, some schools threw out this subject altogether. In a short period of time, numerous original programs, textbooks, and manuals were written in the country. Moreover, the quality of many was more than doubtful. It turned out that the content of education is overloaded with secondary, outdated information. Having received the right to work in any program of their choice, some schools have completely excluded chemistry from the curriculum. There is a danger of destruction of the country's unified educational space. As a result, the issue of standardizing the content of school education has become relevant. In the law of the Russian Federation on education, the state educational standard is the basis for assessing the level of education and qualifications of graduates, regardless of the form of education, and includes a mandatory invariant of the content of basic educational programs, the maximum volume of workload and requirements for the level of training of graduates. The State Educational Standard is designed to protect the student’s identity in the educational process and guarantee her the necessary minimum knowledge. The introduction of the State Educational Standard should ensure the equivalence of education received regardless of the type of educational institution. The law establishes 2 levels of standardization: Federal and National-regional.

Issues discussed at the lecture Goals and objectives of the school
chemical education
Content and structure
school chemical
education

The purpose of school chemical education:

personality formation,
knowledgeable about the basics
chemical science as a foundation
modern natural science,
convinced of material
unity of the world of substances and
objectivity of chemical
phenomena,
understanding
need to save
nature - the basis of life on Earth,
ready to work and able
organize your work

Objectives of school chemical education:

development of students' personality:
their thinking, hard work,
neatness and composure,
developing their experience
creative activity
system formation
chemical knowledge (the most important
factors, concepts, laws,
theories and language of science) as
science component
pictures of the world

formation of ideas about
methods of cognition characteristic of
natural sciences, –
experimental and theoretical
developing students' understanding
social need for development
chemistry, the formation of
attitudes towards chemistry as possible
areas of future practice
activities

formation
ecological culture
schoolchildren, literate
behavior and skills
safe handling
substances in everyday life
lifeContent of chemical
education is a system, functionally
complete in terms of solution
tasks of training, education and
student development

The system includes knowledge:

about matter and chemical reactions
about the use of substances and
chemical transformations, as well as
arising from this
environmental problems and ways
their decisions
ideas about development
chemical knowledge and objective
the need for such development

Stages of studying chemistry in secondary school:

1. Propaedeutic
2. Main
3. Profile

Propaedeutic approach to obtaining chemical knowledge
should cover the period from 1st to 7th
primary school classes
basic knowledge of chemistry
students receive while studying
integrated courses “Natural history”,
“The world around us”, “Natural history”,
systematic biology courses,
geography, physics
at the expense of the school or regional
component it is possible to study the chemical
propaedeutic course under conditional
entitled "Introduction to Chemistry"

Chemical knowledge acquired at the propaedeutic stage of education serves to solve the problem of developing in schoolchildren

original
a holistic view of the world

As a result of propaedeutic
Chemistry preparation students
should receive:
idea of ​​the composition and
properties of some substances
initial information about
chemical elements, symbols
chemical elements,
chemical formulas, simple and
complex substances, chemicals
phenomena, compound reactions and
decomposition

The study of chemistry at the level of basic general education is aimed at achieving the following goals:

mastering the most important knowledge about basic
concepts and laws of chemistry, chemical
symbolism
mastering observation skills
chemical phenomena, carry out
chemical experiment, produce
calculations based on chemical formulas
substances and chemical reaction equations

development of cognitive interests and
intellectual abilities in
process of chemical
experiment, independent
acquiring knowledge in accordance with
emerging life
needs
cultivating an attitude towards chemistry
one of the fundamental
components of natural science and element
universal human culture

application of acquired knowledge and
skills for safe use
substances and materials in everyday life, agriculture
economy and production, solutions
practical tasks in everyday
life, warning phenomena,
harmful to human health and
environment

Chemical knowledge at the main stage
learning generated during the study of the course
chemistry (YIII-IX classes), are
foundation for how to continue
specialized study of the subject in senior (XXI) grades of secondary (complete) school, and for
mastering a minimum of chemical knowledge (in
in accordance with the standard) in classes
non-chemical profile
Standard course volume in accordance with
Federal basic curriculum
is 2 hours per week in each class in
within 3 years

