CHEMISTRY EDUCATION AND MIRACLES

Among the fundamental sciences, Chemistry is an important one in which developments are taking place as like in other science subjects too. The interdisciplinary and interdependency nature of all these sciences is growing at a very fast rate and cannot be neglected. The chemistry education and the ways of chemistry communication are undergoing changes and needs to be taken into consideration. To meet the needs of beneficiary of chemistry education a simple, low cost and interesting method of communicating chemical knowledge needs to be adopted by the concerned.

One of the aim of education is ‘Development of Scientific Temperament and Eradication of Superstitions’ and to achieve the same, certain modifications has to be done in the school and university curriculum as per the suitability. The findings of research study interlinking ‘chemistry education, chemistry of so called miracles, scientific temper development and the superstitions associated with the miracles’ suggests that the chemistry based miraculous demonstrations should be included in school and university curriculum. Some of the advantages of ‘live demonstrations of so called miracles’ are

1. They help in development of interest in chemistry in students.
2. They are the interactive educational tools to communicate chemistry.
3. The time required to perform a miraculous demonstration is very less, so a demonstration in a lecture or in a practical is ideal one.
4. They link classroom chemistry to the daily activities of a human being.

So now, it is a high time to modify the present chemistry curriculum and education. The inclusion of miraculous demonstrations in curriculum is one of the efforts in positive direction, so that our students are compatible with the students of the world.

The present book is a compilation of ten selected miraculous demonstrations which are based on knowledge of chemical sciences, written in self-learning material format. I hope that the contents of the book will be helpful not only to the chemistry academicians but to the activists working for the development of scientific temper and eradication of superstitions and common people also. I welcome the feedback from the readers of this book.