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2003 Spring ConfChem: Methods Other Than Lecture and Assessment Of These Methods
This on-line conference will focus on nontraditional methods of instruction including collaborative and cooperative approaches, guided inquiry, technology-assisted methods, active learning, and problem-based methods. Evaluation and assessment of these methods will also be a major focus of the on-line conference.
SCHEDULE & PAPERS
Paper 1. Teaching General Chemistry Using Information Technology and Interactive Engagement Methods
F. G. Herring, Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 1Z1, fgh@chem.ubc.ca
Paper 2. Encouraging Active Student Participation in Chemistry Classes with a Web-based, Instant Feedback, Student Response System
Charles R. Ward, James H. Reeves, and Barbara Heath, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
Paper 3. Evolution of a Nontraditional Freshman Chemistry Curriculum
Fred Garafalo, School of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Boston, MA, 02115; agarafalo@mcp.edu
Paper 4. Preliminary results using CPR (web-based Calibrated Peer Review) for pre- and post-lab writing assignments in general chemistry
Lawrence D. Margerum and Maren Gulsrud, Department of Chemistry, University of San Francisco (USF), 2130 Fulton Street, SF, CA 94117
Paper 5. LUCID: A Web-Based Learning and Assessment System
Troy Wolfskill and David Hanson
Department of Chemistry, Stony Brook - SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3400
Paper 6. A Cross-Institutional Analysis of the Effect of Web-Assisted Tools on Visualization and Proportional Reasoning in General Chemistry
Barbara L. Gonzalez, California State University Fullerton, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Fullerton, CA 92834-6866; Ramesh D. Arasasingham, University of California Irvine, Department of Chemistry, Irvine, CA 92697-2025; Patrick A. Wegner, California State University Fullerton, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Fullerton, CA 92834-6866
Paper 7. Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning
J.N. Spencer, Department of Chemistry, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604, jim.spencer@fandm.edu; R.S. Moog, Department of Chemistry, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA 17604, rick.moog@fandm.edu; F.J. Creegan, Department of Chemistry, Washington College, Chestertown, MD 21620, frank.creegan@washcoll.edu; D.M. Hanson, Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y. 11794, david.hanson@sunysb.edu; Troy Wolfskill, Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, N.Y. 11794, troy wolfskill/cas@sunysb.edu; A. Straumanis, Sandia National Laboratories, Bld. 701, Rm 1343, Albuquerque, NM 87185, astrau@sandia.gov; D. Bunce, Department of Chemistry, Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. 20064, bunce@aol.com.
Conference Articles
Abstracts of Papers:
The recognition that students who are exposed to cooperative learning in the classroom perform better than those taught in a lecture - based system has led to many recent efforts to encourage active participation by students to acquire knowledge. In the last few years many approaches such as the "ConcepTests" devised Mazur for physics, "Interactive Engagement" methods promulgated by Hake for physics and "Active Learning" espoused by Felder in engineering have been gaining acceptance. Recently a pedagogical strategy known as "Just-in-Time Teaching", devised by Novak, Patterson, Gavin and Christian for physics, which combines high tech (the www etc.) and low tech (classroom) to create a learning environment that responds to the needs of the students and encourages active participation. The adoption of these techniques to teaching First Year General Chemistry is in a formative phase. The presentation will describe the use of Information Technology to implement the Gutenberg Method (the students portions of the textbook to study before they come to class and are tested on the web) and Interactive Engagement Methods employing ConcepTests in a First Year General Chemistry class. The implementation and experiences with this approach will be described. Preliminary statistical data from a multi-section First Year General Chemistry class at will be presented.
Among the most difficult challenges faced by chemistry instructors is how to actively involve students in classroom discussion. The advent of networked computing devices provides new possibilities for facilitating active student involvement while simultaneously providing "on-the-fly" information about their understanding of the material being covered. At the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, we have developed a Student Response System (SRS) that provides instantaneous graphical summaries of answers supplied by students using Web-based answer pads. This paper will discuss the design of the SRS system, present data about the level of student participation, provide examples of questions that are best suited to this approach, and conduct a live demonstration of the system.
This presentation will describe efforts by the author to go beyond standard lecture and demonstration / recipe-type laboratory formats in a college freshman chemistry course with a large student population (100+ students). Approaches include using active learning strategies, coupling content to the development of reasoning skills, restructuring topic sequences so that observations precede definitions and theories, modifying laboratories so that students must rely on observations and Socratic question sequences to make conclusions, and using multiple representations (verbal, mathematical, pictorial, and graphical) to probe for concept understanding. This work is based on an action reseach model in which one first plans and implements specific classroom activities, and then observes and evaluates the results before revising the activities and performing another cycle of the process. Evaluative feedback comes from listening to students during interactive problem?solving sessions in the classroom, help sessions and the laboratoy, reading written responses to assignments given in class and lab, studying student feedback from questionnaires, and testing for concept understanding and reasoning skills. A brief history of the curriculum evolution, including unsuccessful strategies, will be included.
Chemistry students at the University of San Francisco (USF) complete many traditional wet chemistry techniques in their introductory lab courses. What is missing is exposure to quantitative analysis using modern analytical instrumentation. This project makes use of an atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) and a web-based writing-to-learn technology (CPR) to explore the question, "Is there lead in my house?" The objectives of the project are to improve conceptual understanding of technical subjects, to develop skills in reading for content and in scientific writing, and to link the writing assignment to hands-on environmentally significant experiments using AAS.
This paper will describe the structure and timing of a CPR assignment, give examples of the pre-lab and post-lab writing assignments, and present preliminary assessment from the pilot program completed this fall (2002).
The LUCID Project is developing a web-based learning management system and materials to assist students and teachers in improving student learning outcomes. The system provides a rich set of conceptual questions, exercises, and problems that can be used by students working individually or in teams. Team activities develop conceptual understanding and problem solving strategies, and use a peer review process to assess open-ended responses. Responses to exercises and problems can be collected in a variety of formats, including multiple choice, multiple response, fill-in, and drag and drop, as well as discipline-specific responses such as chemical reactions and Lewis structures. These responses are then analyzed to identify learning objectives that students have and have not achieved. By tracking student learning in real time by both topic and level of mastery, feedback can be provided to help both students and teachers improve learning.
We are currently trying to locate the remainder of this paper.
Constructivist and learning cycle principles are combined with an emphasis on essentail learning processes and student-student interactions to create a new educational model called Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL). The practices and materials developed are applicable to large or small classrooms, recitation sections with or without technology, and laboratories. POGIL is a learning environment where students are actively enagaged in mastering a discipline and in developing essential skills by working in self-managed teams on guided inquiry activities. The model is based on the premises that students will learn better when they are actively engaged and thinking in class, when they construct knowledge and draw conclusions by analyzing data and discussing ideas, and when they learn how to work together to understand concepts and solve problems. The instructor serves as a facilitator to assist students in the learning process.
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