Papers by Pericles Akrivos
The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and espec... more The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and especially their chemistry curriculum involves the adoption of the "memorize or reject" attitude rather than the assimilation of facts and laws into their scientific background. Two recent studies carried out during school years 2010-11 and 2013-14 by means of questionnaires distributed to class B and C senior high-school students in a number of Northern Greece high-schools, accidentally fell on either side of the latest modification of the Chemistry curriculum. The comparison of the overall results reveals the minimal effect of the above change on the chemical background of the students whose main purpose is to prepare adequately for the entrance examinations to University courses. The observation lies in accordance to several studies over the last four decades.
Cave illustrations from the prehistoric period used to tell stories of hunting and of rituals and... more Cave illustrations from the prehistoric period used to tell stories of hunting and of rituals and even today provide us with a satisfactory view of how our ancestors lived many centuries ago. In this sense, illustrations in books help to make the content more easily understood whether the content is a fiction story or a scientific textbook. In scientific textbooks especially, pictorial representations are used widely in order to clarify relationships between measurable quantities and even between observables and more abstract ideas. However, pictures and diagrams are not free from misinterpretations and/or oversimplifications, therefore provoking a series of thoughts which can create or maintain logical deductions not strictly true within the scientific realm studied. It is therefore, not straightforward and always true that a picture has an equivalent of thousand words and may be used accordingly. In Chemistry textbooks we have identified several cases where pictorial representations may give rise to misconceptions which could and should be avoided. In most of the cases discussed there is a way to overcome such effects with low cost and high applicability amendments, a few of which are proposed in the text.
Educational Alternatives, Oct 13, 2019
Teaching Science is aided, throughout the educational system, by the study of appropriate textboo... more Teaching Science is aided, throughout the educational system, by the study of appropriate textbooks. The content of the textbook used for a specific course plays a considerable role to the degree of the assimilation of the topics addressed by it; however, the actual way it is viewed by the readers/students is also expected to be a major factor. In the current study a double-page spread text is introduced to students of Chemistry. The topic described concisely is related to catalysis and the text is accompanied by a variety of visual aids (graph, algebraic equations, 2D chemical formula, diagram, table). The fifty students participating in the survey are covering the whole range from first-year undergraduates to postgraduates and they are tested for their comprehension of the text provided. The extent of this comprehension is correlated to their logical thinking, field dependence/independence and prior knowledge of the topic as they emerge from assessment of separate preliminary tests they have taken in advance.
Journal of Education and Development
A study is carried out by means of distributing a pair of questionnaires to secondary education s... more A study is carried out by means of distributing a pair of questionnaires to secondary education students in minor urban areas of Northern Greece. The content of the questions is related to the concept of stoicheiometry (Note 1) as it is presented in the textbooks and described in the Greek chemistry curriculum for secondary education. The two questionnaires were distributed in the beginning and in towards the end of the school year with the scope of mapping the degree of assimilation of the stoicheiometry related concepts by the students. The concept is not introduced to a considerable extent in junior high-school while it is among the main topics addressed in the second grade of senior high-school, when Organic Chemistry is explicitly discussed. The target group therefore, was students of second grade of senior high-schools. The first questionnaire, therefore, serves as exploratory in the determination of the starting point of overall understanding of chemical concepts by the stude...
CCDC 1827330: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination
An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world's repository for small molecule cr... more An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world's repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.
Educational Alternatives, 2016
The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and espec... more The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and especially their chemistry curriculum involves the adoption of the "memorize or reject" attitude rather than the assimilation of facts and laws into their scientific background. Two recent studies carried out during school years 2010-11 and 2013-14 by means of questionnaires distributed to class B and C senior high-school students in a number of Northern Greece high-schools, accidentally fell on either side of the latest modification of the Chemistry curriculum. The comparison of the overall results reveals the minimal effect of the above change on the chemical background of the students whose main purpose is to prepare adequately for the entrance examinations to University courses. The observation lies in accordance to several studies over the last four decades.
Educational Alternatives, 2015
Chemistry in the Greek secondary school suffers substantially more than other sciences owing, to ... more Chemistry in the Greek secondary school suffers substantially more than other sciences owing, to the construction of its curriculum. The apparent and necessary interactions with the rest of the sciences and notably with Biology, affect the perception by the students of chemical aspects, mainly atomic structure, bonding and energetic. These interactions do not always promote the interdisciplinary nature of science, a problem mainly caused by the independent construction of the curriculum leading to several hysteron-proteron situations and, furthermore, application of different terminologies and/or interpretation in the two scientific domains. Some simple, cost-free amendments to the Biology textbooks currently used in the Greek high school are proposed in order to provide the necessary back-up for Chemistry and support the interdisciplinary approach in teaching both sciences. The presentation of the case is expected to act as an indication of situations to avoid in constructing or pr...
