Volume 5, Issue 3

Student-centered approaches are critical to improving outcomes in STEM courses. Collaborative learning, in particular, allows students to co-construct understanding of concepts and refine their skills in analyzing and applying information. For collaborative learning to be effective, groups must engage in productive dialogue. The work reported here characterizes the quality of dialogue during group quizzes in a first-semester organic chemistry course. The group quiz sessions were video and audio recorded. The recordings were transcribed and coded using the Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) framework. The quiz prompts were analyzed using Marzano’s taxonomy. In this study, students within the group demonstrated varying degrees of interactional quality as defined by the ICAP framework. Our data also indicate that the level of constructive and interactive dialogue is highest and most consistent when prompts are at Marzano Level 3 or higher. Marzano Level 3 prompts required students to compare and contrast concepts or extend their understanding of concepts by developing an analogy. Any benefit derived from collaborative learning depends on the quality of dialogue during the group discussion. Implications of these results for research and teaching are offered.

The purpose of this study was to observe the relationship between students’ cognitive abilities and their performance in organic chemistry. We were interested in measuring whether some cognitive composites were more predictive than others on organic chemistry performance, whether group differences existed between males and females, and whether group differences existed between students with above and below average cognitive abilities. For Study 1 and Study 2, our participants included 48 and 60 sophomore organic chemistry students respectively. We used the Woodcock-Johnson Test of Cognitive Abilities-IV to measure cognitive composites. ACS organic chemistry exam scores and scores on an organic chemistry concept inventory were used to measure student performance. We ran a correlational analysis between the cognitive composites and organic chemistry scores, and t -tests for group comparisons. For Study 1, we found a significant moderate correlation between long-term retrieval and organic chemistry scores. For Study 2, we found a significant small to moderate correlation between comprehension knowledge and short-term working memory, with organic chemistry scores. We did not find any significant gender differences, except on comprehension knowledge. The differences between above average and below average cognitive abilities were only seen in relation to the concept inventory and not ACS exam scores.

COVID-19 remote learning forced instructors to scramble for meaningful organic laboratory experiences safe enough to perform at home. While resources are available for laboratory experiments at home, organic synthesis suffers from issues involving safety, availabilities of reagents, difficulties measuring reagents, and difficulties analyzing products. We report a new take on the classic benzoin condensation using safe and commonly available reagents, capable of being setup with commonly available kitchen materials, and displaying visible and distinctive product. This experiment is aimed at reinforcing concepts of carbonyl chemistry in the undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory.

Determination of alkalinity of water sample is generally carried out experimentally by titration method using a proper indicator. In the literature, five different cases of possible alkalinities are reported based on the experimental data of acid titration of water sample using phenolphthalein and methyl orange. The reported data is the volume of acid consumption and the relationship between the alkalinity causing ions present in the water sample. However, no systematic approach is available in the literature to understand these experimentally reported volume of acid utilized for neutralization reaction. To make students understand the key features of the reported experimental data, a systematic approach is presented in this study. By using a simple mathematics and a theoretical explanation to the reported reactions taking place during acid titration of water sample, a supplementary document is developed. The theoretical concept in the form of supplementary information is introduced without altering any data reported in the literature or experimental procedure.

Corrosion is the visible result of redox reactions on multiple substrates, “rust” being the known, although this term only applies to iron and iron alloy objects. Using corrosion as a relatable example to teach redox eases this concepts’ understanding because its results are visually identifiable; both in everyday objects like door hinges, and in cultural heritage objects like cannons. This article concerns the latter class of objects, as they have the potential to engage people interested in fields that seem unrelated to chemistry. The reality is the opposite, as cultural heritage professionals assess objects used in humanities disciplines like archeology and history through the lens of science. This article discusses how conservators approach corrosion on cultural heritage objects and provides experiments for any base-knowledge and age-level students to learn about the process of corrosion and electrochemistry.

