Lifelong Learning Programme

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein

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Chemistry is all around us
Copyright 2015
This project has been funded with
support from the European Commission

Testimonials

Secondary schools science and chemistry teachers as well as adult learners were identified in each of the six European partner countries. A total of sixty secondary school teachers and sixty adult learners tested the Chemistry Is All Around Portal and evaluated it according to a common format.

The feedbacks and comments of the teachers and adults are available clicking on the links below:
Teachers Testimonials
Teacher 1, Greece I appreciated the educational packages that include activities suitable for in-class use. I would like to suggest an expansion of the section related to experimental activities that can be performed in a school setting with cheap materials that are easy to find and safe to use.
Teacher 2, Greece The most interesting aspects of the portal are the effort of connecting chemistry with everyday life and the reference to issues that are interesting and important in everyday life. Also, the involvement of students in activities that are related with chemistry and which can be done with simple materials is very appreciated as well as the provision of additional information via the hyperlinks. My overall evaluation is that a very good effort has been made. This portal has the potential of becoming a very useful instrument for the teachers, of attracting students’ interest and, why not love, for the subject of Chemistry.
Teacher 3, Greece The Chemistry portal is very useful for me for the following reasons: Connection with everyday life; Lab activities; Cooperation between countries. The portal is also reliable and easy to use. It can be enriched further with contributions by all of us. The improvement that can be made is making reference to the history of the science of chemistry.
Teacher 4, Greece The most interesting aspect of the Portal are the “educational packages” which can contribute significantly to lifelong learning of scientific issues and that of chemistry in particular. The case studies provide background information and highlight educational weaknesses of each country-partner. You cannot solve a problem or improve it if you don’t know your country well. The improvements that can be made are that there should be more references to e-books and there should be more pictures in high resolution. Another suggestion is to provide a space for new partners who are willing to join the project, an application form should be available online for this purpose. My overall evaluation is that this is a very good, interesting and quite promising project in order to identify and resolve the key obstacles that hinder the life-long learning of scientific issues and especially that related to chemistry.
Teacher 5, Greece The main strength of the Chemistry portal is that all activities presented are directly related with everyday life applications. The weakness, for me, it is that it is a little tiring, in the educational modules, the contents are diverted to links and it does not always present the different topics as a natural sequel. The Chemistry Portal can become even better if it includes virtual experiments in action. I also appreciated the choice of colors and the overall structure, I believe nice feelings can be created to the pupils and students. In this way, it is possible that they can be tempted to engage more in the beautiful world of Chemistry. I will strongly encourage my students to visit the Portal and I believe that their engagement will increase substantially their interest for the Chemistry lesson.
Teacher 6, Greece I believe that the most interesting thing of the Chemistry portal is the interactivity between the “site” and the “user”. As the result, I think that the sections which are named “activities” and “exercises” are the best . To improve the portal I think that you should translate all the content in the languages of the associated members. Overall I think that is a very nice effort, it is drawn via a right strategy, it has defined goals, defined schedule and it has an organized feedback in order to do improvements or corrections. Continue the good work.
Teacher 7, Greece The website compiles knowledge in chemistry; it is also useful with the analyses of the problems connected with chemical education in various countries so different as cultural and economical status. The weaknesses is that every education package should be presented not in English and the national language, but it should be translated into national languages of all other partner countries The web site is very useful and everybody interested could gain information about problems related to Chemistry education in partner countries and possible approaches for their solution.
Teacher 8, Greece I found outstanding the database and the links section of the site, they are really very good. To improve the portal I suggest to add experiments videos, Chemistry software and educational games. Also I don’t see the point in presenting the national reports in such a detail. A short summary of the situation per country would do just fine.
Teacher 9, Greece The most interesting aspects of the Chemistry Is All Around Us Portal is the fact that it approaches Chemistry from a new perspective and via interesting topics. The weaknesses is that some illustrations are not shown clearly. My suggestions for improving the portal is that the Portal should be enriched with more contents. I would like it to have more material related to methodology of chemistry teaching. It would also be nice if it gave the opportunity of communication between the users.
