Richard-Emmanuel Eastes

University of Geneva | UNIGE · Laboratoire de didactique et épistémologie des sciences

Les enseignants formés aujourd’hui enseigneront à nos petits et arrière-petits-enfants, qui eux-mêmes exerceront leur vie active jusqu’à l’horizon 2100. On prend la mesure des enjeux quand on pense à l’enseignement reçu par nos arrière-grands-parents, dans un monde qui ne semble pas avoir cessé d’évoluer depuis, loin s’en faut. Réfléchir à l’éducat...

Two experimental methods, the Nile Red dye extraction and the Williamson ether synthesis in biphasic conditions, were used to characterize the mixing performance of a new cheap impinging jet colliding mixer from Gjosa and to compare it to other commercial micromixers (Caterpillar CPMM-R300, T-mixer, LTF MR-MX and LTF MR-MS). The Nile Red method sho...

introduction à une anthologie de textes sur la philosophie de la chimie

Aiming at bridging education sciences, cognitive sciences and philosophy of science both theoretically and practically, this thesis develops a didactical model at the interface between these fields: the allosteric learning model developed by Giordan (1988) et al. (1992), understood in the context conceptual change theories paradigm. Fueled by the r...

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi shows the profession of the chemist as it was in the middle of the XXth century and as it still is in many aspects. Its theatrical adaptation by the associations Les Atomes Crochus and Les Attracteurs Etranges transforms it into a cultural object of scientific inspiration, that allows the audience to decide from whi...

From its discovery at school to its professional practice, apprehending a subject matter (be it chemistry or music) lies on four essential poles: the painfulness of the learnings, the pleasure of the practice, the interest of the acquired knowledge and the personal dynamics of the pupil. We will show how the image of chemistry can suffer if one of...

From its discovery at school to its professional practice, apprehending a subject matter (be it chemistry or music) lies on four essential poles: the painfulness of the learnings, the pleasure of the practice, the interest of the acquired knowledge and the personal dynamics of the pupil. This paper shows how the image of chemistry can suffer if one...

Among all the spectacular experiments used for both the popularization and teaching of science, we pinpoint a specific category of undeniably relevant pedagogic procedures. The counter-intuitive experiment, as we define it, allows us simultaneously to generate amazement, to disrupt learner conceptions and to motivate learners to acquire more knowle...

This article describes the participation of France to the International Chemistry Olympiads (IChO) since 1981. This participation concerned not only the competition at an international level, but also the training and the selection of the French delegation. The most interesting parts of the tasks of the last IChO (Bangkok, 1999) are presented at th...

The experiment described in this article involves two cycloaddition reactions, a thermal [π4s+π2s] one between cyclopentadiene and 1,4-benzoquinone followed by a photochemical [π2s+π2s] intramolecular one. Because of the toxicity and the cost of the reactants, carrying out a microscale experiment seems to be pertinent. In order to analyse the adduc...

« Light » can easily be illustrated by spectacular experiments, thanks to their very visual characteristics. In the following article, three major modes are used to characterise the importance of light in chemistry : light emission modes (combustion, fluorescence, phosphorescence, chemiluminescence), the use of light to perform chemistry transforma...

In this article, we propose several examples of microscale rhodium chemistry. The rhodium Vaska complex analogue is synthesized safely in the first step. It is then transformed in two other compounds through an oxidative addition of chlorine and a non oxidative addition of sulfur dioxide, respectively. All the reactants employed in those syntheses...

In this article, we propose an example of microscale multistep synthesis of a biologically active compound. This experiment was included in the practical examination of the last International Chemistry Olympiads [1] ; but the bad results of many studends led us to comment on the difficulty that could arise, due to the microscale techniques.

This article introduces the concept of microscale chemistry. The microscale techniques sharply reduce the percentage of used products. The obvious lesson to be learned is never make more product than is required for subsequent work or characterization. In consequence, the students can he introduced to techniques that might be too dangerous to attem...

One of the major reasons for the introduction of microscale experiments is to decrease the quantity of potentially hazardous products and solvants in the laboratory. So we propose an illustration of the advantages with a conjugated addition with lithium dimethylcuprate on cyclohexenone.

Learning is an extremely complex process, which cannot be reduced to a single recipe. Didactic research has, however, been able to propose a model, which identify the most significant parameters of thought development. The allosteric learning model, developed by the LDES of the University of Geneva, is one of the most recent, global and operationa...

There is a new experimental practice that comes under the name of microscale chemistry, the concept of which considerably modifies the practical approach to teaching chemistry, thanks to a number of advantages it has compared with traditional techniques. The principle of microscale chemistry is simple: it consists of reducing the scale of routine e...

In this article we analyse the answers of 12 chemists being interviewed for the book How I became a chemist (Le Cavalier Bleu, 2008), who were asked to talk about an artistic work that they considered significantly important towards their own skill. We can notice here that the "creative chemist and sculptor of matter" sometimes considers himself th...

The aim of this article is to understand how we learn, how we use our conceptions and representations to construct our own knowledge, and how the latter may sometimes become obstacles to learning. Working with the Allosteric Learning Model and the teaching environment it recommends, we illustrate some of the parameters of the learning process via s...

The study of the morphogenesis of inert matter enables - within a plan of integrated scientific culture - to refer simultaneously to history, epistemology, art, science and photographic technology. By introducing works of brilliant experimenters (Stéphane Leduc and Hans Jenny) in photographic exhibitions, we not only make the most of their aestheti...

Constituting a growing part of scientific culture's landscape in France, many forms of art-science alliances have developed between two extreme cases in which they mutually take advantage of each other. Here we study the possibility to escape this simplistic frame and we demonstrate the existence of unseen cultural approaches, rising from a new co-...