Elementary Practical Chemistry; a Laboratory Manual for Use in Organized Science Schools
Book Details
Author(s)George S Newth
ISBN / ASINB003TLMKHS
ISBN-13978B003TLMKH9
MarketplaceCanada 🇨🇦
Description
THIS book has been written to meet the changes in the general methods of science teaching, which are the outcome of the development of modern views of scientific educationalists, and which find expression in the new syllabus of the Science and Art Department.
Formerly students were taught chemistry in the lecture-room, the knowledge so gained being supplemented by a minimum amount of practical work, and that almost exclusively analytical. The tendency of the present day is to make the student, from the very beginning, an investigator; to train and develop his faculties for observation; to make him find out facts and discover truths for himself; in other words, to make him think instead of merely committing to memory what others have thought. I have therefore endeavored, as far as it is possible to do so in a text-book, to fall into line with these views. In actual practice the purely inductive method of instruction breaks down. There is so much that the student is required to learn, that life itself is not long enough, and certainly the limited time at the disposal of the student is all too short, to admit of his going through the necessarily slow process of gaining this knowledge by his own investigations. Some facts he must take on trust, and the question therefore resolves itself into the judicious selection on the part of the teacher of the facts he will endeavor to let his students find out for themselves, and those he will teach them, and expect them to commit to memory.
In a text-book it is almost inevitable that, in giving such directions as will lead a student on to the discovery of a fact, the fact itself shall be stated. Before introducing the student to the study of any of the elements, I have sought to familiarize him with a number of important common laboratory processes, in a chapter on " Simple Manipulations;" and this is followed by short chapters on the " Fitting up of Apparatus," and " Simple Glass-blowing Operations."
After hydrogen, oxygen, and water have been studied, I have introduced, under the head of "Simple Quantitative Manipulations," a number of experiments or exercises involving the operations of weighing and measuring. These experiments have been selected with the object of leading the student on to the discovery of some of the fundamental laws of chemistry, making use of such knowledge of chemical facts as he has already gained. In order that he may do these with an entirely unprejudiced or unbiassed mind, they have intentionally been introduced before he has learnt the use of symbols and formulae, or how to calculate what results he ought to get. For some of these experiments I am indebted to the suggestions of Dr. Tilden, made during the course of a short series of lectures to science teachers, at the Royal College of Science, London, in July, 1895. With the exception of a brief outline of the Atomic Theory, and the relations between atoms and molecules, purely theoretical matters have been almost entirely excluded; while the elements and compounds which have been selected for study are those which are suggested by the syllabus of the Science and Art Department.
Formerly students were taught chemistry in the lecture-room, the knowledge so gained being supplemented by a minimum amount of practical work, and that almost exclusively analytical. The tendency of the present day is to make the student, from the very beginning, an investigator; to train and develop his faculties for observation; to make him find out facts and discover truths for himself; in other words, to make him think instead of merely committing to memory what others have thought. I have therefore endeavored, as far as it is possible to do so in a text-book, to fall into line with these views. In actual practice the purely inductive method of instruction breaks down. There is so much that the student is required to learn, that life itself is not long enough, and certainly the limited time at the disposal of the student is all too short, to admit of his going through the necessarily slow process of gaining this knowledge by his own investigations. Some facts he must take on trust, and the question therefore resolves itself into the judicious selection on the part of the teacher of the facts he will endeavor to let his students find out for themselves, and those he will teach them, and expect them to commit to memory.
In a text-book it is almost inevitable that, in giving such directions as will lead a student on to the discovery of a fact, the fact itself shall be stated. Before introducing the student to the study of any of the elements, I have sought to familiarize him with a number of important common laboratory processes, in a chapter on " Simple Manipulations;" and this is followed by short chapters on the " Fitting up of Apparatus," and " Simple Glass-blowing Operations."
After hydrogen, oxygen, and water have been studied, I have introduced, under the head of "Simple Quantitative Manipulations," a number of experiments or exercises involving the operations of weighing and measuring. These experiments have been selected with the object of leading the student on to the discovery of some of the fundamental laws of chemistry, making use of such knowledge of chemical facts as he has already gained. In order that he may do these with an entirely unprejudiced or unbiassed mind, they have intentionally been introduced before he has learnt the use of symbols and formulae, or how to calculate what results he ought to get. For some of these experiments I am indebted to the suggestions of Dr. Tilden, made during the course of a short series of lectures to science teachers, at the Royal College of Science, London, in July, 1895. With the exception of a brief outline of the Atomic Theory, and the relations between atoms and molecules, purely theoretical matters have been almost entirely excluded; while the elements and compounds which have been selected for study are those which are suggested by the syllabus of the Science and Art Department.
