![]() However, see 2 above – this blog, and building molecules with people of all ages and backgrounds, have a role to play in prompting deeper thought and discussion. ![]() And I’m no longer convinced that our students are going to be confident about that conversation, either. We can get people interested in chemistry by a number of ways, but at some stage we need to have a talk about what actually is going on at the molecular level. So where does that leave us? I’m still mulling this over, and I’ll keep trying out different explanations. And we don’t really help ourselves by delving into the sophisticated measurements done to prove molecular structures, or by launching into a historical perspective. Because a lot of people have somehow become used to the concept of molecular structure, we forget how odd this must sound to somebody who’s not been in formal education for a long time.Also, it is rather amazing that we are able to investigate and manipulate molecular structure. That notwithstanding, molecules (and atoms) are a really important gateway concept for chemistry and related molecular sciences, because that is what most of our work is about.When we have it, we strive for objectivity, so tend to confuse everybody else when we qualify our statements with multiple exceptions. Chemists and other “professional” scientists don’t really agree on the finer details of a definition of molecules, making the conversation difficult.This includes school-age kids, who btw love Molymod. With regular exposure, a lot of people seem to stop worrying about this concept and just take the existence and importance of molecules as a fact, without giving this a lot of further thought.We tend to focus on the flashy (and fun) experiments without having a conversation about the foundations. I think my WI ladies are right – this is scarily important and we need to try and get it right.So here is the “Trouble with Molecules” as I see it: This hasn’t stopped me puzzling, tbh, but at least we have some information written up. I puzzeled over this for a while and, short of time myself, eventually found a few pennies to employ a summer student (Lucy Bird, at the time a 2nd year undergraduate student) for a month to work on this and prepare a blog post about molecular structures – you can see the result here. With time running out, I left them with a promise to develop more detailed information sheets to accompany this particular activity. Technical Sales Manager Louise L'Homme said: "evenTech Ireland has proven itself as a pivotal information and networking event within Ireland's installation technology and entertainment lighting sectors and, as such, is the ideal forum for us to showcase directly what Artistic Licence has to offer.Ī top manufacturer of lighting control systems, Artistic Licence, will be exhibiting at evenTech Ireland for the first time this November.Īrtistic Licence's presence at the show comes as a result of its growing customer base in Ireland and the increased demand for Artistic Licence products and expertise in Ireland's expanding architectural and entertainment lighting market.When we started to discuss how this activity could be used with a group of WI ladies, my willing volunteers, who had taken all kinds of hands-on, sometimes messy, experiments in their stride, expressed a lot of doubt about whether they would be able to give any explanation of molecular structures and why atoms arrange themselves in certain ways at all, never mind lead their peers in workshops. "Not only do we want to be on hand to meet with our existing customers and project managers, but we want to be able to present and explain the technology within our product range to those who are new to Artistic Licence. We can show our customers how to maximise the potential of an entire project using well-planned control systems." We find that projects often concetrate on the visual and audio aspects and give the control and integration aspects a lower priority. On the stand will be a selection of DMX and DALI control tools including the newly released Sign-Control - a DMX512 playback system aimed at simple to sophisticated room control applications which includes 24 memories and six sequences and Two-Play - a two-universe, multiple record and playback Art-Net controller which provides the perfect control solution for small to medium-size installations. Two-Play was recently given Commended status by the judges of PLASA09 Awards for Innovation.įurther new Artistic Licence releases will also be put through their paces.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |