Teaching Practical Chemistry to Teachers at Tumona Secondary School

Saturday I completed four days of workshops for chemistry teachers from 25 schools.  There were two two-day sessions.  Teachers ranged from quite experienced to brand new, and all seemed to enjoy the experience and appreciate the opportunity.  We covered types of chemical reactions, relative reactivity of metals, mixing solutions, qualitative analysis, stoichiometry and volumetric analysis (acid-base titration).

I also learned a lot, and was left with a lot of questions.  One of the biggest challenges is the availability of materials and equipment.  Though the teachers were very appreciative of what they learned, most of them made it clear that their schools had no materials to do the experiments, and no money with which to obtain them.  Creating science centers throughout the school district needs to be one of our priorities.

One challenge I faced while planning this workshop was choosing what kinds of supplies to bring.  In the US I rely heavily on small plastic dropper bottles, which hold standard solutions of a variety of chemicals.  They are an easy way to provide each student group with the solutions they need, and easy to store.  We also use small spot plates instead of test tubes for conducting experiments.  They are more economical than test tubes because they use less material, and they also produce less waste.  This would make them ideal for use in Tanzania, but the bottles and spot plates are not available here.  The teachers really liked them, but I question whether it is feasible to transport hundreds of these items to Tanzania.  Also, if the students learn chemistry using this type of equipment, how will they perform when they are given different materials to take the national exam?  Nevertheless, I chose to use them, largely because I didn’t think I could manage teaching so many labs in so short a period of time without them.

I also insisted that everyone wear safety glasses (true laboratory goggles were out of my price range), which is not one of the safety rules published in Tanzanian textbooks.

Clearly there is a lot of work and thinking to be done.