Educational Alternatives, 2017
A survey is contacted on a limited number of first year students at a Greek university (n=54) in ... more A survey is contacted on a limited number of first year students at a Greek university (n=54) in relation to their notions about pH and related aspects, following a semester of lectures and tutorials, both of which include teaching and experimenting upon pH. The findings attempt to correlate the assimilation of information with the school of study and with the kind of underlying background of the students since they could, in principle, have followed different high school currliculae towards entering the university courses. Namely, students who followed a curriculum termed “technological direction” in high school could follow studies at the Geology department where limited knowledge and use of pH is required at the undergraduate level, while the high school direction does not involve any Chemistry classes at all in the final year. On the other hand, Pharmacy students are overloaded with chemical information and can enter the department course only through a high school direction ter...
Within the complex and ever-changing Greek educational system, Science is taught to secondary sch... more Within the complex and ever-changing Greek educational system, Science is taught to secondary school students throughout their six years of study, the first three (Gymnasio, junior-high school) being part of the compulsory educational program. The syllabus consists of several discrete spiral steps ensuring that certain aspects are addressed more than once. The first grade of Lykeio (senior high school) is the last year during which general studies are provided, and is therefore packed with all the possible chemical information considered appropriate for students at this age. In the present study an effort is placed towards the recording of student misconceptions concerning a spectrum of basic chemical concepts. The investigation was carried out by evaluating questionnaires composed mainly of closed type questions, which were distributed to second and third grade of Lykeio in a number of schools in Northern Greece, incorporating all types of schools existing.
Educational Alternatives, 2017
A survey is carried out on first year students of Science Departments at a Greek university, in r... more A survey is carried out on first year students of Science Departments at a Greek university, in relation to knowledge of basic chemical principles, following a semester of lectures and tutorials within the General Chemistry class. The findings attempt to correlate the assimilation of information with the curriculum adopted by the school of study and the intensity of teaching both in lecture hours and in laboratory experiments carried out.
Educational Alternatives, 2019
Validation is provided to the assumption that Chemistry, being an experimental subject taught to ... more Validation is provided to the assumption that Chemistry, being an experimental subject taught to secondary education students, is better understood via the performance of relevant experiments within the classroom. The case of solution Chemistry, especially solubility, description of solutions in terms of their concentration as well as estimation of concentrations following dilution or mixing is studied by means of a questionnaire addressed to first year senior high school students who have been exposed to varying degree of experimentation during their junior high school studies. The questionnaire is tested as of its validity for drawing conclusions and of its potential use as a test for future evaluation of senior high school students referring to their understanding of nomenclature and properties of solutions. A total of 208 students in three different schools in Northern Greece have been subjected to the study.
ChemInform Abstract: Spectral and Theoretical Studies on Thione—Thiol Tautomerism of N‐Containing Heterocycles
ChemInform, 2010
ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was e... more ChemInform is a weekly Abstracting Service, delivering concise information at a glance that was extracted from about 100 leading journals. To access a ChemInform Abstract of an article which was published elsewhere, please select a “Full Text” option. The original article is trackable via the “References” option.
Synthesis, Structure and In vitro Biological Activity of New Hydroxy-Naphthoquinonato Triorganotin Compounds
Synthesis and Reactivity in Inorganic, Metal-Organic, and Nano-Metal Chemistry, 2006
ABSTRACT We report herein on the synthesis, structure and in vitro antitumor activity of new trio... more ABSTRACT We report herein on the synthesis, structure and in vitro antitumor activity of new triorganotin compounds of the general type (R3Sn)nL, where R=Me, Bu, Ph, Bz; L=5‐Hydroxy‐1,4‐naphthoquinone; L=2‐Hydroxy‐1,4‐naphthoquinone; L=5,8‐dihydroxy‐1,4‐naphthoquinone; n=1 for L & L n=2 for L and L. The compounds were synthesized by reacting the triorganotin hydroxide with the parent hydroxy‐quinone and were characterized by IR, H‐, NMR, and thermal measurements. The spectroscopic analysis provides evidence on the formation of a chelate ring that is responsible for the stabilization of the triorganotin cation with the Sn central atom in a five‐coordinated environment exhibiting distorted trigonal bipyramidal geometry. The new compounds were tested for their cytotoxicity against five human tumor cell lines and one non‐tumor human cell line and the results are reported.
