High School Chemistry Classroom Research Articles

Strategies of Cultivating Students' Innovative Thinking in Junior High School Chemistry Classroom Teaching

Strategies of Cultivating Students' Innovative Thinking in Junior High School Chemistry Classroom Teaching

Simple green organic chemistry experiments with the kitchen microwave for high school chemistry classrooms

Abstract Microwave systems have been used in organic chemistry since the late 1990s for applications including Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS). The main advantages of microwave-assisted procedures compared to traditional synthesis methods are the 100- to 1000-fold increase in reaction speeds, higher yields, purer products, and less energy consumption. So far, only a few examples for integrating microwave-induced chemistry into high school chemistry classes have been proposed. This paper presents a set of experiments intended to provide insights into using microwave technology in the context of green, organic chemistry lessons in high school.

Implementation of self-regulatory instruction to promote students’ achievement and learning strategies in the high school chemistry classroom

The current study investigated the effectiveness of self-regulatory instruction developed based on guided inquiry on 11th grade students’ use of learning strategies and achievement in chemistry, compared to traditionally designed chemistry instruction. Additionally, the self-regulatory processes in which students engaged and the development of these processes over the course of the study were examined. For this purpose, mixed-method design was employed. In total, 78 students participated in the study: 38 students in the experimental group and 40 students in the control group. Additionally, four students from each classroom were selected as focal students, using the maximum variation sampling method. Quantitative data were collected using Chemistry Achievement Test and Cognitive and Metacognitive Strategies Scale; qualitative data were obtained through journals and think-aloud protocols. Five dependent variables were studied: achievement in chemistry, and the four learning strategies of rehearsal, elaboration, organization, and metacognitive self-regulation. A mixed multivariate analyses of variance was run to analyze the quantitative data and the deductive method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Quantitative results indicated a slight improvement in student achievement in the experimental group and no significant difference regarding learning strategies. However, analyses of think-aloud protocols revealed that students in the experimental group used metacognitive strategies more often, which were associated with self-regulated learning, and in turn achieved more—gave more correct responses and/or provided more complete scientific explanations—compared to the students in the control group.

Developing and Piloting Culturally Relevant Chemistry Pedagogy: Computer-Based VSEPR and Unit Cell Lesson Plans from Collaborative Exchange in East Africa

Meeting the challenge of modern global chemistry education requires collaborations from many different actors. Here, we report the development of culturally relevant computer-based lessons on VSEPR and unit cells designed specifically for implementation in the unique environment of East African high schools. The lesson plans use software more commonly employed by materials science graduate students, here repurposed for the high school chemistry classroom. The lesson plans were successfully piloted in local schools, indicating their potential for wide impact. The complete lesson plans are provided for free. The careful design of the lessons based on specific environmental factors through multifaceted contributors suggests a model of collaboration that could be useful in many other contexts.

Making it RAIN: Using Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology to Enhance High School Science Courses.

The Remotely Accessible Instruments in Nanotechnology (RAIN) Network is a conglomerate of nineteen community colleges, four-year universities and high school sites that aims to enhance STEM learning by bringing advanced technologies to K-12 education. RAIN provides free remote access to instruments such as Scanning Electron, Atomic Force and Transmission Electron Microscopes, as well as Energy Dispersive and Infrared Spectroscopy. The following is a variety of experiments and an empirical formula lab that can be performed in a high school physical science or chemistry classroom that utilizes the RAIN Network.

A Digital Periodic Table That Instructors Can Use in the Classroom To Highlight Elements and Illustrate Periodic Trends

This paper describes a responsive, digital periodic table that has been specifically designed as a visual aid for high school or college chemistry classrooms and lecture halls. The periodic table runs in a web browser and can therefore be used in any classroom that has a digital projector and screen. It features click-to-highlight table cells that an instructor can use to draw students’ attention to specific elements and style schemes that can be used to color groups of elements and illustrate periodic trends. The periodic table is written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which gives users flexibility to customize its appearance; its size can be adjusted to fit the screen in the classroom in which it is used. Users can also add additional atomic data to expand the periodic table’s capabilities if desired.

