Character Building in Chemistry Education

by admin | Apr 3, 2014 | Flash News, Uncategorized | 0 comments

This is the way in my speech!!

-Jogja-Sulistiana Febriawati-11314244004-international Chemistry Education 2011-

Good morning ladies and gentle men, peace be upon you all.

Now, I want to say something about education, especially chemistry education. Some people don’t realize what the advantage of chemistry education in our daily life is.

First of all, this is about the education point of view. In the newest curriculum in Indonesia, we know that there is the character building that must be said to the students. The character building is the plan of the government to make the students have the good moral values so they can be a good person. It can be inserted into the material of the lesson. There are about thirty moral values that are said by The Ministry of Education in Indonesia but I only will take eighteen values. The case is “how chemistry education can change us to be good in character”.

The most important value is religious. This value is related to God. In chemistry education, we can apply it when we start to study, we can start it by praying to God. We hope a safety of the chemicals that is sometime dangerous for us.

The second one is braveness. We can be the trusted person in we are always brave to another one. In chemistry education, for example when we conduct an experiment about titration, and we have known that approximately the result of NaOH drops is about 2ml, we start to be brave by really doing the experiment and note the result suitable with the real result in the experiment, not manipulating data.

Tolerance. This is the value in appreciating another one’s idea. For example we can appreciate the data that of the experiment that is different each group in a class. Difference is not a mistake.

Submitting the final laboratory work report in time is the example of the next value, it is discipline. Conducting the experiment well in the laboratory and obey all the rules in laboratory are also the examples of discipline in chemistry education.

While hard work can be applied by discussing the teamwork task seriously until we finish it. Finding the solution of stoichiometry is also as the example of hard work value.

Creative is thinking to get the new way of something that is owned. For example when we know that the procedures in the manual of laboratory work is not logic, we have to think creatively. The manual says that we have to use NaCl 0.125 Molar, but there is only NaCl 1 Molar in our laboratory. We have to dilute the NaCl 1 Molar 25 ml to be  NaCl 0.125 Molar by using volumetric and adding 175 ml water. So we can get 0.125 Molar NaCl.

Independent is the attitude to not depending to others in solving the self task. The students can solve the problem in the mid term test by their selves.

Democratic, the example of democratic in chemistry education is in thinking how to separate the sand from the water. In the teamwork, sometimes there are some different ideas, like by using filtering paper, or may be evaporating the water, or may be just taking the sand. Yes, there are many ways and that’s all different. The character building is how this problem can be solved by discussing together which way that has more advantages and it is simpler than other ways.

Curiosity is an attitude that always wants to know deeper what he or she do, see, and hear. As the example, she or he is curious what gas that is contained by the waste. He or she will check it by doing experiment using some indicators, etc.

Nationality and care to the state is proved by appreciating to the language, physic environment, social, culture, economic, and politic, like after conducting the experiment, we do the chemical disposal well, by throwing the chemical waste and then neutralize it using water.

In chemistry education, we can also show our value, it is appreciating the achievement. We can give applause to the students after they present a presentation about chemical disposal.

Communicative can be shown in the group when discussing with other by keep smiling, active in group, appreciating someone’s idea, etc. But it can be applied when doing the exams.

Peaceful can be presented when we conduct a debate about nuclear, there will be the pros and contras. But to show the character building we have to be in a peace.

Reading is a good activity that must be done by the students to upgrade their knowledge. As the chemistry teacher, we can give the task for the students to read some books and then there is the report like summarize, etc.

Care to the environment is like knowing the right way in chemical disposal. We can also using internet (not paper) in submitting the task to reduce the paper using, so actually we safe the paper.

Care to the sociality. When the teacher gives the task about scientific writing, it can make a sense to the students to safe the sociality into a good condition. Like they give a problem solving about global warming, or may be about nuclear, etc.

Responsible is a good value that can be shown by doing the task that is given to her/ him. The task can be given by God, teacher, environment, parents, etc.

The character values above can be given by the teachers to the students by inserting it in the lesson. So each lesson, like chemistry lesson can give the moral value to the students.

The second one is about the chemistry point of view. Sometimes the students do not want to study our lesson because they think that our lesson is boring and there is not the advantage of studying it. So our task to be a good teacher is showing to them that our lesson is beneficial.

Chemistry is really related to our life. The cloth that is worn by us is the polymer. The polymer that is arranged well can be used all human in the world. Even in Science and Mathematics Faculty there is a batik that is very special, the pattern of the batik is organic structure pattern, that is the result of PKM-K of a college student of Chemistry Education Department. The patterns are glucose, rhodamin, there are also another patterns, like mathematics batik and biology batik. It is very special thing and very good to be put on by the scientist, especially chemists. It can also as the opportunity if business for the college students of Chemistry Education.

Food. That’s all chemistry. There is no food that is not chemical compound. They contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, those are all the organic compounds. Even our body is arranged by those elements.

Education system. All elements of education system are related to paper. The paper is  made by  using pulp and some chemical substance like………… never thought by us. All things in the world is related to chemistry but not all human realize it.

Even when we fall, the medicine that is used for our injury is Iodine. The HCl that is excess in our internal cavity can be neutralized by the base (antaside)

When we take a bath, we use propylene glycol in our shampoo, soap, and tissue paper. We can also use isopropyl alcohol to clean monitor and CD. In automotive, we can know the advantage of chemistry as the fuel, gasoline, LPG, LNG, kerosene, solar oil, grease oil and asphalt. Accumulator electrocuting involves oxidation- reduction reaction. The students will be interested to study chemistry if they know the advantage of chemistry. Are you also interested in studying chemistry? Let’s continue!

Corrosion of Iron metal is happened because the Iron is oxidized by the oxygen. Clothe bleaching needs NaOCl. You know/ when you slice an apple, then you see the kernel is white. After some minutes in the opened air, the kernel turns to be brown, that’s also the example of reduction oxidation reaction.

We have to know that there will be the next generation in the future, and the teacher is the key of the life. When the teacher is good as the figure, believe that our nation generation will be good, too. Are you ready to be the figure? Ask to yourself!

Studying all teaching learning matters, relating it with the daily life, giving the example of benefits in our life, and connecting with the character building and education system in Indonesia can make your lesson easy and interesting to be learnt by your students. Let’s inspire!