Sommarforskarskola för gymnasiet : Tema: Vitaminer och experiment

• Main Author: Olofsson, Kristina
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: KTH, Skolan för teknikvetenskap (SCI) 2009
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-31849

The aim of this study is to describe how a theme about vitamins and analytical chemistry can be planed and implemented in a summer research school managed by AstraZeneca. The description of the theme is intended to be used as an instructor’s guide to upcoming summers-research-schools with the same theme. The students, which participated in the summer school of 2007, went to upper secondary school. During the summer school they were going to investigate the content of vitamin C in different fruits and vegetables. The planning process in the study therefore had to investigate the characteristic properties of vitamin C and what analytical methods and experiments that therefore could be used. Another task in planning the summer research school was to do it in a pedagogic way that fulfils the goals that AstraZeneca has with this activity. The method used to plan the theme for the summer research school was literature studies, interviews and the analysis methods for C-vitamin were also tested. The aim with the interviews was to find the students previous knowledge of vitamins. After the planning was done, the summer research school was tested with the planed setup. Then an evaluation was made, based on observations and reflections by the author, which also was the tutor during the summer research school. Also a questionnaire, answered by the students, was used for the evaluation. Analytical methods used to analyse vitamin C was: High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Redoxtitration and Thin Layer Chromatography. The main focus in the planning of the theme was to fulfil the goals that had been set by AstraZeneca. This was done using a student activated work method, and a scientific approach. The main things that need to be considered if this theme is used again are how to handle the varying chemistry knowledge among the students, maybe by modifying parts of the theme and its content. A problem was also to handle the dual roles as a tutor and a lecturer. This and some other things had been easier if there had been two tutors during the implementation of the summer research school.