An Insight Into How a Constructivist Professional Development Program Can Influence Practice in Six High School Chemistry Classrooms

ABSTRACTThis article uses an existing evaluation framework to exemplify how an organic chemistry program for high school teachers facilitated their professional development. Chemistry teachers from 6 different high schools participated in the program. The professional development program was informed by a constructivist theoretical background in which teachers’ situated learning and sociocultural factors were central to supporting meaningful learning. To facilitate teachers’ professional development, the researcher worked, recurrently, with 6 high school chemistry teachers over 3.5 years. This article identifies the key elements of the professional development program that influenced change in the teachers’ practices. Analysis of qualitative data collected showed that the hybridisation of the professional learning and teaching space, the nonhierarchical role of the program facilitator, and a focus on student learning were characteristic factors that contributed to the change in teachers’ practices. The salient implications for teacher professional development and teacher learning are discussed.

Chemistry and Art: Removal of Graffiti Ink from Paints Grounded in a Real-Life Scenario

An activity that brings together chemistry and art, incorporates a real-world incident, and asks students to consider concepts of solubility is described. The activity was inspired by the vandalism of a modern art painting with graffiti ink, and it has students (i) determine the solubility of the ink in solvents of various polarity; (ii) predict which solvents would remove the ink while preserving the underlying paints, made using various binders, via the concept of “like dissolves like”; and (iii) conduct an activity to prove or disprove their hypotheses. Students work in groups of two to four on this 3 h activity, which was originally designed as an undergraduate general chemistry laboratory but could be adapted to a high school chemistry classroom or outreach event.

Interactions of chemistry teachers with gifted students in a regular high-school chemistry classroom

Regular high-school chemistry teachers view gifted students as one of several types of students in a regular (mixed-ability) classroom. Gifted students have a range of unique abilities that characterize their learning process: mostly they differ in three key learning aspects: their faster learning pace, increased depth of understanding, and special interests. If gifted students are to develop their abilities and potential, and learn optimally in a regular classroom, the teaching must be adjusted to meet their special needs. Chemistry high-school curricula have built-in potential to cater to the special needs of gifted students. Chemistry learning entails laboratory work and comprehension of abstract concepts. In the classroom, the interactions between teachers and students are core events that trigger other class events. In the present study the interactions between teachers and gifted students in a regular classroom, which are specific for chemistry teaching, were studied. Two general categories of interactions with gifted students were found to be unique to the chemistry classroom: (1) interactions involving laboratory work and (2) interactions involving the challenge of teaching chemistry content. We found that since gifted students master abstract chemistry concepts quickly and with minimum scaffolding, no interactions regarding this aspect were reported. Gifted students do not need all the instruction time teachers usually devote to explaining abstract concepts in chemistry, concepts that are considered difficult for other students. The present study indicates the essential need of enhancing chemistry teachers’ knowledge regarding teaching gifted students in the chemistry classroom. This includes knowledge about how gifted students learn in general, and its adaptation to the chemistry classroom and the chemistry laboratory according to academic and curricular needs of the gifted students.

LabLessons: Effects of Electronic Prelabs on Student Engagement and Performance

Lab instructors, for both high school and undergraduate college level courses, face issues of constricted time within the lab period and limited student engagement with prelab materials. To address these issues, an online prelab delivery system named LabLessons is developed and tested out in a high school chemistry classroom. The system supplements the laboratory experience by providing visualizations and simulations of concepts to prepare students for the practical experiments. The system requires students to answer prelab questions online, which provides immediate feedback and cuts down on last minute copying of answers that instructors anecdotally reported with paper laboratories. Empirical results demonstrate the effectiveness and improved outcomes for students who have used LabLessons. In addition, the ease of use of the system and better preparedness for the lab is noted by the instructor.

Kinetic Explorations of the Candy–Cola Soda Geyser

Protocols for examining the kinetics of CO2 escape from solution during the popular Diet Coke and Mentos experiment have been explored. The methods developed allow teachers to demonstrate and students to explore various physicochemical processes involved when Mentos candies are placed in Diet Coke. For example, a pH meter can be used to observe a slight decrease in acidity as dissolved CO2 escapes the soda. Furthermore, a balance or CO2 sensor can be used to directly measure CO2 escape. Arrhenius analysis of degassing rates determined using these latter methods yielded an activation energy of 25 kJ mol–1 for the conversion of CO2(aq) to CO2(g). The materials required for the experiments are easy to acquire and set up; therefore these investigations are amenable for use in high school and undergraduate chemistry classrooms and laboratories

