“Hello, I’m Carbon.”: Writing about Elements and Compounds

Abstract

General chemistry students are asked to assume the identity of an element and to write their own story. In the spirit of pedagogical approaches such as writing-to-learn and writing across the curriculum, this assignment has several objectives, most significantly to connect students to the discipline of chemistry in a robust way. Facilitating this process writing assignment and evaluating it using a three-dimensional grading rubric are discussed. Suggestions of how to convince students to write a story rather than a report and summaries of four student autobiographies are given.