Contents of chemical education on
its main stage is intended to ensure
formation of students' ideas:
about the diversity of substances
about the dependence of the properties of substances on their
buildings
about material unity and genetic
relationship between organic and inorganic
substances
on the role of chemistry in understanding the phenomena of life
about solving environmental problems

Contents of the chemistry course for basic
general education is grouped into blocks:
methods of knowledge of substances and chemicals
phenomena
substance
chemical reaction
elementary fundamentals of inorganic
chemistry
initial ideas about
organic matter
chemistry and life

In the structure of the chemistry course content
The following didactic teachings are distinguished:
units::
laws, theories and concepts
chemical language
methods of chemical science
scientific facts
historical and
polytechnic knowledge
special, general scientific and
intellectual skills

Graduate
primary school:
must be able to use:
theoretical knowledge
factual knowledge
knowledge about methods of activity,
relevant to the study
chemistry
must be able to carry out:
chemical experiment in strict
in accordance with technical rules
security

Students must also carry out
educational activities of varying degrees
difficulties:
call
determine
characterize
explain
use (handle)
laboratory equipment)
conduct an experiment
carry out the necessary calculations
comply with the relevant regulations
safety and

The third stage of school chemical education falls on grades X-XI. The subject is studied differentiatedly in two

option ah -
basic and advanced level
At this stage, the study of chemistry
carried out within
systematic mathematical courses, including
invariant core of content,
but differing in volume and depth
presentation of the material, as well as
applied focus

Optional courses as a component
school chemistry systems
education:
implement a differentiated approach
to student learning
provide conditions for the formation
schoolchildren's sustained interest in
chemistry, development of their creative
abilities

prepare primary school students for
choosing a profile for further education
in high school, and senior students
classes - to study in higher educational
establishments

Completed by: teacher

Municipal educational institution "Novo-Vyselskaya secondary school"

Shakhanova S.V.

Content:

I. Introduction

II a) Problems and ways of developing a school course in chemistry

new chemistry textbooks

VI. Literature

I. Introduction

The question of what chemistry should be taught in school is closely related to the analysis of modern trends in the development of chemical science, the problems that it should solve, as well as the problem of identifying the specifics of the educational process and the characteristics of the intellectual development of students at a certain stage of education.

In the modern world, people interact with a huge variety of materials and substances of natural and anthropogenic origin. This interaction reflects a complex set of relationships in the “man – matter” and “substance – material – practical activity” systems. The results of people's activities are largely determined by such specific components of culture as morality and environmental literacy. In the formation of these cultural components, an important place should be given to chemical knowledge.

Chemistry is not only a science, but also a significant branch of production. Chemical technology forms the basis of such “non-chemical” industries as ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, the food and microbiological industries, the production of medicines, the building materials industry and even nuclear energy. This should be reflected in teaching chemistry.

Chemistry studies a number of specific patterns of the surrounding world - the relationship between the structure and properties of a complex system, the evolution of matter. These laws, which form the basis of chemical science, should be reflected in the chemistry curriculum.

II. The program of modernization (reform) of education in Russia and its shortcomings

The Soviet Union had a well-functioning system of chemical education based on a linear approach, with the study of chemistry beginning in middle school and ending in high school. In all schools, the chemistry study program was designed for four years. There was an agreed upon scheme for ensuring the educational process, including a school curriculum and textbooks, a system of training and advanced training for teachers, a system of chemical olympiads at all levels, sets of teaching aids (School Library, Teacher's Library, etc.), publicly available methodological journals (etc. .d.), demonstration and laboratory instruments for schools.

Education is a conservative and inert system, therefore, even after the collapse of the USSR, chemical education, having suffered heavy financial losses, continued to fulfill its tasks. However, several years ago a reform of the education system began in Russia, the main goal of which is to support the entry of new generations into the globalized world, into the open information community. To achieve this, according to the authors of the reform, communication, computer science, foreign languages, and intercultural learning should occupy a central place in the content of education. As we see, there is no place for natural sciences in this reform.

