Title: Cost-effective Chemistry
in the Primary School
Coordinator(s): J.D.
Bradley
Remarks: Joint ICSU-CTC project
Completion Date: 2000
Objective:
A low-cost small scale primary school science system will be developed
and then evaluated in a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is to stimulate interest in science generally, and in chemistry
in particular.
Description:
There is abundant
evidence that practical work in science education is under siege.
Practical work in primary and secondary schools even in developed
countries is contracting as cost, safety and environmental issues
take their toll. In developing countries, cost has been the main
influence causing its virtual demise. As a result, science remains
abstract and alien to young students and they are not attracted
to further study. The problem is currently being addressed at the
secondary school level with microchemistry kits and ancillary materials
developed at the RADMASTE Centre in South Africa. A joint programme
with UNESCO and IUPAC-CTC is disseminating information about this
approach, and it has aroused serious interest in both developed
and developing countries. We now wish to complete the design of
equipment and supporting materials for chemistry at the primary
school level. This level of education is of particular importance,
because in developing countries many students do not proceed further.
Hence public understanding of science is critically dependent on
primary school experiences. The prototype system will be evaluated
in a number of sub-Saharan countries where we have established suitable
contacts: Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique,
Rwanda and Zambia.
Progress:
A complete system for doing practical work from grade 4 to 7 in
science has been carefully designed. The system consists of a pupil's
pack, a facilitator's pack, and a chemicals pack and has the capacity
to serve as a solution to lack of equipment and laboratories, safety
problems, and even to limited teacher knowledge and skills in primary
school sciences.