Microscale Chemistry Center

Industry on microscale: a project to create a bond between schools and industry

Erik Joling
AMSTEL Institute, Universiteit van Amsterdam

Abstract

Though the chemical industry is an important branch of industry in the Netherlands, chemistry studies are not very popular. The project “Industry on microscale” should give pupils a better picture of the chemical industry. It intends to initiate and stimulate company-school partnerships resulting in a lesson series including a visit to the plant and a microscale practical. The experiences of fifteen partnerships will be bundled in a handbook. This paper1 reports the plans and the first results.

Introduction

The Netherlands is the home of large (chemical) companies like Shell, Akzo-Nobel, DSM and Unilever. In fact, the chemical industry is the largest branch of industry, providing 15% of the country’s industrial production, 20% of the industrial export and 10% of the employment. In this branch of industry, twice as much academics as in other branches are employed. Yet, it seems that chemistry (as the other sciences) is not a very popular choice amongst school leavers. In 1999 39.7% (13609) of the pupils in pre-university education took an examination in chemistry. Less than 4% of them (537, just 2% of all freshmen) started to study chemistry at university. Moreover, the trend seems to be downhill. The Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI) expects that in a few years the number of chemistry graduates will satisfy only half the need for replacement: less than 400 chemists will graduate in 2004 (600 in 1999, 800 in 1996).
Fortunately, this Achilles heel of the chemical industry might have positive consequences for secondary chemistry education: the chemical industry and the government should be willing to invest more in chemical education.
The government and the chemical community indeed took some initiatives to improve the deplorable state of chemistry. A selection: Some of these initiatives might be criticised. For example, the VNCI grants are in fact old fashioned awards and with respect to the student’s budget just a drop in the ocean. It is not enough money to pay the yearly NLG 2.874 tuition and even the gross minimum youth wages for a 22 years old are more (NLG 2,045.40 a month). I wonder what these brilliant students would study without this grant. According to a survey by Statistics Netherlands (Sinkeldam, 2001), 15% of the pupils in secondary education regret they chose chemistry as an examination subject. Only commercial science and economics caused more regret and English proves to be the best choice being regretted by a tiny 1% of the pupils. This means that almost four times as much pupils regret to have chemistry than love it so much that they decide to study chemistry after leaving school (15% vs. 4%). Perhaps something really goes wrong in secondary chemical education.

Attractive chemical education

There are many ideas to make chemical education more attractive. In the last twenty years the schoolbooks became more colourful, hundreds of amazing demonstrations were published2, history and philosophy became part of the art (Matthews, 1994), as did STS. Another trend is the emphasis on practical work in the chemistry classroom. I think practical work is invaluable in chemical education. It not just provides the experiences needed to build real knowledge but it also has a value on its own. I met pupils who really liked to synthesise analgesics, who enjoyed the beauty of crystals of benzoic acid growing in a sublimation apparatus without any thought of becoming a chemist. They just liked it. A driving force behind any effort to encourage practical work in the chemistry classroom might be found in the opinion of Michael Schallies from Heidelberg, Germany. He told me during a GDCP meeting in Essen that we must focus on the 95% of the pupils who would not become a chemist. Their chemistry classes in school are the only chance in their lives to explore nature by experimenting. Putting it strongly, this means that we should not regard pupils as subjects that have to be pushed to study chemistry. They are young individuals, who discover the world around them. A world they can explore in chemistry class from a chemical point of view.

Though most Dutch schools offered practical work, organic labs were quite rare, due to presumed risks, cost of chemicals, or lack of glassware and suitable experiments. While organic chemistry is immanent in the chemical industry, most practical work in school dealt with watery solutions of inorganic salts. Therefore, we launched a project to enable teachers to have organic labs in their school.

Microscale experiments

Some 40 years ago Vogel (1957) wrote in his well-known textbook that experienced students could perform some of the preparations on reduced scale. He listed six advantages:
(i) Saving of time in setting up apparatus, in periods of refluxing, in filtration and washing of solids, and in recrystallization of solids.
(ii) Economy in bench and fume cupboard space.
(iii) Economy in initial cost of apparatus and of chemicals.
(iv) Reduced cost of breakage.
(v) Reduced hazard in handling dangerous chemicals, such as bromine.
(vi) The small-scale preparation of organic compounds provides invaluable experience for subsequent training in qualitative organic analysis.

