Design of the laboratory script by the students in chemistry practicals: Analysis of water

Comunicació presentada a INTED2018, 12th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. (March 5-7, 2018, Valencia, Spain).The laboratory practices during the Degree in Chemistry are currently designed so that the student must learn and execute a fully developed experimental protocol, previously written up by the professor, which contains all the information and requirements for the correct development of each laboratory session. Under these conditions, students do not need to take any initiative and, consequently, they do not put enough effort in reaching practical abilities with a well-based scientific criterion and do not try to think over the purpose of each lab operation, as well as the reason to use each material and/or each reagent. Thus, with the aim to promote a more active role of the students in their learning process and to improve their autonomy, a new laboratory practices design has been developed in this work, which follows methodologies on project-based cooperative learning: the students have been requested to elaborate themselves the laboratory script by pairs. With this innovative design, we pursue to involve the students in both elaboration and execution steps of the laboratory practicals, and then to increase their attention on them. Besides, the required bibliographic research would improve their knowledge about the studied topic and all aspects about the work at the laboratory. The practicals to-be-developed were related to the study of the physico-chemical quality of natural water, which has a high social relevance

Management of diversity in master classroom: an increasing challenge for science education in valencian universities

Comunicació presentada a INTED2018, 12th International Technology, Education and Development Conference. (March 5-7, 2018, Valencia, Spain).Currently, many foreign students study a Master degree at the Valencian Universities. We can find students, which have immigrated to Spain in the recent years, and then have partially or fully follow the Spanish curricula (High School and/or Grade), and others which have come specifically to study the Master, attracted by the reputation of the Universities and the job and way-of-life offered by the country, and then have achieved their Grade in their countries. This has increased the diversity of the students in the classrooms, related to the ethnic origin, mother language, study practices, background and integration in the society. The present work gives an overview on how students and teacher manage the heterogeneity and diversity in a Master classroom related to chemistry. The term “diversity” is first detailed prior to discussing explicit studies. Different aspects of diversity are stated. The personal experience of the foreign students to adapt to the Spanish courses and environment was investigated. The actions taken by the lecturer to take advantage of diversity and minimize its negative effects were examined. A comparison between the academic results obtained by international and national students is given. Finally, the attention will be focused on language, study practices and background, since these dimensions are frequently discussed in the Valencian context. The implications and opportunities that offer diversity for national but also for international science research are presented

An Innovative Project to Strengthen and Improve the Knowledge Acquisition in the Degree in Chemistry Using e-Learning Tools

Comunicació presentada a EDULEARN2018, 10th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies (July 2-4, 2018, Palma, Mallorca, Spain).The subject "Chemistry II (QU910)" is taught at first academic year (second semester) of the Degree in Chemistry at the University Jaume I. Some of its specific and general competencies are selflearning and writing and oral communication, regarding the main chemical concepts: chemical reactions, elements of the periodic table and calculations of the concentrations of the formed products and the remaining reagents in acid/base, complex, precipitation and redox reactions. We have noticed that 65% of the students have not studied any chemistry subjects (or only one) in High School or Professional Training before undertaking the Degree in Chemistry. The present project aims firstly to help these students to overcome their lack of background, secondly to compare the academic results of the students with and without previous contact with chemistry and finally, to establish actions to solve this prejudicial situation. This objective was reached by the implementation of a zero course, a course including the basic content of chemistry taught in the last years of High School, the month before the beginning of the first academic year. After the first year, students having attended chemistry before university obtained only 0.75/10 points more than the others. The Virtual Classroom, the emails and tutorial played an important role in the achievement of this zero-course

