Exploring Opportunities in Green Chemistry and Engineering Education by 
Misconceptions in Chemistry by
Over the last decades several researchers discovered that children, pupils and even young adults develop their own understanding of "how nature really works". These pre-concepts concerning combustion, gases or conservation of mass are brought into lectures and teachers have to diagnose and to reflect on them for better instruction. In addition, there are ‘school-made misconceptions’ concerning equilibrium, acid-base or redox reactions which originate from inappropriate curriculum and instruction materials. The primary goal of this monograph is to help teachers at universities, colleges and schools to diagnose and ‘cure’ the pre-concepts. In case of the school-made misconceptions it will help to prevent them from the very beginning through reflective teaching. The volume includes detailed descriptions of class-room experiments and structural models to cure and to prevent these misconceptions.
The Promise of Chemical Education by
College and university faculty find themselves tasked with teaching in the face of ever-changing trends in higher education and constant shifts in the student population. Educators must balance student engagement and retention with their learning and satisfaction in a never-ending cycle ofchanges in technology, the economy, and the political climate. Even when certain pedagogies or classroom techniques are shown to be beneficial in one discipline, individual faculty may find it challenging to apply them in their own classrooms. This is certainly true in chemistry. Many faculty inchemistry today struggle to embrace research-based educational practices, even those coming out of our own discipline. Graduate programs in chemical education, recent reports on discipline-based education research (1), and an increase in the scholarship of teaching and learning in chemistry indicatea desire among many faculty to change-to reach students in new and exciting ways or to change curricula to better meet students' needs. Faculty are looking for things that work-techniques used by chemists, for chemists. This volume contributes to this on-going conversation.The scholarship presented within this volume is organized in three sections. The first explores innovations found to enhance the learning of typical students as well as those who may be under-prepared. Authors describe their experiences using the flipped classroom and institutional readiness models.The second section provides examples of how technology may be utilized in the chemistry classroom-from e-textbook usage to a computational chemistry program to concrete suggestions for teaching chemistry online. The final section addresses broader issues in chemistry. One chapter demonstrates how toincorporate High-Impact Educational Practices (2) into courses for chemistry majors and nonmajors. A final chapter describes how colleges can adopt the Green Chemistry Commitment. Additionally, contextual information for pedagogical change may be found in the Introduction as well as helpful tips foradopting new approaches.
Sputnik to Smartphones by
This book describes the profound changes that occurred in the teaching of chemistry in western countries in the years immediately following the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the first artificial Earth satellite, in 1957. With substantial government and private funding, chemistry educators introduced new curricula, developed programs to enhance the knowledge and skills of chemistry teachers, conceived of new models for managing chemistry education, and experimented with a plethora of materials for visualization of concepts and delivery of content. They also began to seriously study and apply findings from the behavioral sciences to the teaching and learning of chemistry. Now, many chemistry educators are contributing original research in the cognitive sciences that relates to chemistry education.
While Sputnik seemed to signal the dawn of far-reaching effects that would take place in political, diplomatic, and strategic, as well as in educational spheres, the seeds of these changes were sown decades before, mainly through the insight and actions of one individual, Neil Gordon, who, virtually singlehandedly, launched the ACS Division of Chemical Education and the Journal of Chemical Education. These two institutions provided the impetus for the United States to eventually become the undisputed leader in chemistry education worldwide.
Tools of Chemistry Education Research by
Tools of Chemistry Education Research meets the current need for information on more in-depth resources for those interested in doing chemistry education research. Renowned chemists Diane M. Bunce and Renée S. Cole present this volume as a continuation of the dialogue started in their previous work, Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research. With both volumes, new and experienced researchers will now have a place to start as they consider new research projects in chemistry education. Tools of Chemistry Education Research brings together a group of talented researchers to share their insights and expertise with the broader community. The volume features the contributions of both early career and more established chemistry education researchers, so as to promote the growth and expansion of chemistry education. Drawing on the expertise and insights of junior faculty and more experienced researchers, each author offers unique insights that promise to benefit other practitioners in chemistry education research.
