Education Commons^™

What Can General Chemistry Students Learn From External Representations Of Acid- Base Titrations?, Nicole Baldwin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Laboratory activities are a prevalent and essential part of chemistry learning because of their potential to help students develop problem solving abilities, visualize chemistry concepts learned in lecture, and gain practical skills. However, learning in the laboratory environment is not without its challenges. For example, cookbook-style chemistry laboratories can promote superficial learning, and cognitive overload can result from the study of new concepts and the use of new procedures in this environment. Multiple pedagogies and supports have been developed to address challenges such as these. The current research focuses upon external representations that are commonly used to support learning in …

Options And Experiences For Online Chemistry Laboratory Instruction, Emily Faulconer, Matt Morgan

Publications

While online course offerings have been on the rise for many years, there was a rapid transition to online courses due to campus closures and social distancing protocols associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This has caused significant disruption in traditional chemistry laboratory activities. In this chapter, features of various distance laboratory approaches options are presented, including wet chemistry and dry laboratory options. Because the existing research comparing effectiveness of these strategies is scarce, no attempt is made to argue the effectiveness of one modality over the other, but rather advantages and disadvantages of each method are presented and discussed. The …

The Activity Of Abstraction In Physical Chemistry Problem Solving And Instruction, Jessica M. Karch

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Productive problem solving, concept construction, and sense making occur through the core process of abstraction. Although the capacity for domain-general abstraction is developed at a young age, the role of abstraction in increasingly complex and disciplinary environments, such as those encountered in undergraduate STEM education, is not well understood. Undergraduate physical chemistry relies particularly heavily on abstraction because it uses many overlapping and imperfect mathematical models to represent and interpret phenomena occurring on multiple scales. To reconcile these models, extract meaning from them, and recognize when to apply them in problem solving requires processes of abstraction. This dissertation aims to …

An Analysis Of Factors Influencing Chemistry Students’ Choice Of Major And Career, Jennifer Marie Ribble

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a push to increase the number of STEM graduates in the United States in order for the nation to retain its position as a global leader in the sciences. If educators are to address recruitment and attrition issues in STEM fields it is important to understand student perspectives related to choosing both a major and a career in chemistry. The present study explores the decision-making process students utilize to choose chemistry as a major and as a career, their perception of what careers are available to someone with a degree in chemistry and what …

Investigating Students’ Basic Needs And Motivation In College Chemistry Courses With The Lens Of Self-Determination Theory, Yujuan Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathmetics (STEM) fields are needed to keep our nation’s preeminance in the global fields of technology and science. However, fewer than 40% of students who intend to major in STEM fields when entering college complete a STEM degree. Therefore, it is important to explore factors to improve student persistence in STEM fields at the college level as well as to understand the interrelationship between student motivation, academic achievement, and persistence. Motivation is strongly associated with student achievement and persistence; meanwhile, academic achievement can also affect persistence. Self-determination theory (SDT) represents a framework of …

Building Data And Information Literacy In The Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum, Yasmeen Shorish, Barbara A. Reisner

Yasmeen Shorish

The Literature and Seminar sequence at James Madison University has been used to develop the chemistry information literacy skills of chemistry majors for over four decades. These courses have been continually updated to emphasize information literacy skills for the twenty-first century. This chapter describes the methods that have been developed to improve chemical, data and general information literacy at a large, public, primarily undergraduate institution. The focus of the first semester course, described in this chapter, is on skill building rather than teaching specific resources. It is a model of integration and collaboration between chemistry faculty and chemistry librarians. Changes …

Building Data And Information Literacy In The Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum, Yasmeen Shorish, Barbara A. Reisner

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry - Faculty Scholarship

The Literature and Seminar sequence at James Madison University has been used to develop the chemistry information literacy skills of chemistry majors for over four decades. These courses have been continually updated to emphasize information literacy skills for the twenty-first century. This chapter describes the methods that have been developed to improve chemical, data and general information literacy at a large, public, primarily undergraduate institution. The focus of the first semester course, described in this chapter, is on skill building rather than teaching specific resources. It is a model of integration and collaboration between chemistry faculty and chemistry librarians. Changes …

A Study On The Elementary School Teachers’ Awareness Of Students’ Alternative Conceptions About Change Of States And Dissolution, Chanho Yang, Taehee Noh, Lawrence C. Scharmann, Sukjin Kang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Knowledge about students’ conceptions is one of the requisite components of pedagogical content knowledge. A keen awareness of students’ alternative conceptions provides teachers with information about prospective difficulties students may incur as they make attempts to learn more accurate scientific representations of critical concepts. In this study, we investigated elementary school teachers’ understanding of their students’ alternative conceptions about change of states and dissolution. The subjects were 152 elementary school teachers and 529 sixth graders in Korea. A conceptions test and the test of the understanding about students’ conceptions were administered in order to examine students’ alternative conceptions and the …

Now For The Science Bit: Implementing Community-Based Learning In Chemistry, Claire M. Mcdonnell, Patricia Ennis, Leslie Shoemaker

Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of student learning from community engagement by critically assessing the implementation of this pedagogical approach in the context of teaching and learning chemistry and also evaluating the role of personal development in student-community engagement.

Design/methodology/approach – A case study on the implementation since 2007 of community-based learning (also called service-learning) projects in an academic department in Ireland is presented. Analysis of assessment grades, student reflective accounts and evaluation questionnaires informs this work as does a recently completed self-assessment of our activities using Shumer’s Self-Assessment for Service Learning. …

Online Support And Online Assessment For Teaching And Learning Chemistry, Claire M. Mcdonnell, Natasa Brouwer

Books/Book chapters

In this chapter, examples of innovative approaches that use educational technology to support active learning in chemistry lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions are considered. The scope of the chapter is limited to blended learning. The strengths and weaknesses of e-learning are examined and the options available for online assessment using electronic tests and e-portfolios are discussed. In addition to the literature references provided in the chapter, several examples of good practice involving the implementation of information and communication technology for chemistry teaching in higher education are incorporated. A list of online resources for lecturers is also included.