No Teacher Is an Island: Bridging the Gap between Teachers’ Professional Practice and Research Findings

Despite decades of research regarding best practices for the teaching and learning of chemistry, as well as two sets of national reform documents for science education, classroom instruction in high school chemistry classrooms remains largely unchanged. One key reason for this continued gap between research and practice is a reliance on traditional, prescriptive professional development (PD) in place of PD that focuses on changing teachers’ ideas and beliefs. The former view treats teachers as technicians, workers who are supposed to follow a manual to produce student results. The latter view holds that teachers are professionals and develop good practice over time through professional reflection and interaction with other professionals. Bridging research to practice requires moving away from the standard short-term dissemination model of PD and toward a more coherent, long-term PD model in which teachers collaborate with educational researchers to transform instruction. The recent release of the Next Gen...

Nature or Naughty: Bringing “Deflategate” to the High School Chemistry Classroom

In this activity, students work in groups, delving into a real-life sports melodrama—“Deflategate”. Using their knowledge of the behavior of gases, and data collected by an independent investigative team, students draw evidence-based conclusions to the question: “Could the underinflated footballs used by the New England Patriots have been caused by environmental conditions during the game?” As this engaging and thought-provoking activity unfolds, students employ many of the science practices outlined in the National Research Council’s A Framework for K–12 Science Education.

Understanding the life cycle of computer-based models: the role of expert contributions in design, development and implementation

This paper examined the nuances of the background process of design and development and follow up classroom implementation of computer-based models for high school chemistry. More specifically, the study examined the knowledge contributions of an interdisciplinary team of experts; points of tensions, negotiations and non-negotiable aspects of model design; and the evolutionary trajectory of technological artefacts as they are readied for classroom implementation. A Discourse-in-use methodological approach examined planning sessions involved in the design and development of models and a case study of classroom implementation in two high school chemistry classrooms were conducted. The data included transcripts of planning sessions, classroom observations and teacher and student interviews. Design and development sessions reflected five major themes: (i) the nature of models: function, goals and limitations of models (ii) the role of students, background knowledge, and goals for student learning (ii) pedagogical decisions of the modeling process (iv) models and assessment and (v) the role of implementation. In comparison to the educator group, the scientist/programmer knowledge contributions dominated the form that technologies eventually assumed. Surely, implementation exposed teacher and student challenges with sub micro NetLogo representations; this finding reinforced the tensions and non-negotiable aspects of design that were involved in ensuring accurate representations. Models were configured to accommodate what was scientifically and technically reproducible within the constraints of context. However, these visual representations were not always commensurable with chemistry expectations at the high school level. These findings have implications for pedagogical decisions aligned with implementation, content understanding and assessment; and the sustainability of computer-based models in precollege science classrooms.

Building an Understanding of How Model-Based Inquiry Is Implemented in the High School Chemistry Classroom

Modeling as a scientific practice in K–12 classrooms has received a wealth of attention in the U.S. and abroad due to the advent of revised national science education standards. The study described herein investigated how a group of high school chemistry teachers developed their understanding of the nature and function of models in the precollege classroom through participation in a yearlong professional development program designed using model-based inquiry (MBI) as a framework. Further, we sought to understand the factors that catalyzed or hindered the incorporation of this pedagogy into the participants’ classrooms. It was found that the program positively influenced the teachers’ understanding of modeling as a scientific practice and facilitated growth in navigating pedagogical and conceptual challenges towards implementing modeling practices in their classrooms.

There is another choice: an exploration of integrating formative assessment in a Chinese high school chemistry classroom through collaborative action research

This study explored integrating formative assessment to a Chinese high school chemistry classroom, where the extremely high-stakes testing and Confucian-heritage culture constituted a particular context, through a collaborative action research. One researcher worked with a high school chemistry teacher in China to integrate formative assessment into his teaching with 54 students in one of his classes. Data resources included transcripts from planning sessions, lesson plans, teacher interviews, classroom observations, student work, student interviews and surveys. The findings of this study revealed that as the teacher allowed his original views about students’ learning and assessment tasks to be challenged by the students’ learning, his teaching practice and understandings of formative assessment were transformed. Students’ learning experience was also examined in the formative assessment process. The potentials and challenges of integrating formative assessment in the Chinese high school science classroom are discussed. This study indicated that formative assessment is promising to implement in Chinese high school science classrooms to enhance students’ learning and meet the imperative needs for high-stakes exam preparation as well; and writing formative assessment tasks are favorable in this particular socio-cultural context. Further, this study suggested that facilitating in-service science teachers to integrate formative assessment through collaborative action research is a powerful professional development on improving teaching and learning under the highly constraint context.

