Using a Web Platform to the Teaching of Chemical Processes for Secondary School Students Outreach

As a complement to the teaching of university students, the use of web based tools enhances students’ autonomy, helps in dealing with different learning rhythms and allows reaching students in different locations. Moreover, the web can also be used to attract youngsters (basic and secondary school students) to science subjects. All these functions have been combined in a single web platform “Labvirtual”, based in the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra. Although the Portal had chiefly been developed for the Teaching of Chemical Processes, a specific section directed to the secondary school students has been created as well, grounded on the basic concepts they acquire at the secondary level. With one single portal we will then be reaching simultaneously two different publics: Chemical Engineering students and Secondary School students, both Portuguese speakers. In addition, the portal possesses an area dedicated to the understanding of Chemical Engineering. Guiding the secondary school students to the use of these tools, they are led to understand the connection between Engineering (Chemical Engineering) and the basic phenomena they are studying. Moreover, the proximity factor can contribute to rouse the curiosity of the users from that target public to search for more advanced information about Chemical Engineering science and applications. This approach, we believe, can motivate them to engineering subjects, on the one hand, and also to raise their interest in the study of basic science subjects for which they start finding a practical application. This paper describes briefly the whole platform and presents in more detail the contents of the “Secondary Schools” section, describing also the strategy that is being followed to make the portal known to students and teachers of the secondary level education.