Trajectories of Chemistry Education Innovation and Reform by
The Symposium Series of books from the American Chemical Society (ACS) serves as a repository of important trends in chemical science and education. This collection provides, in essence, a set of snapshots of the field and helps establish matters of sufficient importance to merit discussion, by highlighting the topics of specific symposia held at ACS scientific meetings. This particular volume fits within this paradigm well. Funding for projects in science or science education has inherent importance for any of a variety of reasons, but this symposium was not rooted in the economics, but rather in the sense of the continuity of leadership throughout an array of changes in how reform was approached by the NSF. In a practical sense, what the continuity of the permanent program officers provides is a means by which reform efforts can grow incrementally, even while specific funding initiatives come and go. This symposium, therefore, provided a moment to look at the trajectories of reform, and it served as the generating moment for this volume. The broad concept of educational reform in science and particularly within chemistry is a pervasive one in the United States and has been for decades (1-4). Nonetheless, the ability to enact large scale change, based on theories and evidence of efficacy has been modest at best. This collection of articles offers the suggestion that the fragmented nature of many reform efforts represents one critical reason for the modest success. By gathering a group of articles that describe reform endeavors that have been sustained over some length of time, this book shows the importance of continuity in funding for both reform efforts and the concomitant assessment of the outcomes of these reforms.
Issues of heterogeneity and cultural diversity in science education and science education research by
A collection of invited papers inspired by the 21st Symposium on Chemical and Science Education held at the University of Dortmund, May 17-19, 2012.
Chemistry as a Second Language by
Collaborations between scientists often transcend borders and cultural differences. The fundamental nature of science allows scientists to communicate using knowledge of their field but the institutions that support them are often hindered by financial and cultural barriers. As a result, science suffers. This book evolved from an August 2009 symposium at the 238th annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC. Its focus is on chemistry students and professors interested in developing a global approach to teaching chemistry, by participating in an international exchange program or incorporating culturally inclusive techniques into their classroom. The book has three broad themes; education research with a globalized perspective, experiences of teaching and learning in different countries, and organizations that support a global view of chemical education and chemistry.
Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research by
Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research is a book that would be useful for the chemist who is writing the educational outreach or evaluation component of a grant or planning his own chemical education research project. This book brings to the surface the key elements that are common to both. These key elements include establishing clear goals and research questions for your efforts: placing your outreach or research on a firm theoretical foundation so that the results of your work expand the current state of knowledge; developing an outreach or research design that address the goals and questions asked; locating, developing and testing the validity-reliability of the tools used in the study; selecting appropriate data analyses from quantitative, qualitative or mixed design disciplines to address the questions asked; writing conclusions based upon the data presented; and describing the implications of the outreach or research effort for chemistry practitioners. This book will address these key issues from a pragmatic point of view in an effort to assist those who are engaged or considering becoming engaged in this type of scholarly activity.
Theoretical Frameworks for Research in Chemistry/Science Education by
Part of the Prentice Hall Series in Educational Innovation, this concise new volume is the first book devoted entirely to describing and critiquing the various theoretical frameworks used in chemistry education/science education research -- with explicit examples of related studies. Provides a broad spectrum of theoretical perspectives upon which readers can base educational research. Includes an extensive list of relevant references. Presents a consistent framework for each subject area/chapter. A useful guide for practicing chemists, chemistry instructors, and chemistry educators for learning how to do basic educational research within the context of their own instructional laboratories and classrooms.
Strengthening High School Chemistry Education Through Teacher Outreach Programs by
A strong chemical workforce in the United States will be essential to the ability to address many issues of societal concern in the future, including demand for renewable energy, more advanced materials, and more sophisticated pharmaceuticals. High school chemistry teachers have a critical role to play in engaging and supporting the chemical workforce of the future, but they must be sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled to produce the levels of scientific literacy that students need to succeed.
To identify key leverage points for improving high school chemistry education, the National Academies' Chemical Sciences Roundtable held a public workshop, summarized in this volume, that brought together representatives from government, industry, academia, scientific societies, and foundations involved in outreach programs for high school chemistry teachers. Presentations at the workshop, which was held in August 2008, addressed the current status of high school chemistry education; provided examples of public and private outreach programs for high school chemistry teachers; and explored ways to evaluate the success of these outreach programs.
Multiple Representations in Chemical Education by
Chemistry seeks to provide qualitative and quantitative explanations for the observed behaviour of elements and their compounds. Doing so involves making use of three types of representation: the macro (the empirical properties of substances); the sub-micro (the natures of the entities giving rise to those properties); and the symbolic (the number of entities involved in any changes that take place). Although understanding this triplet relationship is a key aspect of chemical education, there is considerable evidence that students find great difficulty in achieving mastery of the ideas involved. In bringing together the work of leading chemistry educators who are researching the triplet relationship at the secondary and university levels, the book discusses the learning involved, the problems that students encounter, and successful approaches to teaching. Based on the reported research, the editors argue for a coherent model for understanding the triplet relationship in chemical education.
Pedagogic Roles of Animations and Simulations in Chemistry Courses by
Chemistry can be a very difficult topic for students to understand, in part because it requires students to think abstractly about the behaviors and interactions of atoms, molecules, and ions. Visualizations in chemistry can help to make chemistry at the particulate level less abstract because students can actually "see" these particles, and dynamic visualizations can help students understand how these particles interact and change over time as a reaction occurs. The chapters in this book are divided into four categories: Theoretical aspects of visualization design, design and evaluation of visualizations, visualizations studied by chemical education researchers, and visualizations designed for the chemistry classroom. Chapters 2-4 of this book focus on theoretical issues and concerns in developing and using animations and simulations to teach chemistry concepts. The theoretical frameworks described in these chapters not only include learning theories [such as Behaviorism, Cognitive Load Theory, and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development], but also describe design principles that are informed by educational research on learning with multimedia. Both of these frameworks can be used to improve the way dynamic visualizations are designed, created, and utilized in the chemistry classroom. Chapters 5-8 of this book provide two examples of paired articles, in which the first chapter introduces and describes how the dynamic visuals were designed and created for use in chemistry instruction and the second chapter describes a chemical education research study performed to evaluate the effectiveness of using these dynamic visuals for chemistry instruction. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on interactive simulations created as part of the PhET Interactive Simulations Project. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the virtual-world program Second Life and how it is being used to teach chemistry lessons. Chapters 9-14 of this book describe the results of chemical education research studies on the use of animations and simulations. Chapters 15-17 describe how specific dynamic visualization programs and modules were designed and how they should be utilized in the chemistry classroom to improve student learning.
Teaching Bioanalytical Chemistry by
Bioanalytical chemistry has become one of the most promising enhancements in chemical education because the focus of analytical chemistry in academia and industry is increasing on the analysis of biological activity and detection of biological molecules. Because of the exceedingly rapiddevelopment and multidisciplinary nature of bioanalytical chemistry, teaching bioanalytical chemistry in the classroom and laboratory is tremendously challenging and demanding. Chemistry educators have suffered drastically from the relatively limited textbook and confirmed teaching resources. ThisACS symposium book presents the recent advances in teaching bioanalytical chemistry, which are written in thirteen chapters by twenty-eight dedicated experts in the field of bioanalytical chemistry education in colleges and universities. These teaching innovations have been completely tested in thechemistry classroom and laboratory. The organization of the book provides a list of unconventional and effective teaching approaches to address most of the typical bioanalytical techniques. It will provide valuable information and practical innovations in teaching bioanalytical chemistry and enrich the chemistry curriculum foreducators of the two-year community colleges, four-year colleges and universities at undergraduate and graduate level.
Advances in Teaching Physical Chemistry by
This book brings together the latest perspectives and ideas on teaching modern physical chemistry. It includes perspectives from experienced and well-known physical chemists, a thorough review of the education literature pertaining to physical chemistry, a thorough review of advances in undergraduate laboratory experiments from the past decade, in-depth descriptions of using computers to aid student learning, and innovative ideas for teaching the fundamentals of physical chemistry. This book will provide valuable insight and information to all teachers of physical chemistry.
Modern NMR Spectroscopy in Education by
This book will address the strong call for greater utilization of modern NMR in undergraduate education. There has yet been a book to note the numerous chemistry departments integrating NMR across their curricula. Researchers and educators are developing and implementing innovative experiments and pedagogies that are NMR-enabled. The proposed symposium series book will be the first publication to assemble and present these efforts, and will be a comprehensive resource for educators who wish to update their curricula with modern NMR experimentation. Significant progress has been made by educators in recent years to better incorporate modern NMR as an interdisciplinary tool for problem solving into first and second year courses such as general and organic chemistry; this book will report on and review many of these recent advances in first and second year chemistry. Significantly, the proposed book is explicitly designed as a comprehensive resource to educators. The book will help inform the evolution of chemistry curricula to better incorporate NMR as a tool for supporting interdisciplinary, contextual learning.
Survival Handbook for the New Chemistry Instructor by
This book is the one single place, a new chemistry professor or any new professor, can go to find practical information on how to teach and how to prepare for teaching their first course. This book talks about how to write a syllabus; how to assess teaching styles, what works and what doesn't in a chemistry classroom; how to incorporate out-of-classroom resources into learning; both lecture teaching and small group study; and general information from getting a job in academia to professional development and expectations. For professors in chemistry, or any professor new to teaching or new to a particular area of teaching.
NMR Spectroscopy in the Undergraduate Curriculum by
Even the most cursory survey of the chemical literature reveals that modern NMR spectroscopy has indeed fulfilled its potential as a powerful and indispensable tool for probing molecular structure, providing detail that is comparable to, and sometimes surpasses that, of X-ray crystallography. As NMR spectroscopy's 70th anniversary approaches, the diversity of chemical problems to which this technique can be applied continues to grow across many scientific fields. Beyond the laboratory setting, the technology underlying NMR is now a widely used and critical medical diagnostic technique, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Unfortunately, the number of applications of NMR spectroscopy across so many STEM-related fields presents significant challenges in how best to introduce this powerful technique in meaningful ways at the undergraduate level. Inspired by the development of the field, and building upon the work of previous symposia and an ACS symposium series book on this topic (3), a symposium was developed, entitled "NMR Spectroscopy in the Undergraduate Curriculum," for the 239th American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco. This book brings together all of the presenters who have been successful in developing and successfully integrating NMR spectroscopy pedagogy across their undergraduate curriculums. Their knowledge and experiences will aid readers who are interested in expanding and invigorating their own curriculum.
Investigating Classroom Myths Through Research on Teaching and Learning by
This book is meant to be a companion volume for the ACS Symposium Series Book entitled Nuts and Bolts of Chemical Education Research. In the Nuts and Bolts book (edited by Diane M. Bunce and Renee Cole), readers were presented with information on how to conduct quality chemical education research. In the Myth book, exemplars of chemical education research are featured. In the cases where the chapter in the book is describing research that has already been published (typically in the Journal of Chemical Education), additional information is provided either in terms of research questions investigated that were not reported in the published article or background information on decisions made in the research that helped the investigation. The main focus of this type of discussion is to engage the reader in the reality of doing chemical education research including a discussion of the authors' motivation. It is expected that these two books could be used as textbooks for graduate chemical education courses showing how to do chemical education research and then providing examples of quality research.
Mentoring Strategies to Facilitate the Advancement of Women Faculty by
Compelling evidence exists to support the hypothesis that both formal and informal mentoring practices that provide access to information and resources are effective in promoting career advancement, especially for women. Such associations provide opportunities to improve the status, effectiveness, and visibility of a faculty member via introductions to new colleagues, knowledge of information about the organizational system, and awareness of innovative projects and new challenges.
This volume developed from the symposium "Successful Mentoring Strategies to Facilitate the Advancement of Women Faculty" held at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Francisco in March 2010. The organizers of the symposium, also serving as the editors of this volume, aimed to feature an array of successful mechanisms for enhancing the leadership, visibility, and recognition of academic women scientists using various mentoring strategies. It was their goal to have contributors share creative approaches to address the challenge of broadening the participation and advancement of women in science and engineering at all career stages and from a wide range of institutional types. Inspired by the successful outcomes of the editors' own NSF-ADVANCE project that involved the formation of horizontal peer mentoring alliances, this book is a collection of valuable practices and insights to both share how their horizontal mentoring strategy has impacted their professional and personal lives and to learn of other effective mechanisms for advancing women faculty.
Enhancing Learning with Online Resources, Social Networking, and Digital Libraries by
Our science and our society are in the midst of a digital revolution that is changing the way that we use information, communicate and share information with others, and participate in social groups to address problems. How will education in general and chemical education in particular respond to these dramatic changes? Early adopters are exploring a broad range of possibilities. This book is the first volume of a series of books which will showcase the current state of the art based upon material presented in symposia at ACS national meetings, BCCEs, Online ConfChem conferences and other venue. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to enhance learning and involve students with the panoply of evolving information and communication tools that are available for scientific research and education.
Active Learning by
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in the application of active learning methods including problem-based learning, cooperative learning, and service learning and supportive strategies such as electronic methods to the college/university chemistry classroom and laboratory. This symposium series book focuses on the application of active learning methods in teaching analytical science, broadly defined, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The volume includes a wide range of examples of how these methods are being applied at public and private community colleges, four-year colleges, and graduate research universities in the United States and abroad. As such the strategies and materials described in the book should be of interest to analytical chemists, chemical educators, and chemistry teaching faculty and graduate students no matter their area of specialization.