It was announced that the new reform should ensure a transition to a system of quality indicators and education standards comparable to the world. A plan of specific measures has been developed and, in many respects, is already being implemented, among which the main ones are the transition to 12-year schooling, the introduction of a unified state exam (USE) in the form of universal testing, the development of new educational standards based on a concentric scheme, according to which by the time students complete their nine-year school must have a holistic understanding of the subject.

This reform met quite serious resistance both in the educational environment and at a high political level, so two years ago the rhetoric changed: instead of “reform” they began to talk about “modernization”, but the essence remained the same.

How does this reform affect chemistry education in Russia? In our opinion, it is strongly negative. The fact is that among the developers of the Concept for the Modernization of Russian Education there was not a single representative of natural science, therefore the interests of the latter were completely not taken into account in this concept. The Unified State Exam in the form in which the authors of the reform conceived it will break the system of transition from secondary school to higher education, which universities created with such difficulty in the first years of Russian independence, and will destroy the continuity of Russian education.

One of the arguments in favor of the Unified State Exam is that, according to reform ideologists, it will ensure equal access to higher education for various social strata and territorial groups of the population. Many years of experience in distance learning, associated with the Soros Olympiad in Chemistry and the correspondence and full-time form of admission to the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, shows that distance testing, firstly, does not provide an objective assessment of knowledge, and, secondly, does not provide students with equal opportunities. Over the 5 years of the Soros Olympiads, more than 100 thousand written works in chemistry passed through the department, and this showed that the general level of solutions very much depends on the region; in addition, the lower the educational level of the region, the more identical works copied from each other were sent from there.

Unified testing not only does not provide equal opportunities, but, on the contrary, puts strong students who know the subject well in worse conditions. For example, in a chemistry test, many questions are based on “paper” ideas about the subject. Real chemistry is different from the one laid down in the tests. A competent young chemist will answer many questions correctly from the point of view of the subject, but his answer will differ from the author’s and he will receive fewer points than his opponent, who does not know chemistry, but has learned the correct answers. Students and staff of the Chemistry Faculty of Moscow State University studied the Unified State Exam materials and discovered a large number of incorrect or ambiguous questions that cannot be used for testing schoolchildren.

Another significant objection to the Unified State Exam is that testing itself, as a form of knowledge testing, has significant limitations. Even a correctly designed test does not allow an objective assessment of a student’s ability to reason and draw conclusions. We came to the conclusion that the Unified State Exam can be used only as one of the forms of monitoring the work of secondary schools, but in no case as the only monopoly mechanism for access to higher education.

Another negative aspect of the reform is related to the development of new education standards, which should bring the Russian education system closer to the European one. In the draft standards proposed in 2002 by the Ministry of Education, one of the main principles of science education was violated - subject matter. The leaders of the team that compiled the project suggested thinking about abandoning separate school courses in chemistry, physics and biology and replacing them with a single integrated course “Natural Science”. Such a decision, even if made for the long term, would simply bury chemical, physical and biological education in our country.

Chemistry is an independent scientific discipline that has a clear subject and a system of laws and rules. The integration of chemistry with physics, biology and mathematics does not reduce it to these sciences. The same objects, such as atoms or nucleic acids, are studied in different ways by different sciences. Therefore, chemistry cannot be included in one general subject “Natural Science”; it must retain its individuality. At the same time, curricula in chemistry, physics and mathematics must be simply coordinated. For example, it is convenient to study the periodic law after the structure of the atom has been studied in physics, and the hydrogen exponent - after the concept of logarithm has been introduced in mathematics.

Problems and ways to develop a school chemistry course

Summary of the speech by O.S. Gabrielyan

We are the last Mohicans: chemistry teachers are doomed to extinction. We only have 2 hours left in grades 8-9, and as a result, chemistry teachers as a class may disappear. Either they will leave school due to lack of workload, or they will lose their qualifications, forced to teach both history and geography.

Secondary education is transferred to a specialized school. This is good in terms of preparation for the Unified State Exam; now it is difficult to prepare in 2 hours. And if the profile is humanitarian, the chemistry teacher does not have responsibility for preparing for the Unified State Exam. They came, showed the meaning of chemistry and left. The bad thing is that the load drops. How to deal with the reduction in the number of hours and the number of teachers?