Genesis of chirality and its link to the origin of life continue to intrigue scientists. Chirality also plays an important role in medicine with the advent of chiral drugs and the consequent importance of asymmetric synthesis. The configuration of a chiral molecule gets inverted in its mirror image, as is manifested by (i) sign of specific rotation and (ii) normally, through the absolute configurational notation ( R / S ). While the first parameter is always true, the second one, that is the mirror image relationship of R and S configurations, called the reflection variance, may not always hold good. In this manuscript, we have highlighted examples of molecules with combinations of central and axial or planar chirality where the mirror image relationship between R and S configurations does not hold. This reflection invariance originates from the CIP rule of R precedes S . Similar reflection invariance can be observed in P or M forms of conformations of some particular molecules with chiral ligands. Proposal to avoid such reflection invariances, has been put forward. An ignorance about the possibility of reflection invariance in enantiomeric molecules can lead to common mistakes about stereoisomeric relationship or reactivity profile.

The major intention of this work was to evaluate the effect of using context-based close packing supported with 3D-virtual model on the concept of crystals structure on students’ achievement and attitude. Accordingly, the study was conducted for two consecutive years and a total of 61 third-year undergraduate chemistry students have been participated. The nature of this study was quasi-experiment design and the sampled students were divided into intervention (24) and comparison (37) groups. The intervention group was treated with context-based close packing supported with the three dimensional virtual model (3D-virtual model), while the comparison group, covered the topic with the usual teaching-learning approach. The topic covered during the study period was crystals structure. At the end of the study, an identical post-test was given for both groups for comparative purposes. The result indicates that a significant difference was observed between the two groups (at p  < 0.05). The intervention group students were more benefited than the comparison group. Besides, the response of intervention group students to the questionnaires and semi structured interviews indicates that the approach was effective in enhancing students’ understanding of crystals structure concepts, and students have a positive attitude towards the approach.

The phlogiston theory was established around 1700 and lasted for about one hundred years. According to the Phlogiston Theory, phlogiston is released during heating processes, and the remaining material becomes lighter. The demise of this theory started with Lavoisier’s new insights into the phenomena of chemical reactions in general and combustion in particular, as well as about the composition of air. The rise and fall of the Phlogiston theory is a good example to the process of the replacement of one theory by another, due to new facts and new discoveries. In addition, it stresses the advantages and limitations of scientific models and theories, as well as the nature of science. A brief program, planned for two lessons, was developed around the Phlogiston Theory, in the framework of teaching and learning the “Science: An Ever-Developing Entity” program. Semi-structured interviews with teachers and students were conducted after the completion of the Phlogiston topic. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the brief program, reached its goals. The students, who studied the program, learned more about the scientists – their curiosity and their boldness, as well as about the scientific endeavor, consisting of discoveries, models and theories.

Conservation Science Education Online (CSEO) is a new online resource that shares strategies for teaching science in art conservation and related cultural heritage fields. An overview will be given of how undergraduate chemistry curricula in the United States have used examples from cultural heritage. The field of art conservation will then be described with an emphasis on the science curricula taught in art conservation programs around the world. Challenges include relating theoretical learning to real-world applications and teaching scientific terminology and concepts to students who may have limited science backgrounds; as well, there is a lack of textbooks and resources with appropriate case studies. The newly launched CSEO online resource offers freely available, effective teaching methods in the form of modules developed by international educators in the field. The inaugural CSEO Conference 2022 served as an introduction to the online resource for a global audience and was the first dedicated conference to bring together heritage science educators to discuss challenges and teaching strategies with the goal of building such a resource. The conference facilitated discussions among participants about teaching strategies, with the intention that these topics would become modules for the online resource, available to all science educators.

Information literacy is increasingly acknowledged as a contextual and social practice in teaching and research and can be beneficial to further our understanding of laboratory learning. However, there is a need for in-depth insight into the lived information practice in chemistry to develop contextualized information literacy instruction. This work explores the negotiation of information between beginners and experienced members of the chemistry community in a problem-based beginner laboratory. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study following the documentary method by audio-recording the students’ first lab session on-site. The reconstruction of the students’ information practice shows how beginners learn about group-specific knowledge through participation. The results highlight the importance of corporeal information to give meaning to textual and social information in the chemistry laboratory. Exemplified by the concept of acidification, our findings show how social and textual information alone is insufficient for beginner students’ understanding of tacit information. Physical experience and social guidance are necessary to develop shared conceptions between people in the chemistry laboratory practice. Beginner laboratory instruction could benefit from this work’s results by teaching beginners about the corporeal, social, and textual information modalities and showing how they connect in practice.