MOTIVATING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THE STUDY OF CHEMISTRY THROUGH A PRACTICAL PROBLEM SOLUTION

In order to encourage high school students to be interested in Chemistry, the Faculty of Chemistry (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, UNAM) has been working closely with several schools during the last years. One of the core activities in this approach of teaching Chemistry is to find a chemical solution to a real problem. A group of 4 to 6 students are supervised by a Science teacher of their school, with the coordination of a Research Professor at the University. They work 4 h. a week at a research laboratory during 4 months, in order to perform all the experiments and find a solution to the initial problem.