Keith S. Taber
*
I've just seen* an article in Chemistry: Bulgarian Journal of Science Education describing how students intending to be teachers were introduced to ideas about intermolecular bonding by analogy with attraction between people (Karakaş, 2012). In this analogy nuclei are seen as female and electrons as male, and so sometimes the electrons may take an interest in nuclei other than their own, so to speak: hydrogen bonding is seen as a "form of dipole-dipole interactions, caused by highly electronegative atoms (caused by couples with highly attractive females)", occurring between hydrogen and
"oxygen (couple where the nucleus is Maria Sharapova), fluorine (couple where the nucleus is Kim Kardashian) or nitrogen (couple where the nucleus is Beyonce)" (p.345).
This seems to be a variation on an approach that has been around at least since I started teaching (I remember comparing displacement reactions to interactions between couples at parties), and is clearly meant to be a fun idea, as well as having a motivation in terms of making abstract chemical ideas relevant by comparison with something familiar. The study reported was undertaken in Turkey, and I wondered about the cultural acceptability of this approach these days in different contexts. So Karakaş reports that
"the instructor said in a patriarchal society such as Turkey, the male is supposed to take care of the female. Then the instructor said that basically, the male has to revolve around the female like an electron revolving around a nucleus" (p.343).
I suspect that in many countries it might be considered quite inappropriate to make such a comment about gender roles, at least not without a clear sense of intended satire. More significantly, I wonder how acceptable it is to talk about the relative sexual attractiveness of different people – is that politically correct? Especially if the idea was used with adolescent students, many of whom may well be suffering issues relating to their perceptions of their own attractiveness.
Finally, of course, the basic premise, that sexual orientation matches the principle found with electrical charge – opposite charges attract, similar charges repel – would certainly be suspect in the context where I work (where a current issue of public debate is whether same sex couples should be allowed to marry rather than just register civil partnerships). In some ways these complications are a shame, as the analogy will be seen as fun by many learners, and it certainly is something most learners will relate to. This example reminds us that even if chemistry itself can be seen as largely culture-free, teaching and learning of science always takes place in a cultural context that also influences what can be considered good teaching.
Reference:
Karakaş, M. (2012). Teaching Intermolecular Forces with Love Analogy: A Case Study. Chemistry: Bulgarian Journal of Science Education, 21(3), 341-348.
* Previously published at http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/kst24/science-education-research: 9th May 2015
