ICT in Science Lessons
It is well-known that Science, and especially chemistry is difficult for a number of reasons. Afterall, it is about making sense of the nature and usually it is really abstract in concept and mathematical in presentation.

In particular, as a Chemistry teacher, I constantly face the difficulties in providing the three perspectives of the Chemistry world to students. As some of you might be aware of, Chemistry is difficult to many students because it is necessary to study the subject from three different perspectives, namely Macroscopic, Mircoscopic and Symbolic.

In Macroscopic, we are trying to explain changing that we can observe, in many casesusing our own senses. For example, when acid is added to limestone, we will be able to detect the evolution of gas bubbles. This usually involves doing experiments.

In Microscopic, we are trying to understand what is actually going on at the molecular level, i.e. how atoms or molecules collide and redistribute to give the chemical change. This is usually the abstract part.

In Symbolic, we are to use the special language agreed among chemists to communicate with one another. This is a lot like learning a new language to some students.
For a student to be competent in chemistry, he/she needs to master all these perspectives.

Technologies have in particularly help in the microscopic level, afterall this is the level which requires some imagination. In the old days, teachers could only describe what it was like, and students needed to create a mental picture of what it was, but teachers could seldom tell if they got the correct idea. However, with a lot of animation, the process can go down to the molecular level, to simulate and mimic what is really going on at the molecular level. It helps students understand the situation in a much more visual and effective means. In addition, with sutiable simulation, students can further manipulate variables to predict what will happen and can immediately verify their prediction. This is also help students check if they can fully understand the concept and apply the knowledge to new situation.

The response from students have been very positive. Firstly, obviously students can have more hands-on experience on them. They can play the animations at their own pace and also play aroudn with the simulation with their own input. Study has become more student-centred and they can explore more within a shorter period of time.

In fact, technology can help in the macroscopic and the symbolic perspectives, but probably I will leave it to another occasion.