Nowadays microscale techniques are used by both experienced students and novices. Vogel’s list reflects one of the two motives to introduce the microscale laboratory: an existing laboratory course is miniaturised because of environmental, economical or safety considerations. In particular this is true for higher education, especially in countries with high standards for pollution control and laboratory safety. Examples can be found in the books by Mayo, Pike and Trumper (1994) or by Williamson (1989). The other motive is the promotion of practicals in those classrooms where little practical work is performed. Due to the aforementioned reasons, practical work can be rare in secondary schools. This often applies to organic chemistry. However, in some countries even a set of beakers and Erlenmeyer flasks is beyond the school’s means. Yet, miniaturisation can create the possibility to introduce practicals in all these circumstances. Much work is done by the RADMASTE centre in South Africa to introduce practical work in African secondary schools (Bradley, et al., 1998). The relative low cost of the hardware and the tiny amounts of chemicals needed to perform experiments enable all teachers to have practical work in their classroom. Teachers might consider converting demonstrations into pupils’ experiments since the risks are also miniaturised. These two motives do not exclude each other. A university can convert to microscale laboratory courses and form a microscale chemistry centre (MCC) to propagate these ideas to the secondary schools in its vicinity. In such a way the Universiteit van Amsterdam established an MCC.

Between November 1996 and December 1999, we promoted the use of microscale chemistry in the classroom through a project called Microscale Experiments. This project was carried out in cooperation with the Chemistry Communication Centre, a foundation established by the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV), the Dutch Association for Science Education (NVON) and the Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI). We offered a set consisting of a Williamson kit, two loose-leaf pupil manuals, a thermometer and a heater far below retail price, and training including a loose-leaf teacher manual. When we started the project in 1996 the complete set cost about NLG 200 (approximately $100 then, nowadays it would equal $84) and the training fee was in the same order. This extremely low price was possible thanks to support by the government and the chemical industry. Over 330 schools (more than 50% of the Dutch schools for upper-secondary education) joined the project. We trained about 600 teachers and laboratory assistants. Although we think that every skilled teacher should be able to use microscale experiments in his classroom, it was important to meet them, discuss the possibilities, and show them some tricks of the trade. The training was very concise: just one afternoon, yet many teachers told us it helped them to overcome their anxiety to start.

Support and cooperation

Encouraged by the Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI) quite a lot of companies adopted a school in their region. Most of these companies supported the project Microscale Experiments thus enabling their foster school (and other schools) to join the project. In a few cases teachers and chemists wrote teaching materials to study the industrial processes on microscale in the classroom. An example is the cooperation between Elf Atochem in Vlissingen and three schools in Zeeland. Teachers and chemists worked together in writing a lesson series. The Vlissingen plant of Elf Atochem produces tin compounds. One important step in the synthesis is a Grignard reaction. Though no part of the syllabus it was decided to focus on the preparation of a Grignard reagent in the classroom. The lesson series replaced a chapter on “Industrial chemistry” in the schoolbook. Because the schools had joined the Microscale Experiments project the teachers wanted to do the synthesis on microscale. The chemists however were used to think in cubic meters: to them microscale meant reducing the size of the reactor to a 1-L three neck round-bottomed flask. For one teacher that was no problem. In his class, a chemist from Elf Atochem demonstrated the synthesis on that scale. The two other teachers had their pupils performing the synthesis themselves in a 5-mL flask.

Three important parts formed the core of the series:

The visit was not just a school trip. The pupils were prepared for the visit to the plant by the synthesis that most of them performed in the classroom. So they could focus on the proces3. Elf Atochem also did not want the visit to be informal since the preparation of the teaching materials and the visit cost a fair amount of time. The pupils had to write a report that was part of the final examination.

Industry on microscale

The availability of microscale chemistry sets in 50% of the schools, the importance of chemical education to the chemical industry and the interesting cooperation in Vlissingen called for a new project. This project, called "Industry on microscale" will initiate and stimulate company-school partnerships. A three-year project endorsed by the VNCI was granted by the Axis organisation. The project must result in teaching materials and an extended knowledge of the ways in which schools and industry can cooperate.
The project aims at three products. On the short term, it generates teaching materials (1), tailor-made for each company-school partnership, suited with respect to the particular wishes and constraints. These materials can be reused or revised the next years, and can be used by the company to extend the number of partners. This can lead to a series of example projects (2), reflecting real-life chemistry. At the AMSTEL Institute we will generalise the teaching materials and distribute them among the 330 schools that joined the Microscale Experiments project. The main product of the project however, will be a handbook on company-school partnerships (3). The collection of teaching materials and the experience gained while making and using them can help other companies and schools to form a partnership.
The project was planned in two overlapping rounds. During the first round five company school partnerships had to be formed, during the second round another ten partnerships. Each round would last about two years and was divided in four stages: formation of partnerships (stage 1, 4 months); generating ideas (stage 2, 2 months); designing teaching materials (stage 3, 6 months); using these teaching materials (stage 4, within a period of 12 months). Two plenary meetings per round were planned: a first meeting after the first six months to exchange ideas, and the next meeting a year later to exchange experiences. The second meeting of the first round and the first meeting of the second round were planned as a joined meeting in order to transfer experiences and ideas.

