Abstract:

Discovery teaching is one of the effective activating methods in the teaching process. Its essence is based on an attempt to gain pupils' interest in the world and the ideas that revolve around it. The roles in the class are changing. The student as a “scientist” takes the initiative in observing, measuring or experimenting and he or she devises and modifies the procedures to support his or her claims. School science experiment is an inherent part of science education. It is an important means of forming and developing observation abilities, manual skills and also contributes significantly to the development of pupils' creative thinking. During experimentation, the pupil gains new knowledge and uses higher cognitive functions, work with information, hypothesis creation and verification, solving of scientific problem. In the paper, the authors present an experimental activity from the chemistry of everyday life, which is realized by implementation of digital technologies. Specifically, the school measuring system Vernier is used, which is connected to a computer. This activity assumes that the target audience for which the materials have been designed possesses basic digital technology skills for obtaining and assessing results. The suggested implementation of the described experiment took place as a part of teaching a compulsory subject at the master's degree of chemistry under the title: “Technique and Didactics of School Experiments”. The activity was mainly devoted to dyes occurring in the foodstuffs of the common consumer. With the help of an additional spectrometer device to the measurement system, spectra of selected dye samples in foodstuffs were obtained. Unknown dye mixtures were compared with acquired spectral characteristics. The competence in the field of natural sciences is developed by laboratory work and the ability to use basic knowledge and methods to clarify natural laws in order to draw evidence-based conclusions. The aim of this research activity is to bring the student to a greater interest in science using digital technologies and, at the same time, to transfer him / her globally across the natural sciences to the reality of everyday life using interesting experiments. It is about the promotion of modern principles of science education. Introducing the use of mathematical methods to analyse measured spectra develops and promotes mathematical competence. Specifically, when working with graphs and tables. An important part of the presented paper is also a survey of the opinions of the students who carried out the activity. This was done in the form of a short questionnaire and based on the obtained parameters, it was evaluated by a target diagram. After analysing the responses and processing them, it can be concluded that this method and activity had a positive feedback.

Keywords:

Discovery Teaching, Pigment Profiles, School Measurement System, Eatables, Science Education.