New Perspectives in Science Education

Photocatalytic reactions play an important role in science and technology as well as in everyday life, e.g. for the decomposition of harmful organic substances, fabrication of self-cleaning glasses or water-splitting for a sustainable energy generation. The Collaborative Research Centre 1073 (CRC) “Atomic Scale Control of Energy Conversion” at the University of Göttingen deals with these topics to improve the basics of a sustainable energy future, to develop the possibilities for a more effective use of energy and an improved understanding of the elementary steps of energy conversion in materials. Since conversion efficiencies in solar cells, batteries or photocatalysts are still far below the possible thermodynamic limits [1], significant improvement requires fundamental research on new material systems which allow to control dissipation channels. In order to give highschool students insights into this field of research, we developed a teaching concept for school chemistry education. The concept “From Sunscreen to Solar Cell” includes hands-on experiments with TiO₂ and ZnO isolated from suncreen as well as teaching materials referring to the topic “Photocatalytic Water Splitting”. The model of educational reconstruction from Kattmann et al. (1997) was applied as theoretical framework for the development of the concept and includes the analysis of content structure, perspectives of the learners and the development and evaluation of teaching and learning environments [2]. A close cooperation with teachers and a connection to the curriculum is implemented in order to ensure the sustainability of the concept.

References

[1] www.sfb1073.uni-goettingen.de (01/12/2013)

[2] U. Kattmann, R. Duit, H. Gropengießer, M. Komorek (1997), Das Modell der Didaktischen Rekonstruktion – Ein Rahmen für naturwissenschaftsdidaktische Forschung und Entwicklung, ZfDN, 3, 3-18.