A CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE FOR ALL: LEARNING ABOUT POLYMERS

The 21st century is already marked as the century of synthetic polymer materials and their presence in our daily lives makes them unavoidable in chemistry education. The theme of Synthetic polymers is rather extensive, therefore only contents necessary to any student (individual) should be chosen. In the present paper, synthetic polymers are considered as a necessity in everyday life, in technology and economy of the contemporary world, as well as potential pollutants of the environment. Knowledge about basic procedures for polymer synthesis, their physical and chemical properties, ways of degradation, all this makes possible for every individual to properly choose and utilize various synthetic materials in diverse areas where they are used. This way provides the perception of the interactive relation between science and society. The teaching of the theme Polymers enabled students to use knowledge of chemistry from various fields in a situation different from the one where it had been acquired and to link the concepts into a single system. The teaching of the theme proceeded through the discussion and enquiry-based experiments in work with small groups during two teaching hours (1.5 h). The investigation was carried out with a group of high school students (85). Statistically significant difference (p<0.001) in the achieved results at final testing (73.4%) compared to initial testing (32.6%), especially in tasks related to comprehension and application of chemistry concepts, indicates that the tested method of work is applicable in school practice.