Elementary "Who am I" riddles

Denny, Aldrin R and Lakshmi, R and Chitra, H and Devi, Nandini (2000) Elementary "Who am I" riddles. In: Journal Of Chemical Education, 77 (4). pp. 477-478.

PDF p477.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (226kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

There is a growing concern over the decrease in student interest in the sciences. The atmosphere of entry-level science courses, particularly in the quantitative sciences, has been suggested as one cause of the loss of student interest (1). Investigations have shown that giving a formal lecture to any freshman science student by no means delivers information. Moreover, adequate learning is not guaranteed when students simply sit and listen to a lecture (2–5). To capture students' attention to the subject and to make the lectures interesting, various methods are suggested in the literature (6–8). We suggest that some simple riddles can be used effectively to make students interact in class. This method requires the student to provide answers to riddles in order to develop the discussion about a given topic. The riddles asked need not involve a quantitative problem, but are simply a means for evoking the material being discussed, as opposed to presenting it as a lecture. Here we report simple riddles on elements and their compounds to provide novelty to the freshman lecture in chemistry.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal Of Chemical Education
Publisher:	American Chemical Society.
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Chemical Society.
Keywords:	Periodicity Periodic Table;Teaching Learning Aids;Humor Puzzles;Introductory High School Chemistry
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2008 04:46
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 04:49
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/15875

Actions (login required)

View Item