Teacher 10, Greece On this portal I find especially attractive and useful the educational packages. The case study section however also contains a lot of useful information My suggestions for improving the portal is an enrichment with more thematic areas and topics. The portal constitutes overall a very good effort that can be used as a basis for the promotion of lifelong learning of chemistry in the European Union
Teacher 1, Bulgaria The portal is very valuable in scientific, practical and application aspect. Chemistry is difficult subject, but it is not for privileged people only – people meets chemistry every day and this tendency becomes more and more expressed in our way of life. The portal gives possibilities for practical application of chemical knowledge in the everyday life. My suggestions for improving the portal is that the theory could be illustrated with animated models of chemical substances and reactions – this will help users to understand the chemical symbolism and base chemical knowledge in general My overall evaluation is that the portal is very useful because Chemistry is present at all activities of the human life and it is worth to understand what happen around us.
Teacher 2, Bulgaria The information presented on the portal, particularly this one related to the content of educational modules, helps users to realize that chemistry surround us in our daily life. There are many examples given. My advice is that the educational modules should be more supported by visualization of basic processes.
Teacher 3, Bulgaria The portal is a good way to stimulate the interest of students in studying chemical events and processes that happen every day around us. It gives possibilities for application of chemical knowledge in the everyday life. Maybe some chemical signs, formula or models should be used to illustrate the chemical substances and reactions included in the text and activities description - anyway they are the “language of chemistry” in which should be expressed the basic chemical information The portal is useful because present Chemistry is more attractive and understandable for studens.
Teacher 4, Bulgaria The portal gives scientific information and information about what is done in other countries considering the education in chemistry. Very precious information about contacts and partners working on similar problems also. Some of the portal sections can be inserted directly in the school work or in home work preparation – individual or in teams. The portal is very good and well organized - easy to use and interesting as a scientific content.
Teacher 5, Bulgaria Well organized portal content, interesting chemical topics, applicability in the educational process, understandable language. To improve the portal, more multimedia films and animations should be included for illustration of chemical processes and events. My overall evaluation is that it is a very good idea to make chemistry closer to people and more attractive for students.
Teacher 6, Bulgaria The most useful and interesting are the 6 educational packages related to very topical areas. My overall evaluation is that collecting data about the education in scientific subjects, particularly chemistry in various countries and analyzing of the problems is a very positive idea. The results from this activity will enhance the quality of educational process.
Teacher 7, Bulgaria The most interesting for me was the way of presenting the specialized information in educational modules – easy to operate and to understand. The opinion of my colleagues from the other countries about the problems in chemistry teaching and ways to solve these problems was also interesting. I think the main weakness of the Portal is the lack of chemical formulae, which are the “universal language” of Chemistry. My suggestions for improving the portal is connected with the mentioned above: more chemical formula should be used. It would be better to give some more examples for the chemistry at home. My overall evaluation is that for me it was a pleasure to navigate true the portal sections . I think it would be interesting for my students also.
Teacher 8, Bulgaria The website compiles knowledge in chemistry; it is also useful with the analyses of the problems connected with chemical education in various countries so different as cultural and economical status. Every education package should be presented in all languages not only English and another language. The portal is very useful and everybody interested in could gain information about problems related to Chemistry education in partner countries and possible approaches for their solution.
Teacher 9, Bulgaria The most interesting aspects of the Chemistry web site are: well selected and interesting topics, easy to operate and to find with the information To improve the Portal I recommend to enlarge the basic theoretical information and to support it with visualizations. My overall evaluation is of the website of the project is that it is very well and professionally organized.
Teacher 10, Bulgaria The Chemistry Is All Around Us Portal shows clearly that Chemistry is really all around us and this is demonstrated in very intelligent and interesting way. The portal is very useful because it presents Chemistry as a scientific subject in new more attractive image.
Teacher 1, Italy The Chemistry Is All Around Us Portal portal is complete and offers many different approaches to lifelong learning of scientific issues. It’s easy to navigate and the graphical aspect is really suitable. It testifies a deep and serious research, provides a complete and exhaustive picture of the international situation and offers strategies to improve scientific teaching.
Teacher 2, Italy The title "Chemistry is all around us" shows the objective of the web site that successfully demonstrates that it is true that our life is – also - based on chemical reactions, this is very well presented in the educational packages that I found very interesting and useful to be used for classroom teaching or for homework.
Teacher 3, Italy Good work, in particular because of the interaction of different scientific backgrounds of European teachers. There is a lot of materials available for teachers and students.