Thione-disulfide interchange of some heterocyclic tautomeric thiones and their symmetrical disulfides
Monatshefte für Chemie - Chemical Monthly, 1996
ABSTRACT
Educational Alternatives, Oct 13, 2019
Teaching Science is aided, throughout the educational system, by the study of appropriate textboo... more Teaching Science is aided, throughout the educational system, by the study of appropriate textbooks. The content of the textbook used for a specific course plays a considerable role to the degree of the assimilation of the topics addressed by it; however, the actual way it is viewed by the readers/students is also expected to be a major factor. In the current study a double-page spread text is introduced to students of Chemistry. The topic described concisely is related to catalysis and the text is accompanied by a variety of visual aids (graph, algebraic equations, 2D chemical formula, diagram, table). The fifty students participating in the survey are covering the whole range from first-year undergraduates to postgraduates and they are tested for their comprehension of the text provided. The extent of this comprehension is correlated to their logical thinking, field dependence/independence and prior knowledge of the topic as they emerge from assessment of separate preliminary tests they have taken in advance.
Synthesis and Reactivity of Trigonal Copper(I) Compounds. Crystal Structure of BIS(TETRAHYDROPYRIMIDINE-2-THIONE)COPPER(I) Bromide
Journal of Coordination Chemistry, 1995
Reaction of monovalent copper halides with excess tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thione (thpmtH2) in acet... more Reaction of monovalent copper halides with excess tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thione (thpmtH2) in acetonitrile results in the formation of three-coordinate monomer products of formula Cu(thpmtH2)2X. The crystal and molecular structure of the bromo complex is reported and discussed with respect to analogous copper(I) complexes. The compound crystallizes in the tetragonal system, space group, P41212 with a = 8.005(1), c = 21.31(1) Å, and
Educational Alternatives, 2016
The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and espec... more The response of the Greek high-school students to the ever-changing educational program and especially their chemistry curriculum involves the adoption of the "memorize or reject" attitude rather than the assimilation of facts and laws into their scientific background. Two recent studies carried out during school years 2010-11 and 2013-14 by means of questionnaires distributed to class B and C senior high-school students in a number of Northern Greece high-schools, accidentally fell on either side of the latest modification of the Chemistry curriculum. The comparison of the overall results reveals the minimal effect of the above change on the chemical background of the students whose main purpose is to prepare adequately for the entrance examinations to University courses. The observation lies in accordance to several studies over the last four decades.
Study of copper(I) heteroleptic compounds with 1-phenyl-1, 4-dihydro-tetrazole-5-thione and triphenylphosphine
Journal of Coordination Chemistry, 2011
ABSTRACT The synthesis and structural investigation of three mononuclear heteroleptic copper(I) c... more ABSTRACT The synthesis and structural investigation of three mononuclear heteroleptic copper(I) complexes of 1-phenyl-1,4-dihydro-tetrazole-5-thione (HL) with the stoichiometry [CuX(HL) (PPh3)2], where X represents a halide, are reported. The compounds were studied both in the solid state and in solution by a variety of spectroscopic methods. X-ray crystal structure determination of the three compounds revealed a distorted tetrahedral coordination environment around copper in every case. The thermal behavior of the complexes was investigated with respect to the thione ligand fragmentation. Complexation to copper(I) has a stabilizing effect on the nitrogen-rich thione as the TG studies on the free ligand reveal. Keywords: Thioamide; Tetrazole thione; Copper(I) complexes; Crystal structure; Thermal
Educational Alternatives, 2015
Chemistry in the Greek secondary school suffers substantially more than other sciences owing, to ... more Chemistry in the Greek secondary school suffers substantially more than other sciences owing, to the construction of its curriculum. The apparent and necessary interactions with the rest of the sciences and notably with Biology, affect the perception by the students of chemical aspects, mainly atomic structure, bonding and energetic. These interactions do not always promote the interdisciplinary nature of science, a problem mainly caused by the independent construction of the curriculum leading to several hysteron-proteron situations and, furthermore, application of different terminologies and/or interpretation in the two scientific domains. Some simple, cost-free amendments to the Biology textbooks currently used in the Greek high school are proposed in order to provide the necessary back-up for Chemistry and support the interdisciplinary approach in teaching both sciences. The presentation of the case is expected to act as an indication of situations to avoid in constructing or pr...
Educational Alternatives, 2017
A survey is contacted on a limited number of first year students at a Greek university (n=54) in ... more A survey is contacted on a limited number of first year students at a Greek university (n=54) in relation to their notions about pH and related aspects, following a semester of lectures and tutorials, both of which include teaching and experimenting upon pH. The findings attempt to correlate the assimilation of information with the school of study and with the kind of underlying background of the students since they could, in principle, have followed different high school currliculae towards entering the university courses. Namely, students who followed a curriculum termed “technological direction” in high school could follow studies at the Geology department where limited knowledge and use of pH is required at the undergraduate level, while the high school direction does not involve any Chemistry classes at all in the final year. On the other hand, Pharmacy students are overloaded with chemical information and can enter the department course only through a high school direction ter...
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Papers by Pericles Akrivos