The Relationship between Balancing Reactions and Reaction Lifetimes:A Consideration of the Potassium-Argon Radiometric Method for Dating Minerals

摘要

Science educators share a common objective:to familiarize students with critical thinking.An instructor may select a topic of current interest from the scientific literature or from the popular media and ask students to write critical essays concerning some aspect of this topic.For instance,students may criticize bond stretch isomerism (1),gallium-gallium triple bonds (2),the nature of carbon compounds in an alleged Martian meteorite found in Antarctica (3),or some other fun and controversial topic.Participation in such projects allows students to practice the scientific method firsthand.The students must gather facts concerning what is known,intelligently criticize published explanations of the facts,create imaginative and alternative explanations,and formulate experiments that could potentially falsify the explanations.Such an experience is a very important part of a thorough education in science.