The first way. Methodologists and chemistry teachers should defend a one-hour “Chemistry” course against the introduction of a “Natural Science” course. The Natural Science course is not ready:

No textbooks;

There is no methodology;

No didactics;

And most importantly, there are no teachers.

To introduce a Science course, serious preparation is required. Otherwise, it will be taught by physicists, biologists, whoever - which will further reduce the workload for a chemistry teacher. Therefore, it is necessary to defend at least this one hour for the academic subject “Chemistry”. It is clear that this is not enough. Where can I get extra hours?

Second way. Elective courses. It can be:

Pre-professional courses, in 9th grade, short (7-12 hours). They are important for the distribution of schoolchildren by profile, and therefore for the formation of the chemistry teacher’s workload in the future.

Core subjects - about 20% of the teaching load in high school is allocated to them, 140-200 hours. How are they different from electives? Profile elective subjects are a mandatory component of the curriculum; each student is required to choose and study 3 elective subjects. Types of specialized elective courses:

Professional education (“Analytical chemistry”, “Chemical technology”, etc.). Such elective courses will be taken at a school that has a specialized chemical profile.

Preparing students for the Unified State Exam ("Selected Chapters", "Problem Solving") such courses will be needed by schoolchildren and non-chemical students, who nevertheless need chemistry to enter a university (and to successfully study there) in medicine, agriculture, etc. .

General development of students ("Food additives", "Chemistry and human health") - courses are useful and interesting for students of any profile.

By enrolling students in elective courses, the chemistry teacher compensates for the loss of 2 hours. What difficulties does a teacher face along this path?

There are no textbooks or methods for these subjects. It’s bad when teachers oblige you to develop elective courses. This is not his responsibility and cannot be forced, although if the teacher undertakes this, it can only be welcomed.

Nowadays you can find programs for many elective courses, but there are only names of topics and a list of literature, which is often difficult to access. A difficult problem arises in preparing for classes. The teachers ask: give us a textbook. It is advisable to have two books:

Book for teachers - program, thematic planning, experimental techniques;

A book for a student is a collection of materials from various sources on educational topics.

The third way to maintain a full course of chemistry is propaedeutics of chemistry. Starting chemistry a year earlier will make up for the hours lost in senior level. The Federal PBU does not provide such an opportunity. But in a number of regions they found the opportunity to introduce propaedeutic courses through the regional and school components.

Textbook “Chemistry. Introductory course. 7th grade" in collaboration with I.G. Ostroumov and A.K. Akhlebinin took 12 years to write. The difficulty is that propaedeutics is not everywhere, and it is necessary to maintain equal conditions for schoolchildren entering the 8th grade. The main ideas of this textbook are presented in its four chapters:

Idea No. 1. Chemistry at the center of natural sciences. Nothing new is given here; the chemical material of other educational subjects is generalized and updated: natural history, biology, geography, physics...

It also discusses general questions of the methodology of natural sciences: what are observations, what are models...

Idea No. 2. Solving calculation problems in the main course fails, mainly due to the poor mathematical preparation of students. This is the reason for the section “Mathematics in Chemistry”, where the basic methods are updated - parts of the whole and proportions. The mass fraction of an element in a substance, a substance in a solution, and impurities are considered.

Idea No. 3. We don’t have time to conduct a full-fledged chemistry experiment in primary school: “Chemical Hands” suffer. The practical work of the propaedeutic course is intended to help solve this problem. “Observations of a burning candle”, “Preparation of solutions”, “Growing crystals”, “Purification of table salt”, “Study of iron corrosion”.

Idea No. 4. Interest, motivate, educate. Hence the section “Stories about chemistry”: “Stories about scientists”, “Stories about elements and substances” “Stories about reactions”

But if the 7th grade course becomes widespread and stable, it can solve other problems. Therefore, now, together with I.G. Ostroumov developed a new textbook for grade 7, which was presented in the newspaper “Chemistry” under the title “Start in Chemistry”. A textbook for such a course was published by the Sirin Prema publishing house under the title “Introduction to the Chemistry of Matter.” It contains a large number of color illustrations dedicated to specific chemicals. In this textbook, the section “Chemistry in Statics” is transferred from the main course to the 7th grade chemistry course:

structure of matter (atoms, molecules, ions - without atomic structure and chemical bonds), mixtures of substances and their separation, simple substances (metals and non-metals), complex substances (4 classes of inorganic substances, valency).

This redistribution of material will make the 8th grade course less loaded.

So, the main ways to preserve and develop the school chemistry course in the context of the transition to specialized education are as follows:

Preservation of an individual course of chemistry at the senior level of secondary school, regardless of the profile;

Development of a system of elective chemistry courses aimed at students not only in chemistry, but also in any other profile;

Transition to an earlier start to the study of chemistry in primary school.

III. Problems of school chemical education

From the general problems of the modernization of education, let's move on to the problems of chemical education itself. In order to determine its main tasks, it is enough to answer a simple question: . If we are not talking about schoolchildren focused on future professional work in the field of chemistry, then the answer may be this: the task of school chemistry education is to give children a competent idea of ​​the properties of substances and their transformations in nature. The guys should know what the objects around them consist of, and what can happen to these objects under various influences: how firewood burns, what air consists of, why iron rusts, how to collect spilled mercury, etc.

Chemistry is a primarily experimental science. Modern high school, due to a lack of material resources, is constantly sliding towards “paper chemistry”. There are often situations when a good student knows how to place coefficients in a complex equation, but has no idea what the participants in the reaction look like, and does not even know whether they are solid or liquid. In order to correct this situation, it is necessary to increase the number of laboratory classes and dramatically improve the equipment of educational chemical laboratories (offices). Each school should be equipped with a chemistry classroom with the minimum necessary set of equipment and reagents. To do this, you can use the services of domestic industry, which is developing special programs for equipping school laboratories. Today the situation is such that in Russia many schools do not have school chemistry classrooms at all.

Another problem is related to the logical structure and theoretical content of school chemical education. Theoretical models, structures and terminology of modern chemistry are rapidly developing and becoming more complex. Modern chemistry, of course, should be reflected at the school level. Theoretical chemistry can no longer be presented at the level of the middle of the last century. In principle, any chemical concepts can be clearly explained to schoolchildren, such as the dual nature of the electron, the elementary stage of a reaction, or the hydrogen index. These explanations, however, must also be scientifically sound, so that schoolchildren do not get the idea that an atom is a set of arrows, a chemical bond is a “stick” connecting atoms, and an electron is a spinning top. In recent years, the scientific level of school curricula and textbooks has increased somewhat, but no one has yet succeeded in achieving a clear and precise presentation of theoretical chemistry.

An important task of specialized chemical education is to prepare students for higher education. A successful transition from secondary school to higher education should be facilitated by a competent program for applicants to universities. The existing program, proposed by the Ministry of Education and mandatory for all universities including universities, has significant substantive shortcomings. It lacks a number of important sections and concepts, such as the state of aggregation of a substance, acid-base reactions in solutions, hydrolysis. In order to correct the situation, it is necessary to create a new program that would combine scientific and methodological ideas that have already been tested in programs for admission to Russian universities, chemical-technological and medical universities.

To summarize, we can formulate main directions of positive activities aimed at preserving traditions and developing chemical education in Russia:

• 
  creation of a new school chemistry curriculum;
• 
  creation of a new set of textbooks for this program;
• 
  development of an experimental base for school chemical education on the basis of domestic industry;
• 
  creation of a unified basic chemistry program for university applicants

However, there is another global problem that covers all of the above areas: this is the problem state standard of general education.

III. New state standard for school chemical education

The problem of the standard arose in the early 90s of the last century, when, with the active participation of the then Minister of Education E. Dneprov, school education set a course for variability. In a short period of time, numerous proprietary programs, textbooks, and manuals on chemistry were written in the country, while the quality of many of them was more than questionable. Each teacher received the right to choose what and how to teach. As a result, it quickly became clear that the content of education is overloaded with secondary information that is of no importance either for the further development of students or for the life around them. The issue of standardizing the content of school education has become urgent.

