Welcome
Welcome to our site, here we talk about….
Aims
The Aims of the Educational Techniques Group Trust are: the identification of needs, commissioning and production of new materials and techniques, dissemination of these resources, and evaluation of resulting new educational resources for the advancement of learning and teaching in Chemistry. These new reources are for schools, colleges, and universities.
Achievements
The work of the ETGT began in the 1970s with the production of an extensive series of Audio Cassettes which comprised Audio Tapes and Workbooks. These resources are now available on-line via the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Learning Chemistry 2012 initiative (see http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry )
In the late 1980s the ETGT pioneered the use of video for teaching especially where it was difficyult to mount “hands-on” teaching in classrooms, laboratories and lecture theatres. The ETGT produced the first UK laser video disc for Chemistry, entitled “Hydrogen”. This laser video disc was a compilation of resources previously on VHS tapes. The were two major advantages of laser video discs : quality of images and the ability to instantly select images and clips via their bar codes.
This laser video disc paved the way for an application to the Universities Funding Council (later to become the Higher Education Authority for England) for a project under the “Teaching and Learning Technology Programme” (TLTP). The project , the Chemistry Video Consortium project (£500,000; 1992-96) , was tasked to produce selected teaching and learning video in broadcast television quality format for downloading in the future to developing media formats.
The Chemistry Video Consortium team (CVC), comprising 32 members of university staff from 22 universities with Southampton as the Lead Centre, chose to major on resources for teaching practical chemistry under the title “Basic Laboratory Chemistry”. The set of 19 laser video discs were completed on time, to budget and to specification in 1995/96. A Road Show to all UK and Eire universities resulted in an uptake by more than 90% of the universities with regular use on-site in teaching laboratories.
The collaboartation between the ETGT and CVC has fruitfully continued through the 1990s to the present day.
For example:
- a collaboration between the CVC and the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Education Department led to the production of an on-line database of images, entitled “Chemistry Images”, so that teachers and lecturers could find multimedia resources via a ”one stop shop” rather than having to hunt around via the Internet and other sources. The database was divided into two sections : pre-16 and post-16 and comprised more than 1,000 films, video, CDROMs and DVDs. This database has been incorporated into RSC on-line Learning Chemistry resource
- as CDROM technology advanced so that high quality pictures could be produced, the set of laser video discs were re-mastered as a set of 19 CDROMs, entitled Practical Laboratory Chemistry” (1998). These resources have been incorporated into RSC on-line Learning Chemistry resource
- Following on from this, a further collaboration with the RSC Education Department (1999) led to a series of two CDROMs entitled, “Practical Chemistry for Schools and Colleges”. All schools and colleges (ca. 4, 000; ”A” level) received these CDROMs and many incorporated them into their teaching resources. These CDROMs have been incorporated into the RSC on-line Learning Chemistry resource
- the next advance was into dual language format with the production of resources for French schools, colleges and universities in collaboration with the Univerity of Nice and the French Chemical Society (see http://www.focusbiz.co.uk/chemistry). A number of dual language resources have been produced
- problem with teaching practical Physical Chemistry led to the ETGT and CVC producing a series of 4 CDROMs entitled “Physical Chemistryt Experiments” (2004). Experiments in these CDROMs extended the interactivity concepts of CDROMs Each experiment comprised : basic theory, worked examples, video of experiments, data from actual experiments in learned journals, achives of techniques and equipment, and quizzes to test competence (see http://www.viewtech.co.uk/detail.html?pgcode=21360 )
- from 2004 the activity of the CVC/ETGT partnership has shifted overseas with the foundation of the “Chemistry Aid” project for Developing Countries (see http://www.chemistry-aid.com ). A number if initiative were piloted in Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia with the resulting production of the world’s first solar classroom. This innovation enabled students in rural villages, which do not have mains electricity supplies, to gain access for the first time to IT and computer-based resources. This step forward helped to bridge the gap between urban students, who have had mains electricity for many years, and their rural counterparts
- a variety of projects are in hand in Developing Countries some of which could result in initiatives being IMPORTED into the UK. One such project is the “Sports 4 Science” project which builds bridges between Sports, which young people love, and Science which young people find very difficult especiuall where hands-on teaching and learning resources are not available
- a “Chemistry Aid” network is being built up for Developing Countries all over the world (see http://www.chemistry-aid.com )