Wikijunior talk:The Elements/What's a molecule?

It seems to me that it can't be quite right to 'tell' 8- to 12-year olds what molecules are. It would be a mistake to reduce science to a formulaic procedure. To teach science as a merely a series of facts seems to me rather more like indoctrination than the encouragement of critical and incisive thinking with which science at its best entails.

A more appropriate approach for young people might be more strongly empirical with the inclusion of historical details where appropriate. This would put science in a somewhat broader context than that of technical problem-solving or mere 'factual' knowledge. It would also allow the young readers the opportunity to think for themselves and encourage critical thinking, without totally destroying the sense of mystery which is where discovery comes from.

Does a ground level explanation of molecules really need the wowee 'cool' detail that sodium and chlorine are explosive in combination? Even as an unreconstructed male this seems to me to be an unnecessarily 'masculine' approach.

Why, other than for contemporary dogma, do we think that molecules exist? What simple experiments/onservations would confirm that molecules do represent reslity? In what framework would an 8-year old imagine this? It's very difficult to do this well.

David Pollard 00:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Sodium chloride is not a molecule
Ionic compounds are described by empirical formulae, and should not be referred to as molecules.