In June 2002, the bill “On the State Standard of General Education” was adopted by the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the first reading. In accordance with it, approval of the standard must be preceded by public discussion of the project. To develop standards, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, together with the Academy of Education, created a temporary research team under the leadership of RAO academicians E. Dneprov and V. Shadrikov, who published their project a few months later. Public discussion, which took place in many schools, universities, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, showed the inconsistency of this project. Thus, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences in its resolution noted that “the draft... state standard of general education prepared by the Russian Ministry of Education is unsatisfactory. Its adoption will lead to a catastrophic decline in the level of school education in our country with a subsequent inevitable decline in its defense and economic potential.” After this, new working groups were created to finalize the standards.

Within the framework of the concentric scheme adopted in Russia, three standards in chemistry have been developed: (1) basic general education (grades 8-9), (2) basic secondary education (grades 10-11) and (3) specialized secondary education (grades 10-11) .

When starting to develop a standard for chemical education, the authors proceeded from the development trends of modern chemistry and took into account its role in natural science and in society. Modern chemistry is a fundamental system of knowledge about the surrounding world, based on rich experimental material and reliable theoretical principles. The scientific content of the standard is based on two basic concepts: i.

The main concept of chemistry. Substances surround us everywhere: in the air, food, soil, household appliances, plants and, finally, in ourselves. Some of these substances are given to us by nature in finished form (oxygen, water, proteins, carbohydrates, oil, gold), the other part is obtained by a person by a slight modification of natural compounds (asphalt or artificial fibers), but the largest number of substances that were previously found in nature did not exist, man synthesized them on his own. These are modern materials, medicines, catalysts. To date, about 20 million organic and about half a million inorganic substances are known, and each of them has an internal structure. Organic and inorganic synthesis has reached such a high degree of development that it is possible to synthesize compounds with any predetermined structure. In this regard, the applied aspect comes to the fore in modern chemistry, in which the emphasis is on the relationship between the structure of a substance and its properties, and the main task is to search for and synthesize useful substances and materials with desired properties.

The most important thing about the world around us is that it is constantly changing. The second main concept of chemistry is this. Every moment in the world there is an innumerable number of reactions, as a result of which one substance turns into another. We can observe some reactions directly, for example, the rusting of iron objects, blood clotting, and the combustion of automobile fuel. At the same time, the vast majority of reactions remain invisible, but they determine the properties of the world around us. In order to learn how to manage this world, a person must deeply understand the nature of reactions and the laws that they obey. The task of modern chemistry is to study the functions of substances in complex chemical and biological systems, to analyze the relationship between the structure of a substance and its functions, and to synthesize substances with given functions.

Based on the fact that the standard should serve as a tool for the development of education, it was proposed to unload the content of basic general education and leave in it only those content elements whose educational value is confirmed by domestic and world practice of teaching chemistry at school. The minimum in volume, but functionally complete system of knowledge, presented in the standard of basic general education, is structured into six content blocks:

• 
  Methods of knowledge of substances and chemical phenomena
• 
  Substance
• 
  Chemical reaction
• 
  Elementary Foundations of Inorganic Chemistry
• 
  Initial ideas about organic substances
• 
  Chemistry and life

The standard of basic secondary education is divided into five content blocks:

• 
  Methods of learning chemistry
• 
  Theoretical foundations of chemistry
• 
  Inorganic chemistry
• 
  Organic chemistry
• 
  Chemistry and life

The last blocks in each standard were introduced to strengthen the practical life orientation of learning. For the same purpose, the sections “Requirements for the level of graduate training” list situations of everyday life and practical activity in which it is necessary to use the knowledge and skills acquired in chemistry lessons.

Continuity between general and secondary education is ensured by the fact that the basis of both standards is D.I. Mendeleev’s Periodic Law, the theory of the structure of atoms and molecules, the theory of electrolytic dissociation and the structural theory of organic compounds.

The two levels of the educational standard of secondary (complete) education - basic and specialized - differ significantly in their goals and content. The basic intermediate level standard is intended primarily to provide high school graduates with the opportunity to navigate social and personal problems related to chemistry. In the profile-level standard, the knowledge system is significantly expanded, primarily due to ideas about the structure of atoms and molecules, as well as the patterns of chemical reactions, considered from the point of view of the theories of chemical kinetics and chemical thermodynamics. This ensures that high school graduates are prepared to continue their chemical education in higher education.

