ABSTRACT
Science is a well-structured subject. Despite its advantage to technology development, however, there is a rumor that scientists do not nurture values. Moreover, there has been an issue of character education and all teachers are expected to implement this character education at schools, including in chemistry. It seems that chemistry in high school is regarded as an impossible subject to use for character education because it is unlikely to be contributing to the development of the students’ character. However, this paper argues that a good character can be acquired while studying chemistry. Chemistry learning involves a heavy cognitive process and its problem-solving requires a higher order of thinking ability. This cognitive ability guides students to think critically and creatively when solving chemistry problems. Since it demands high cognitive load, students learn how to be motivated during learning in order to generate answers. Having these characters may be important not only as a scientist, but also as a community member. This paper presents a topic in high school chemistry directing students to analyze chemical reactions. Then, how studying chemistry can facilitate students to develop a higher order of thinking ability and be scientific (respectful to procedure), and the motivation to learn are discussed.