Development of the Bonding Representations Inventory To Identify Student Misconceptions about Covalent and Ionic Bonding Representations

Teachers use multiple representations to communicate the concepts of bonding, including Lewis structures, formulas, space-filling models, and 3D manipulatives. As students learn to interpret these multiple representations, they may develop misconceptions that can create problems in further learning of chemistry. Interviews were conducted with 28 high school physical science, high school chemistry, and general chemistry students. The interviews focused on identifying student understanding of, and misconceptions about, covalent and ionic bonding representations through analysis of both student-created and expert-generated representations. Misconceptions about bonding representations were identified regarding four themes: (i) periodic trends, (ii) electrostatic interactions, (iii) the octet rule, and (iv) surface features. The Bonding Representations Inventory (BRI) was developed to quantify the prevalence of these misconceptions. The BRI was administered to 1072 high school chemistry, advanced placement chemistry, and general chemistry students across the United States. Content validity was determined through expert validation of the items, and concurrent validity was established by comparing the three groups of students. Reliability was determined through individual item analysis and through Ferguson’s δ. Suggestions are offered for using the BRI in high school and general chemistry classrooms to inform the teaching of both bonding and representations.

PharmaChemistry in the Classroom: A Drug-Discovery Experiment for the High School Chemistry or Biotechnology Classroom

In this laboratory experiment, students were exposed to a real-world approach to science through learning about and simulating the processes by which drugs are designed and discovered. The students first synthesized oil of wintergreen from aspirin and analyzed the physical properties of both the starting material (aspirin) and product (oil of wintergreen) to validate that their reaction was successful. Second, unique to this lab experiment, students further scrutinized the synthesis by performing a biological assay investigating the antibacterial properties of their samples. Through the use of these analyses, students were able to play the roles of chemists, biologists, and team members involved in the drug-discovery pipeline. The results revealed to the students that small changes in molecular structure caused significant changes in medicinal activity. Through data analysis, discussion, and problem sets, students evaluated various steps of the experiment as they simulated the drug-discovery process.

Teachers and Students’ Conceptions of Computer-Based Models in the Context of High School Chemistry: Elicitations at the Pre-intervention Stage

This study examined teachers’ and students’ initial conceptions of computer-based models—Flash and NetLogo models—and documented how teachers and students reconciled notions of multiple representations featuring macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic representations prior to actual intervention in eight high school chemistry classrooms. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 32 students and 6 teachers. Findings revealed an interplay of complex factors that functioned as opportunities and obstacles in the implementation of technologies in science classrooms. Students revealed preferences for the Flash models as opposed to the open-ended NetLogo models. Altogether, due to lack of content and modeling background knowledge, students experienced difficulties articulating coherent and blended understandings of multiple representations. Concurrently, while the aesthetic and interactive features of the models were of great value, they did not sustain students’ initial curiosity and opportunities to improve understandings about chemistry phenomena. Most teachers recognized direct alignment of the Flash model with their existing curriculum; however, the benefits were relegated to existing procedural and passive classroom practices. The findings have implications for pedagogical approaches that address the implementation of computer-based models, function of models, models as multiple representations and the role of background knowledge and cognitive load, and the role of teacher vision and classroom practices.

Using productive disciplinary engagement and epistemic practices to evaluate a traditional Brazilian high school chemistry classroom

In this article we explore a dilemma a Brazilian teacher faces: on the one hand, she tries to implement inquiry-based teaching in her high school chemistry classroom. On the other hand, she faces the pressure of her private school, which expects that their students pass the tests needed to attend college. In studying this dilemma, we shall explore the epistemic practices students engage during a lab work as possible indicators of the occurrence of productive disciplinary engagement (PDE). The empirical data was obtained from the video of 6 students working as a group during lab work on thermochemistry and kinetics. The results show that PDE may not be sufficient to analyze the construction of knowledge in more traditional classrooms.