Twentieth-century general chemistry textbooks: a diachronic investigation of selected contents

• Grant number: 14/24213-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: June 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Alves Porto
• Grantee: Paulo Alves Porto
• Host Investigator: Carsten Reinhardt
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF), United States

Abstract

This project aims at investigating college-level, general chemistry textbooks published in the United States in the twentieth century. Textbooks play an important role in the education of scientists, teachers and college-level lecturers. Moreover, textbooks were chosen as research subjects since they are an expression of a "disciplinary consensus" established within a given area, beyond their role in promoting an organized view of teaching contents. So, one may consider that chemistry textbooks contain the conceptions about chemical science published in different periods. Considering this, we intend to investigate the different ways in which some selected subjects were presented in general chemistry textbooks along the twentieth century. A preliminary selection resulted in two main subjects to focus on: the periodic table and representations of submicroscopic structures and interactions. Such subjects were chosen considering their importance in the conceptual framework of chemistry, and the fact that they were strongly influenced by the changes in chemical theory and instrumentation during the twentieth century. It is among our goals to characterize the different approaches to these subjects in general chemistry textbooks, following some trends in the contexts of chemical theories, instrumentation and didactics of science in different periods. With this project, we intend to offer a contribution to the history of chemistry in the twentieth century from the point of view of chemistry textbooks analysis, and also to furnish new elements to the knowledge in the area of chemical education. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

HELENA S. ALVARES NOGUEIRA; PAULO ALVES PORTO. ENTRE TIPOS E RADICAIS: A CONSTRUÇÃO DO CONCEITO DE VALÊNCIA. Química Nova, v. 42, n. 1, p. 117-127, 2019-01-00. (14/24213-6, 16/09213-5)

HELENA S. ALVARES NOGUEIRA; PAULO ALVES PORTO. O CONCEITO DE VALÊNCIA EM LIVROS DIDÁTICOS DE QUÍMICA GERAL ENTRE AS DÉCADAS DE 1890 E 1940. Química Nova, v. 42, n. 2, p. 237-248, 2019-02-00. (14/24213-6, 16/09213-5)