Currently, all three chemistry standards are undergoing public discussion and are being prepared for legislative approval .

IV. New school curriculum and
new chemistry textbooks

The new, scientifically based standard of chemical education has prepared fertile ground for the development of a new school curriculum and the creation of a set of school textbooks based on it.

The chemistry course program of the basic secondary school is designed for students in grades 8 - 9. It is distinguished from the standard programs currently operating in Russian secondary schools by more precise interdisciplinary connections and precise selection of material necessary to create a holistic natural-scientific perception of the world, comfortable and safe interaction with the environment in production and everyday life. The program is structured in such a way that its main attention is paid to those sections of chemistry, terms and concepts that are in one way or another connected with everyday life, and are not limited to a narrow circle of people whose activities are related to chemical science.

The task of the first year of teaching chemistry (8th grade) is to develop students’ basic chemical skills and chemical thinking, primarily on objects familiar to them from everyday life (oxygen, air, water). In 8th grade, we deliberately avoid concepts that are difficult for students to understand and practically do not use calculation problems. The main idea of ​​this part of the course is to instill in students the skills to describe the properties of various substances grouped into classes, as well as to show the connection between their structure and properties. In the second year of study (9th grade), schoolchildren become familiar with the basic theories of inorganic chemistry - the theory of electrolytic dissociation and the theory of redox processes. Based on these theories, the properties of inorganic substances are considered. A special section briefly discusses the elements of organic chemistry and biochemistry.

In order to develop a chemical view of the world, the course makes broad correlations between the elementary chemical knowledge acquired by students in the classroom and the properties of those objects that are known to schoolchildren in everyday life, but were previously perceived by them only at the everyday level. Based on chemical concepts, students are invited to look at precious and finishing stones, glass, earthenware, porcelain, paints, food, and modern materials. The program has expanded the range of objects that are described and discussed only at a qualitative level, without resorting to cumbersome chemical equations and complex formulas. We paid great attention to the style of presentation, which allows us to introduce and discuss chemical concepts and terms in a lively and visual form. In this regard, the interdisciplinary connections of chemistry with other sciences, not only natural, but also humanities, are constantly emphasized.

The new program is implemented in a set of school textbooks for grades 8-9, which have been published. When creating textbooks, we took into account the changing social role of chemistry and public interest in it, which is caused by two main interrelated factors. The first is, i.e. negative attitude of society towards chemistry and its manifestations. In this regard, it is important to explain at all levels that the bad is not in chemistry, but in people who do not understand the laws of nature or have moral problems. Chemistry is a very powerful tool, in the laws of which there are no concepts of good and evil. Using the same laws, you can come up with a new technology for the synthesis of drugs or poisons, or you can come up with a new medicine or a new building material. Another social factor is the progressive chemical illiteracy of society at all levels - from politicians and journalists to housewives. Most people have absolutely no idea what the world around them consists of, do not know the elementary properties of even the simplest substances and cannot distinguish nitrogen from ammonia, or ethyl alcohol from methyl alcohol. It is in this area that a competent chemistry textbook, written in simple and understandable language, can play a great educational role.

When creating textbooks, we proceeded from the following postulates.

The main objectives of the school chemistry course:

1. 
   Formation of a scientific picture of the surrounding world and development of a natural science worldview. Presentation of chemistry as a central science aimed at solving pressing problems of humanity.
2. 
   Development of chemical thinking, the ability to analyze the phenomena of the surrounding world in chemical terms, development of the ability to speak and think in chemical language.
3. 
   Popularization of chemical knowledge and introduction of ideas about the role of chemistry in everyday life and its applied significance in the life of society. Development of environmental thinking and familiarity with modern chemical technologies.
4. 
   Formation of practical skills for safe handling of substances in everyday life.
5. 
   Awakening keen interest among schoolchildren in the study of chemistry, both as part of the school curriculum and additionally.

