The Learner Profile (9) – Balanced

Balanced.

One of my favourites for many reasons. We need to teach our students how to balance equations correctly. No, seriously ….

….. we want the young Chemists of the future to have balanced minds. To be able to see both sides of the argument. To see how a positive can also be a negative (pun not intended here) and how to make a sound decision based on the evidence in front of them.

Making decisions on evidence is where the Chemistry starts. This could be looking at experimental data and coming up with a conclusion, looking at ionisation energies to deduce the group that an element belongs to or looking at E_cell data to decide if a cell reaction will be spontaneous or not.

You will find that the more you look for it, Chemistry is full of examples of ‘balance’.