Roman orichalcum coins: a deep investigation from patina to core

A set of Roman orichalcum coins, issued from 88 B.C. to 96 A.D., has been investigated using a multi-analytical approach.The aim of the study is to explore the corrosion processes of this alloy, with a special attention to the dezincification and decuprification phenomena, from the external layers to the unaltered core of the samples. Indeed, XRF, VIMP methodology and ATR-FTIR were used to obtain information about the elemental composition (qualitative method) of the external layers and to characterize both the patina and the corrosion pattern of the surfaces, allowing also the analysis of samples that could not be sacrificed. SEM-EDS and FIB-FESEM-EDX analysis allowed to investigate the corrosion micro-texture (e.g. segregation micro-domains) in depth and the unaltered metal core of the coins (Doménech-Carbó et al., 2018). In addition, cross-section analyses at high magnification showed cold-working evidences, i.e. deformed grains and strain lines.Quantitative data of major, minor and trace elements were obtained by means of EMP analysis. Moreover, differences in chemical compositions between the unaltered core and the altered layers of the samples were highlighted. All these techniques revealed the presence of other metal, besides Cu and Zn as the typical elements of orichalcum. Indeed, Tin, Fe, Pb and As are present at different concentrations (from 0.01 to 2.30 % wt). Finally, the interpretation of voltammetric data permitted to group coins, that belong to different monetary emissions, and the discrimination of the issues emitted by different monetary authorities (Di Turo et al., 2017). Di Turo F., Montoya N., Piquero-Cilla J., De Vito C., Coletti F., Favero G. & Doménech-Carbó A. (2017) - Archaeometric analysis of Roman bronze coins from the Magna Mater temple using solid-state voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Analytica Chimica Acta, 955, 36–47. Doménech-Carbó M.T., Di Turo F., Montoya N., Catalli F., Doménech-Carbó A. & De Vito C. (2018) - FIB-FESEM and EMPA results on Antoninianus silver coins for manufacturing and corrosion processes. Scientific Reports, 8, 10676

Discrimination and provenances of Phoenician red slip ware using both the solid state electrochemistry and petrographic analyses

Solid state electrochemistry based on the voltammetry of immobilized microparticles (VIMP) methodology is applied to a series of 80 Phoenician Red Slip samples from the archaeological sites of Motya (Sicily, Italy), Mogador (Morocco), Ramat-Rahel (Israel), Sulky (Sardinia, Italy), Tas Silg (Malta), Pantelleria (Italy), and Cádiz (Spain), dated from the 8th to the 6th century BC. Upon attachment of sub-microsamples to graphite electrodes in contact with aqueous H2SO4 electrolyte, voltammetric features due to the reduction of Fe(III) inerals and the oxidation of Fe(II) ones, complemented with electrocatalytic effects on oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions, provide characteristic electrochemical fingerprints for pottery samples. A consistent sample grouping discriminating between different potteries from different archaelogical sites, is obtained, all results being consistent with morphological, compositional and mineralogical data. Petrographic analysis supports the grouping, defining the manufacture and firing procedure for the different archaeological context

Monitoring of Student Progress and Evaluation in the Subject "Chemistry Laboratory I"

The subject “Chemistry Laboratory I” is taught in the first academic year of the Degree in Chemistry. Its main objective is for the student to get a first contact with the basic laboratory operations and become aware of the importance of preparing the experimental work, in addition to manage registration, analysis and the presentation of results. It is therefore a basic knowledge which will be in the future of great help in further chemistry laboratory subjects, regardless of the specific topic (analytical, physical, inorganic, organic and general). The course consists of 10 laboratory sessions and 5 seminars. The final score obtained by the student is based on the assessment of laboratory notebook, the resolution of a test prior to the practical (to ensure that the student have prepared this practical) and a written exam. The qualification is calculated by the average of the score obtained at each activity, with the following weighing: laboratory / seminars / notebook / test / exam 30: 10: 20: 10: 30; respectively. In this study, the results of 72 students were analyzed, noticing that the average score was 7.7 (24/9/15/7/22 at each evaluation item, respectively). From these results we deduced: firstly, the attitude of students in the laboratory is excellent (laboratory and seminars scores are very high), and second, we have to focus on the organization of the laboratory notebook, the preparation of the practical, the attention from the teacher explanation and the study of the content of the subject, as the scores of notebook, test and final exam can be ameliorated