Teacher 4, Italy Very good work with useful suggestions and information for teachers. Database and scientific education sections are the most interesting sections.
Teacher 5, Italy The fluency of the Chemistry Is All Around Us Portal portal, its graphics and the effectiveness of the “Educational section” are a supportive teaching instrument. The Portal gives students the chance to approach chemistry through simple experiences and experiments that the teacher can propose during classes
Teacher 7, Italy The website is useful, interesting and stimulating. Some interactive simulations should be useful as well and could be integrated.
Teacher 1, Germany Students use the Internet very often for learning. We need criteria to recommend the work with such kind of portals. The portal can be seen as a sort of “Avant Garde” for that. Chemistry is of a growing importance for our societies and there should be more efforts to attract young people to study it. From this perspective the information on this portal is very important.
Teacher 2, Germany The different sections of the portal are all well organized and structured. I would suggest to add a section for a Web 2.0 surrounding. The strength of the portal is the opportunity to sneak in the situation in the other countries and to have the personal perspective as shown in the case studies section.
Teacher 3, Germany Science fiction exercises are interesting. English is a problem I suggest to translate it in user languages.
Teacher 4, Germany The most interesting aspects and strengths of the Chemistry Is All Around Us Portal is to see views of other countries. It needs translation.
Teacher 5, Germany I would recommend the Portal to my students because they can train their English on it as well. But I can’t use it as official material because it is not compatible with the official curriculum. I often use the internet for preparation of my lessons and even if the material is nicely arranged on the portal I can have all the data I am looking for through the internet but however this one is special because of the focus on European matters so I can have a quick overview on this. I think the portal is interesting for all people, not exclusively for students.
Teacher 6, Germany The “Chemistry in Science Fiction” package has potential for the classroom if there is enough time. The other most interesting part are Case studies and reports.
Teacher 7, Germany I think the Web Site is well done. The case studies are very special and I personally think they are very interesting.
Teacher 8, Germany I have a fixed curriculum and fixed material and can use other material only very scarce. I had fun while reading it and even if the examples are well known they always are useful, but I would use them in lower classes. The Science Fiction part is some kind of stuff the students will like and I will use some of the movies sometimes with the given information. Interesting is to see that the problem is common in Europe and that we need a more common approach.
Teacher 9, Germany The educational material is good, the case studies were interesting.
Teacher 1, Turkey The website has very useful information for teachers. It contains good activities at different levels. One suggestion would be addition of more interactive activities to the portal.
Teacher 2, Turkey The topics of the Chemistry portal are very interesting and related to everyday concepts of Chemistry. Activities and pictures are useful and easy to understand. There should be more topics related to everyday concepts of Chemistry.
Teacher 3, Turkey There are very useful scientific information and practical information in this site.
Teacher 4, Turkey The information about the topics of the website is good and explanatory with the links. Activities are good. The only weakness is lack of interactive activities such as videos, animations etc.
Teacher 5, Turkey In the portal, it has been interesting that the activities and exercises are organized different topics which are related to daily life. The activities are easy to practice for students. The website is vey well organized that everybody can reach information easily.
Teacher 6, Turkey My overall evaluation of the portal is very good. This portal contains useful information and activities for teachers and students. It has also very strategic scientific information.
Teacher 7, Turkey The portal is very good and I think it can be further expanded with more topics and activities. In addition, the national and transnational reports should be translated into the countries’ languages for everybody’s understanding.
Teacher 8, Turkey Activities should be supported with additional audio-visual materials.
Teacher 9, Turkey My general impression about the website is very positive. Educational games should be added to the portal.
Teacher 1, Czech Republic The portal is interesting but a translation should be made available.
Teacher 2, Czech Republic Very nice portal, useful for secondary school education (lower as well as higher degrees of grammar schools)
Teacher 3, Czech Republic I appreciate easiness of navigation, the scientific contents, photo documentation and not too long texts Personally, I would prefer Czech language, but I understand that for younger teachers and today´s students English is not a problem
Teacher 4, Czech Republic The training section is very good
Teacher 5, Czech Republic I think that this web is overall useful!
Teacher 6, Czech Republic Chemistry Is All Around Us – interesting project with interesting idea presented on interesting web pages
Teacher 7, Czech Republic Very good idea, the portal can be used at school but also for ordinary people too
Teacher 8, Czech Republic The most important is that something like this portal is now ready and it is very important to continue and develop this good idea.


The feedbacks and comments of the teachers and adults are available clicking on the links below: