Undergraduate Chemistry Courses Research Articles

Teaching abductive reasoning for use as a problem-solving tool in organic chemistry and beyond

The second-year undergraduate Organic Chemistry course sequence is often cited as one of the most, if not the most, challenging for students in the US. Thus, a persistent question remains: What is it about Organic Chemistry that makes the course so difficult for students? Herein, we put forward the hypothesis that a new mode of thinking and problem solving is expected of the students; these skills have not yet been developed in their prior scientific coursework and are often not deliberately taught in Organic Chemistry. This form of reasoning and problem solving, known as abductive reasoning, is highlighted for its connection to medical diagnosis and scientific thinking. We provide examples to showcase how instructors could explicitly foreground the reasoning process in their classroom. Ultimately, we argue that teaching how to reason using abduction may benefit students in both the short term (in the course) and the long term (in their careers as scientists and medical practitioners).

A Computer Laboratory for the Calculation of the Heat Capacity of a Peptide Unfolding Transition

ABSTRACT We present the implementation of a computer simulation laboratory for the calculation of the heat capacity of the folding-unfolding pseudo phase transition of a polyalanine Ala30 α-helix, using molecular dynamics simulations. Unlike conventional calorimetry experiments, which provide a macroscopic interpretation of the heat capacity, the computer laboratory additionally offers a molecular perspective of the energy exchange processes that lead to the peak of the heat capacity at the phase transition, as well as the statistical mechanical interpretation of the phase transition. The exercise is targeted toward 1st- or 2nd-year students of biophysics in the context of an undergraduate physical chemistry course. We use a graphical web interface to overcome the steep learning barriers associated with command line interactions in commonly used molecular dynamics protocols. The web interface (VIKING) also handles communication with computing hardware in the background, so that students with limited or no programming experience can launch and analyze the simulations easily. A collaboration between the VIKING support team and responsible teachers is required to set up VIKING. We also present a solution in which simulations can be launched on students’ own computers, if some command line knowledge can be expected. The laboratory can also be repurposed for students of various backgrounds (physics, chemistry, biology, or engineering) and scholastic levels (undergraduate or graduate).

Learning Assistants and Instructors Provide Social Support That Influences Student Engagement Differently in Undergraduate Active Learning Chemistry Courses

Learning Assistants and Instructors Provide Social Support That Influences Student Engagement Differently in Undergraduate Active Learning Chemistry Courses

Validation of a Rubric to Assess Physiology Exam Multiple Choice Questions to Create Fair and Equitable Assessments

Inequities and achievement gaps exist for students from groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and for English language learners (ELLs). This is particularly evident with multiple choice assessments which are prevalent in health professions and medical education. Increasing the linguistic accessibility of test items by simplifying the language used while keeping the content diffculty was perceived as helpful to ELLs in an undergraduate Chemistry course (Lee & Orgill, 2022). Following best practices when writing exam questions provides consistent and valid measures of student comprehension. Across institutions we face similar challenges when forming and assessing multiple choice questions for our physiology exams. Some major flaws include long complex options; using vague terms; negatively structured stems; grammatical cues; word repeats. Lopez (2023) found that 56% items contained at least one flaw. The most common flaws identified were those in which the items were not approximately the same length and item options that did not have parallel grammatical form and structure. In order to address these issues in an objective way, we collectively modified the previously detailed rubric (Lopez, 2023) for identifying common flaws based on the “Item-Writing Guide” from the National Board of Medical Education (NBME®) and one formed in the context of general chemistry by Breakall et al. (2019). Twenty-six questions from physiology exams at three different institutions were evaluated by three faculty using the newly created rubric. After analyzing the questions, we returned as a group and compared our individual ratings, clarified any discrepancies and modified the rubric accordingly. We will conduct statistical analysis to assess our inter-rater reliability score before using this rubric to analyze the full question banks for physiology exams at each institution. This process is not limited to physiology educators since it can be utilized by teachers in any program or discipline. The significance of the work will not only benefit our validation of learning but it will also address specific equity issues by eliminating flaws that provide irrelevant diffculty or benefit test wise students. Furthermore, this rubric is also helpful in generating new questions for future exams, ensuring equitable assessments.

Teaching Experimental Instrumental Analytical Chemistry Are we forming professionals, training operators or illuding students (and ourselves)?

Teaching Experimental Instrumental Analytical Chemistry Are we forming professionals, training operators or illuding students (and ourselves)?

The Importance of Teaching Metrology for Chemistry Undergraduate Courses

The Chemistry undergraduate courses, in general, aim to train professionals for research, teaching and activities in industry. In all these areas, the statistical treatment of data supported by metrology disciplines has been a decisive boost to consolidate conclusions in Analytical Chemistry. The main objective of this work was to stimulate the teaching of the metrology in the chemistry undergraduate courses in Brazil and Portugal. In this work we present some concepts and practical cases of metrology and statistics, which together guarantee the suitability of analytical measurement results for specific purposes. Knowledge of these concepts is essential for the chemist to act effectively and responsibly, avoiding some pitfalls when processing data in Analytical Chemistry. A supplementary material with Excel spreadsheets is available, containing the statistical treatment of some examples and complementing the discussions in this work. A survey is presented among the most important universities in Brazil and Portugal, from which we can see the lack of teaching these subjects in undergraduate chemistry courses. For this reason, this work recommends a syllabus for creating chemical metrology disciplines in undergraduate chemistry courses. To subsidize this syllabus, an extensive, but not exhaustive, bibliography is indicated.

The Importance of Teaching Metrology for Chemistry Undergraduate Courses - Supplementary Material

The supplementary material is an Excel spreadsheets containing the statistical treatment of some examples. The tabs "Data", "Var_x" and Var_y" in the Excel file are to be used to perform regressions using the CCC Software as explained by its "User manual (for Release 1.3)" available at the INRIM site. The tabs "Cd Expl A5 QUAM OLS" and "Cd Expl A5 QUAM WLS" are spreadsheets with the OLS and WLS regressions to fit a straight line on the calibration curve data for Cd determination. These spreadsheets can be used to fit straight lines on other calibration curves. The following four tabs with names stating "CCC" have the results from CCC Software V. 1.3 for OLS or WLS rectilinear or parabole fit and some calculations in grey cells for the adapted Example A5 QUAM for Cd determination. The final four tabs have data to be pasted on the first three tabs of the file to use the CCC Software to fit the calibration curves of Cd or sulfur determinations.

Leveraging undergraduate learning assistants when implementing new laboratory curricula

At University of California, Irvine, a large-enrollment research university, undergraduate chemistry courses for non-chemistry majors were delivered remotely during the 2020–2021 academic year, with a return to in-person instruction planned for January 2022. Because this return to in-person instruction coincided with the transition of second-year students from general chemistry to organic chemistry laboratory courses, the instructional staff recognized a need for remedial laboratory curricula for students with no prior in-person laboratory experience. Simultaneously, we desired to implement undergraduate Learning Assistants (LAs) in non-chemistry major organic chemistry laboratories for the first time at our university. In this paper, we describe our approach for leveraging undergraduate LAs to (1) test new laboratory curricula and (2) address feelings of comfort and safety for students with no prior in-person laboratory experience. Benefits of our LA program perceived by students include increased laboratory efficiency and improved student learning from near-peer instructors; benefits perceived by LAs include the development of professional skills and teamwork with graduate student teaching assistants. We provide an outline of resources and strategies to enable instructors to simultaneously implement undergraduate LAs and new laboratory curricula.

The Relationship Between Attitude Towards Chemistry and Academic Performance in Undergraduate Chemistry Courses

This paper examines the relationship between students' attitudes toward chemistry and their academic performance in undergraduate chemistry courses. A sample of 378 chemistry students of Arts and Science Colleges from Madurai Educational District completed the Chemistry Attitudes Scale and consented to the release of their chemistry course grades. Correlational analyses using Pearson's ‘r’ found moderate positive correlations between chemistry attitudes and course grades (r = .32, p < .001), indicating students with more favourable attitudes tended to achieve higher grades. The correlation was strongest for inorganic chemistry (r = .43, p < .001) and weakest for physical chemistry (r = .21, p = .02), though ANOVA results showed no significant differences by chemistry subdiscipline. The results support the hypothesis that favourable chemistry attitudes are associated with greater academic success. This highlights the importance of affective variables and the potential value of interventions targeting chemistry attitudes among undergraduates

Implementing an interactive online platform in a large undergraduate general chemistry course and its impact on student learning and perceptions

The rise of technology and online approaches has challenged the traditional learning and teaching model for first year chemistry of formal face-to-face lectures and in-person laboratory sessions. The COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 has created a rapidly changing environment in assessment and learning experiences for students and led to rapid adoption of online technology within chemistry courses. This study, during 2019–2021, examined the implementation of an active learning platform in a large undergraduate chemistry course. This study was informed by constructivist theories of learning and of relevance was the 5E framework, with learning phases of engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. A combination of post-survey data and coursework data were analysed. Post-survey results indicated that students positively perceived that the interactive online platform helped them to learn. User statistics data for learning and self-assessment activities affirmed that students gave priority to the self-paced interactive online approach, in preference to conventional social learning activities. Modernization of delivery of the curriculum to replace unstructured independent private study with structured learning and revision activities was of greatest benefit to student learning for lower performing students that were typically mature age students, with significant differences observed for online quiz and final exam results for this cohort of students. Overall, student learning was supported with the introduction of digital technologies in the course. The findings revealed that the self-paced learning activities for chemistry, delivered with an interactive online platform, combined with conventional learning activities can be effective in creating a culture of learning in students and maintaining academic outcomes.

MODELOS E ELETRONEGATIVIDADE: UMA PROPOSTA DE SEQUÊNCIA DIDÁTICA PARA O ENSINO DE QUÍMICA

MODELS AND ELECTRONEGATIVITY: A PROPOSAL OF DIDACTIC SEQUENCE FOR CHEMISTRY TEACHING. Electronegativity is a useful chemical bonding property related to determining the polarity of molecules and formation of partial charges. In the 1930s, Linus Pauling studied the differences between theoretical and experimental binding energy values when he established that ionic contributions in covalent bonds were pertinent to elucidate these differences. The association of the nature of the elements present in the chemical bond with the discordance of results led to the quantitative determination of electronegativity, creating the first scale of this property. In addition, other scales were developed, such as by Robert Mulliken (1934), Albert Allred and Eugene Rochow (1958) and Leland Allen (1989). Although present in undergraduate Chemistry courses, the teaching of electronegativity is little explored in the literature and treated in a fragmented way in many materials. In this way, a didactic sequence is proposed for the approach of electronegativity and the scales designed by Pauling, Mulliken, Allred, Rochow and Allen directed to the first year of undergraduate in Chemistry. For a dynamic study of electronegativity models along with historical basement, modelling-based teaching is used so that students can assess scope, limitations and be able to participate in the creation of a model.

Modeling students’ epistemic cognition in undergraduate chemistry courses: a review

Thinking about knowledge and knowing (i.e., epistemic cognition) is an important part of student learning and has implications for how they apply their knowledge in future courses, careers, and other aspects of their lives. Three classes of models have emerged from research on epistemic cognition: developmental models, dimensional models, and resources models. These models can be distinguished by how value is assigned to particular epistemic ideas (hierarchy), how consistent epistemic ideas are across time and/or context (stability), and the degree to which people are consciously aware of their own epistemic ideas (explicitness). To determine the extent to which these models inform research on epistemic cognition in chemistry education specifically, we reviewed 54 articles on undergraduate chemistry students’ epistemologies. First, we sought to describe the articles in terms of the courses and unit of study sampled, the methods and study designs implemented, and the means of data collection utilized. We found that most studies focused on the epistemic cognition of individual students enrolled in introductory chemistry courses. The majority were qualitative and employed exploratory or quasi-experimental designs, but a variety of data collection methods were represented. We then coded each article for how it treated epistemic cognition in terms of hierarchy, stability, and explicitness. The overwhelming majority of articles performed a hierarchical analysis of students’ epistemic ideas. An equal number of articles treated epistemic cognition as stable versus unstable across time and/or context. Likewise, about half of the studies asked students directly about their epistemic cognition while approximately half of the studies inferred it from students’ responses, course observations, or written artifacts. These codes were then used to infer the models of epistemic cognition underlying these studies. Eighteen studies were mostly consistent with a developmental or dimensional model, ten were mostly aligned with a resources model, and twenty-six did not provide enough information to reasonably infer a model. We advocate for considering how models of epistemic cognition—and their assumptions about hierarchy, stability, and explicitness—influence the design of studies on students’ epistemic cognition and the conclusions that can be reasonably drawn from them.

Factors associated with chemistry faculty members’ cooperative adoption of evidence-based instructional practices: results from a national survey

Despite institutional reform efforts to increase use of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) in undergraduate chemistry and STEM courses, didactic lecture remains the predominant mode of instruction. Research to inform these initiatives routinely focuses on drivers and barriers to EBIP adoption, with recent work investigating factors associated with faculty members’ cooperative adoption of EBIPs from five STEM disciplines including chemistry. To understand the role of these specific factors within undergraduate chemistry education across a broad set of institutions, we conducted a national survey of chemistry faculty members (n = 1105) from the United States in Spring 2023. The survey targeted constructs that may underlie the cooperative adoption of EBIPs, including faculty members’ perception of (1) using EBIPs as mutually beneficial, (2) having their success and failure intertwined, and (3) institutional climate around teaching. The survey also included items targeting teaching-specific social interactions, another potential aspect of cooperative adoption. Results from multilevel modeling suggest that EBIP adoption is associated with chemistry faculty members’ perception of using EBIPs as mutually beneficial, aligning with prior findings on STEM faculty members’ cooperative adoption of these practices. However, there is no evidence of an association between EBIP adoption and chemistry faculty members’ perception of campus climate around teaching, where prior findings indicate an inverse association among STEM faculty members. Results further indicate that EBIP adoption is associated with the number of people with whom one specifically discusses pedagogy, instruction, and assessment. Collectively, our results demonstrate that differences exist between STEM disciplines and point toward the chemistry education research community's responsibility to further explore EBIP adoption from a disciplinary lens. Our investigation also provides insight into factors associated with the cooperative adoption of EBIPs among chemistry faculty members on a national level; we identify several implications for how chemistry faculty member change agents (e.g., course coordinators, department leaders) may effectively promote EBIP adoption across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum.

Facilitated Study Groups for Undergraduate Organic Chemistry: Experience from a Large Public Canadian University

Undergraduate organic chemistry courses have a reputation for being difficult among students in biological and physical sciences programs. Due to the extensive problem-solving, visualization, and depiction of chemical structures/reactions required, students may perceive learning such content as similar to learning a new language. Several interventions such as course-integrated tutorials or discussion sessions have aimed to assist students. Another effective approach that chemistry educators might consider is Supplemental Instruction (SI), a well-established program that emphasizes student-driven learning whereby student SI leaders facilitate discussions to help students arrive at solutions while also developing effective communication and study skills. A type of SI, Facilitated Study Groups (FSG), established by the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) in 2009, were introduced regularly into organic chemistry courses in 2012. This program provides semester-long optional small-group peer learning sessions, each of which corresponds to a course lecture. The aim of this paper is to provide comprehensive coverage detailing the structure of the organic chemistry FSG program, peer facilitation strategies employed, quantitative/qualitative synthesis of student outcomes indicating program uptake. We consistently find significantly higher grades and significantly lower attrition rates for students who regularly attend FSG sessions in comparison to those who do not (n=16 semesters). Given the growing diversity of undergraduate classes in terms of approaches to learning, language, and cultural barriers (international students, English second-language learners, learning and psychosocial disabilities), our FSG sessions seek to foster inclusion amongst our heterogeneous pool of attendees. Here, we describe strategies that tailored FSG sessions to a diverse group of undergraduate students as suggested by a sizable percentage of the class availing themselves of this resource and by a narrative synthesis of end-of-term surveys. Together, we demonstrate successful adoption of an SI-based model for organic chemistry and present a practical framework that includes pedagogically informed session strategies and cost estimates to guide design of similar programs for post-secondary students at other institutions.

Learning Green Chemistry Principles by Comparing Three Synthetic Routes to a Copper-NHC (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene) Complex

The implementation of a laboratory exercise in an undergraduate chemistry course, where students perform a comparison of three different synthetic methods toward [Cu(Cl)(IPr)]-complexes (IPr = N,N′-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene), is described. The students are introduced to the continuous improvement of reactions in terms of green chemistry and are provided a taste of mechanochemistry as a synthetic methodology. The direct comparison of three methods leading to the copper complexes provides an opportunity to teach green chemistry metrics including atom economy, environmental factor, mass intensity, reaction mass efficiency, and optimum efficiency, as well as Green Star; and challenges them to question the use of solvents in chemical syntheses.

An Intersectional Application of Expectancy-Value Theory in an Undergraduate Chemistry Course

The underrepresentation of women and Black, Latinx, and Native Americans within the United States scientific workforce is a persistent and multifaceted problem warranting an intersectional approach. Applying intersectionality to the expectancy-value theory of motivation, we examined initial motivation and subsequent achievement among a sample of undergraduate students ( N = 687) enrolled in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) gateway course of introductory chemistry at a diverse 4-year university. We found no racial/ethnic group differences in initial motivation, but small ( d = .30) group differences in achievement. Results revealed a pattern of gender differences across both underrepresented (i.e., Black, Latinx, and Native American) and well-represented (i.e., White, Asian American) racial/ethnic groups such that, relative to men, women began the class with lower levels of confidence about their performance, but greater utility value and attainment value in learning chemistry. Consistent with expectancy-value theory, motivation at the beginning of the semester positively predicted final exam scores across gender and racial/ethnic intersectional groups. For Black, Latinx, and Native American students, attainment value was an especially strong predictor of subsequent achievement. Our findings point to the need to cultivate social contexts within undergraduate STEM education that promotes all aspects of science motivation among students from underrepresented groups. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/03616843231153390 .

Physical Chemistry in Context: Using Quantum Mechanics to Understand the Greenhouse Effect

The concepts taught in an undergraduate physical chemistry course are directly related to the molecular processes governing climate change, yet the connections between quantum mechanical molecular properties and global warming are rarely made explicit. To improve student knowledge about climate change, we developed a three-part activity that computationally and experimentally explores blackbody radiation, the greenhouse effect, and the relationship between IR absorption properties and global warming potentials for the anthropogenic greenhouse gases defined in the Paris Agreement. The activities addressed the traditional learning objectives of a quantum-focused physical chemistry course by exploring topics such as the quantized nature of energy in Planck’s Law, the selection rules for rovibrational transitions, and discrepancies between theoretical models and observed experimental results. However, our approach was unique in that each concept was addressed within the context of the atmospheric phenomena related to climate change. A previously published climate science survey instrument was administered pre- and postactivity to assess student learning gains. The average percent of correct responses on this survey increased from 44% to 68% as a result of completing the activities.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chemistry Student and Staff Perceptions of their Learning/Teaching Experience.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Leicester introduced a blended teaching model to continue delivery of their undergraduate Chemistry courses in 2020/21. The transition from in-person to blended provided a good opportunity to investigate student engagement in the blended environment, along with the attitudes of faculty members adapting to this mode of delivery. Data from 94 undergraduate students and 13 staff members was collected using surveys, focus groups, and interviews and analyzed using the community of inquiry framework. Analysis of the collected data found that, while some students felt unable to always engage and focus with the remote material, they were pleased with the University's response to the pandemic. Staff members commented on the challenges of gauging student engagement and understanding in synchronous contact sessions because students did not make use of cameras or microphones but praised the array of digital tools available that helped to facilitate some degree of student interaction. This study suggests there is scope for continuation and wider implementation of blended learning environments to provide additional contingency for further disruption to on-campus teaching and to provide new teaching opportunities, and it also presents recommendations as to how to reinforce the community of inquiry presences in blended learning.

Problem-Based Learning in Graduate and Undergraduate Chemistry Courses: Face-to-Face and Online Experiences

The problem-based learning (PBL) methodology has been applied in a set of chemistry courses at the University of Barcelona to determine the main factors that are relevant to a satisfactory application of this educational approach in different contexts (from undergraduate to master subjects). The exceptional situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has also forced us to adapt this methodology from the traditional face-to-face modality to an online version. Thus, the resulting comparative study has allowed us to identify the main aspects of each subject, student background, and modality used, which are relevant to a satisfactory application of PBL. In general, the application of the PBL methodology using Moodle and BBCollaborate as live teaching platforms has a positive impact on student learning and satisfaction. Interestingly, although the face-to-face implementation is preferred to the online modality, students evaluate positively the application of online PBL with respect to the traditional online teaching. Thus, the intrinsic characteristics of PBL, which enhance the learning motivation with suitable problems to be solved in groups, makes this required collaborative work a key point to facilitate student learning.

Revisiting faculty members’ goals for the undergraduate chemistry laboratory

Over a decade has passed since faculty members’ goals for the undergraduate chemistry instructional laboratory were first investigated on a large, national scale in the United States. This study revisits these goals, using data from a 2022 national survey of chemistry faculty members in the United States (n = 521) to investigate current objectives, including how those goals vary with course, institutional context, and receipt of funding for improving undergraduate chemistry courses. A modified version of the Faculty Goals for Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory Instrument was used to measure goals, with psychometric evidence providing support for its use across the studied contexts, with the exception of the general chemistry laboratory. Goals were associated with course and receipt of funding but not institution type, both with regard to institutions’ highest chemistry degree awarded and approval from the American Chemical Society to award certified bachelor's chemistry degrees. Results suggest that faculty members may adopt a distinct set of goals not immediately associated with the practice of chemistry in the general chemistry laboratory. Further, goals increasingly focus on providing research experience and cultivating disciplinary knowledge and skills with progression through the chemistry curriculum; this focus increases more abruptly when moving from large-enrollment lower-level courses to small-enrollment upper-level courses. Findings imply a need for increased efforts focused on (1) evaluating goals for the general chemistry laboratory, including whether those goals contribute to overarching curricular objectives, (2) promoting adoption of evidence-based pedagogies in large-enrollment contexts to better align instruction with the practice of chemistry, (3) supporting faculty members in procuring funding to improve courses, and (4) refining professional societies’ evaluation criteria for undergraduate chemistry programs.