The main ideas of the school chemistry course

1. 
   Chemistry is the central science of nature, closely interacting with other natural sciences. The applied capabilities of chemistry are of fundamental importance for the life of society.
2. 
   The surrounding world consists of substances that are characterized by a certain structure and are capable of mutual transformations. There is a connection between the structure and properties of substances. The task of chemistry is to create substances with useful properties.
3. 
   The surrounding world is constantly changing. Its properties are determined by the chemical reactions that take place in it. In order to control these reactions, it is necessary to deeply understand the laws of chemistry.
4. 
   Chemistry is a powerful tool for transforming nature and society. The safe use of chemistry is possible only in a highly developed society with stable moral categories.

Methodological principles and style of textbooks

1. 
   The sequence of presentation of the material is focused on the study of the chemical properties of the surrounding world with a gradual and delicate acquaintance with the theoretical foundations of modern chemistry. Descriptive sections alternate with theoretical ones. The material is evenly distributed over the entire period of study.
2. 
   Constant demonstration of the connection of chemistry with life, frequent reminders of the applied importance of chemistry, popular science analysis of substances and materials that students encounter in everyday life.
3. 
   High scientific level and rigor of presentation. The chemical properties of substances and chemical reactions are described as they actually occur. Chemistry in textbooks is real, not.
4. 
   Friendly, easy and impartial style of presentation. Simple, accessible and competent Russian language. Use short, entertaining stories that connect chemical knowledge to everyday life to facilitate comprehension. Wide use of illustrations, which make up about 15% of the volume of textbooks.
5. 
   Widespread use of simple and visual demonstration experiments, laboratory and practical work to study the experimental aspects of chemistry and develop students' practical skills.

In addition to textbooks, it is planned to publish methodological instructions for teachers, reading books for students, a problem book in chemistry and computer support in the form of CDs containing an electronic version of the textbook, reference materials, demonstration experiments, illustrations, animation models, programs for solving calculation problems .

We hope that these textbooks will allow many schoolchildren to take a fresh look at our subject and show them that chemistry is not only useful, but also a very exciting science.

V. Modern system of chemical olympiads

In addition to textbooks, chemistry Olympiads play an important role in developing schoolchildren’s interest in chemistry. The system of Chemistry Olympiads is one of the few educational structures that survived the collapse of the country. From the very first year of the existence of independent Russia, the All-Russian Olympiad in Chemistry began to be held. Currently, this Olympiad is held in five stages: school, district, regional, federal district and final. The winners of the final stage represent Russia at the International Chemistry Olympiad. The most important from the point of view of education are the most widespread stages - school and district, for which school teachers and methodological associations of cities and regions of Russia are responsible. The Ministry of Education is generally responsible for the entire Olympiad.

Interestingly, the former All-Union Olympiad in Chemistry has also been preserved, but in a new capacity. Every year, the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University organizes the international Mendeleev Olympiad, in which the winners and prize-winners of chemical Olympiads from the CIS and Baltic countries participate.

The Mendeleev Olympiad allows talented children from the former republics of the Soviet Union to enter Moscow University and other prestigious universities without exams. In addition, this Olympiad is a powerful tool for creating a unified educational chemistry space in the participating countries. Gifted schoolchildren receive new opportunities to communicate with their peers and future professional colleagues from other countries. Over the years, the jury and organizing committee of the Mendeleev Olympiad were headed by famous scientists: academicians Yu.A. Zolotov, A.L. Buchachenko, P.D. Sarkisov. Currently, the Olympiad is led by Academician V.V. Lunin.

To summarize, we can say that despite difficult external and internal circumstances, chemical education in Russia is at a fairly high level and has good prospects. The main thing that convinces us of this is the inexhaustible flow of young talents, passionate about our beloved science and striving to get a good education and benefit themselves and their country.

Literature:

1. 
   O.S. Gabrielyan “Problems and ways of developing a school chemistry course” Abstract of a speech at the seminar “Content and methods of teaching chemistry...”, APKiPPRO.

1. V.V.EREMIN, Associate Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University,
   N.E.KUZMENKO,Professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Moscow State University
   (Moscow) “Modern chemical education in Russia:
   standards, textbooks, olympiads, exams.” Performance at the second
   Moscow Pedagogical Marathon
   educational subjects, April 9, 2003