Teaching notes:

• The slide only gives a rough outline of the lesson. No effort has been made to discuss concrete questions and exercises, types of instruction or multi-media.
• The "Discover Silicones Documentation" contains materials and media (experiments, videos and animations) for each of the 4 blocks quoted above.
• This module could be used alongside Polymers, chiefly in sixth form, and to a lesser extent in lower forms.
• This module may be used as a constructivist learning cycle based on the concept of didactic integration of subject systematics and realistic contexts. Details of didactic integration are to be found under http://www.chemiedidaktik.uni-wuppertal.de/ and in Ref. [8].