Chemistry helps make it possible to extract ethanol from corn in the energy industry.
Most high school chemistry curricula is filled with materials to be covered during the course. Adding enrichment topics is an excellent way to improve student motivation and improve learning. Making chemistry interesting is one of the biggest challenges facing educators. According to the "Literacy Information and Computer Education Journal," teachers must "improve students' learning by inspiring students' interest." Enrichment topics added to a curriculum may include careers in chemistry, the chemistry of how things work, chemistry in medicine and chemistry in business and industry.
Chemistry Careers
Students are often not aware of all the career opportunities connected to chemistry. The American Chemical Society says, "chemists are the people who transform the everyday materials around us into amazing things." Chemistry careers may set you on a path looking to cure cancer while others may work on creating new fabrics for the latest fashions. Chemistry opens the door to many careers in diverse areas such as chemical sales, pharmacy, metallurgy, flavor and food chemistry, textile chemistry, art restoration, hazardous waste management, chemical engineering, consumer product chemistry, crime scene investigation, archaeology and water treatment.
The Chemistry of How Things Work
Students' interests in chemistry can also be increased by teaching them that chemistry surrounds them in their daily lives. Chemistry is used to feed the world, fuel the way we travel, power our lives and provide us with materials such as plastics. Chemistry can be used to explain things, such as how Geckos can walk on the ceiling, how batteries work, how cars can be made more fuel efficient, how refrigerants work, how different chocolates are made, how perfumes are made and how lightning bugs light up.
Chemistry in Medicine
Teaching students about the role chemistry plays in their health and safety will help increase students' interests in chemistry. Chemistry plays an important role in drug development and safety. "Genetic Engineering and Biology News" reports that chemistry helps reduce side effects from drugs. New chemistry technologies can help prevent situations like what happened in the 1950s with the drug thalidomide. Thalidomide was found to help reduce morning sickness, but another form of the drug was found to cause birth defects. New chemistry techniques can help with drug testing to improve safety. Chemistry also helps explain how our body functions. Our body, when faced with lower oxygen concentrations, produces more hemoglobin to help us function. Chemistry helps develop new medical devices such as pacemakers. Chemistry also helps with diagnosing illness and injury with X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging.
Chemistry in Business and Industry
Chemistry has played an important role in the research and development of important industrial products such as adhesives, paints, glues and plastics. In the energy industry chemists help develop new alternative energy sources such as ethanol and other bio-fuels. Within the agricultural industry, chemists have developed pesticides to help protect our growing food supply. It is through chemistry that food additives such as NutraSweet and Olestra have been developed. Chemistry is an integral part of the cosmetic industry, which according to "A Cosmetic Industry Overview for Cosmetic Chemists" has worldwide sales of $170 billion dollars a year.
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