Abstract:

Every year, the amount and composition of waste are growing. The increase of waste depends on demographic characteristics, settlement structure, the location of towns, villages, and employment opportunities. The term waste means ”a movable thing or a substance that its holder discards, wants to dispose of or is obliged to do so in order to comply with at act NC SR No. 79/2015 Coll.”. Waste not only a negative influence on the environment but can also be a permanent danger. Statutory legislation focused on waste must respond to emerging requirements in the whole of society regarding changing production and economic conditions, and this should be reflected in education. This development requires new approaches concerning the education of pupils at primary schools.

The aim of this paper is to provide information about an e-learning course, which can be found on the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra (Slovakia) website on the "amos.ukf.sk" portal. The e-learning course is called „The Modernization of Education and an Interdisciplinary Approach to the Issue of Waste and Waste Management“. This course is one of the results of the KEGA project no. 044UKF-4/2017 focused on waste and waste management. The e-learning course focuses primarily on the chemical nature of waste from the perspective of educational work and its application in practice. The course deals with the care of the environment and nature. It presents a way of preventing environmental problems when dealing with waste referring to specific chemical compounds. This e-learning course is divided into ten topics. One of the topics is called „E-LEARNING: EDUCATION REGARDING CHEMICAL COMPOUNDS IN WASTE”. It is focused on the knowledge of 11–16 years old pupils about waste and its chemical composition. The topic includes online education, which analyses situations with waste, searches for solutions and ways to improve the actual state of the environment.

The e-learning course allows you to combine lectures in text form (MS Word) with PowerPoint presentations, graphics, schemas, tests, and supplementary materials. There are several ways to process and present the curriculum from simple text presentations of the curriculum, to interactive tutorials as well as complex simulations of real situations. The main advantages are the simulation of individual situations related to the chemical composition of a waste collection that pollutes the environment. We try to apply new trends and methods in the e-learning course in the form of educational materials, which is based on analyses considering the individual levels of pupils’ knowledge.

E-learning is a kind of skill, that promotes an education management system within the curriculum. It is one of the possibilities of using modern didactic tools in the process of education. Online courses are a new way to supply pupils with study materials.

Keywords:

e-learning, education, chemistry, waste, environment, pupil, teacher.