About This Course

The history of humankind’s endeavour to understand the structure of the atom is not only fascinating but is of philosophical importance as well. The advancing of our understanding of the structure of the atom has been instrumental to ourcomprehending of related scientific phenomena such as chemical reactions, the nature of chemical compounds, etc. This course is aimed at advancing teachers' understanding of the atomic structure and associated concepts, as well as their pedagogical knowledge of teaching the atomic structure. They will also learn about students’ difficulties in these concepts and the ways to deal with them with the help of case studies of student thinking, their understanding, and misconceptions, etc., and will explore resources to address the issues.

Objectives

In this course, participant will:

• Understanding philosophical underpinnings of the concept of the atom, and the history of the development of humankind’s understanding of the structure of the atom and the experimentations involved.
• Understanding concepts related to the atom — such as elements, compounds, chemical reactions, subatomic particles, etc.
• Knowing about students’ difficulties and misconceptions about concepts related to atomic structure