Project Details:
DIDAC worldwide
| Project No.: | 2001-045-1-050 |
| Start date: | 2002-08-15 |
| End date: | 2004-08-30 |
| Division: | Committee on Chemistry Education |
To produce a CD-Rom from existing DIDAC materials such that a book could be produced to accelerate the rapid acceptance of this tool for the teaching of chemistry in especially developing countries.
The original DIDAC materials is a series of slides / transparencies and texts promoting/teaching chemistry before choices are made of fields for further study. The system was developed in Belgium in co-operation with Agfa-Gevaert.
The DIDAC system for the teaching of chemistry has been described in Chem. Int., July 2000, Vol. 22, p. 103 > 'DIDACtic Tools for teaching Chemistry'. It is based on transparencies for overhead projection, with many illustrations and few words.
In 1998/99, COCI purchased copies for evaluation of its potential by Members in their own countries (see project 022/17/98 - 'Assessment of DIDAC as an aid for the teaching of chemistry around the world'). COCI 's primary, industrial, interest was the positive exposure of more students to at least the primary elements of chemistry. After discussions with UNESCO, COCI contributed with UNESCO "seed" money for the international promotion of DIDAC as an outstanding tool for the teaching of chemistry. Translations have been made into French, Arabic, Korean, Russian, etc., and over 30 developing countries are now involved including China. UNESCO predicts eventual use in more than 80 countries.
Since then, the development of colored poster versions has been initiated for use in those regions where electricity for even overhead projection is unavailable or unreliable.
A review of DIDAC was presented at the IUPAC Congress in Ottawa (Aug 2003) [Session CE06]; a symposium organized on Aug 15 featured the following keynote speakers: E. Michiels, L. Brandt, A. N. Pokrovsky, and J. D.Bradley. > see program
In August 2004, the CD version of DIDAC was transferred online; visit<http://www.iupac.org/didac/>.