A slow start

We decided to cost no budget for releasing teachers from a couple of classes to write the teaching materials, since there is also no budget after the project. The chairwoman of the Dutch Association for Science Education (NVON) thought this might raise problems to find teachers willing to join the project. Remarkably, only one teacher refused cooperation because of this. All other teachers we contacted did complain that they were too busy and had so little time, but almost all of them were eager to seize the opportunity to start a relation with a chemical company. It was much harder to find the companies!
On advise from the Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry (VNCI) we did not publish a public call for cooperation or send a mailing to large numbers of companies. For the first round of the project we needed just five companies, preferably well known companies like Shell, Akzo-Nobel, DSM and Unilever. Because the enthusiasm and personal effort of the shop floor chemists seemed essential, we approached the companies not via the main door but via the staff door. We used our own personal contacts like former fellow students or professors with a part-time job in industry. This approach looked very promising: the people we contacted this way were very enthusiastic and they promised to discuss the idea during a next staff meeting, or bring us in contact with the right persons. After that however, in most cases a lengthy period of silence fell.
The hierarchical roads the idea had to travel could be very long. Our contacts could be very busy and we could, cap in hand, not push them to try harder. One company (a public enterprise) was evaluating its role towards education, and we have to wait until it comes to its conclusion. Another company produces aspartame, a stereochemically very interesting compound. Unfortunately, the company wants to prevent any connections being made in the public opinion between this much-used sweetener and chemistry. In the case of another company, we agreed a partnership with the people on the plant, but they had to wait for permission because of industrial secrets.
At the date we planned the first meeting of five company-school partnerships only one partnership has been formed: Quest International in Naarden and a school (S.G. Huizermaat) in the nearby town of Huizen.

Quest International and Huizermaat

Quest International (a member of the ICI Group) produces the taste and smell of many well known snacks (like cheese and onion flavoured potato crisps). Moreover, the company produces a wide range of food additives and is one of the largest flavour and texture ingredients suppliers. The head office is located in Naarden, as are the R&D laboratories and the production facility for sweet flavours. A lot of these flavours and some emulsifiers are relative simple esters that can be synthesised in the classroom. Since esterification is part of the syllabus, this offers great opportunities to design teaching materials.
The initial idea was to make a strawberry flavoured chewing gum. Because of some practical problems the preparation of a banana flavoured yoghurt mousse became the thread of the series. The banana flavour is isoamyl acetate, the foamy texture is obtained by using an emulsifier: glycerol lactopalmitate (E472b) made by an azeotropic esterification from lactic acid and glycerol monopalmitate. Flavour and emulsifier are synthesised on microscale by the pupils, and they use them to prepare the yoghurt mousse. The format of the lesson series looks much as the one used for the Grignard reaction at Elf Atochem:
The number of pupils in this school is quite small. Nevertheless, the pupils will be asked to fill in a questionnaire on their ideas about a job in the chemical industry both at the start and at the end of the series.

Conclusion

A company-school partnership can be very fruitful. The company can present itself as a good neighbour, and an attractive future employer. Teachers like to broaden their teaching and use real-life situations. Pupils have the opportunity to get a better picture of the chemical industry (either a more positive or a disapproving one). Though I think the chemical industry should make an effort to attract personnel, it appears hard to find companies that join the project. An explanation may be that generally the government is considered responsible for education and not the private companies. By paying their taxes the companies contribute to the educational system. The fact that less and less students will study chemistry might be a problem for the chemical community, but not for an individual company. Experience in neighbouring countries4 however, show that company-school partnerships are no mirages.

Notes

  1. This paper was presented 7 September 2001 at the 2nd ECCE in Aveiro, Portugal. The slides are available at www.chem.uva.nl/chemeduc/presentaties/ECCE2001.pps (back)
  2. During the NSTA 2000 convention in Orlando I even saw - and heard! - Jeff Bracken (2000), a teacher who chemisized the texts of well known songs and sung these while performing chemical demonstrations. (back)
  3. Schmidkunz (1993) shows how stands can distract the attention from the purpose of an apparatus. In a similar way the plant’s location, (un) tidiness, noises, etc. can act as a stand. (back)
  4. See e.g. Isuyaa & Mapletoft (1996) and Vollmer (1998). (back)

References

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