Journal of Chemical Education最新文献

{"title":"Developing a Threshold Concept Assessment Rubric: Using the Johnstone's Triangle Framework for Understanding Intermolecular Forces.","authors":"Simbarashe Nkomo, Alia Bly","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00236","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00236","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In undergraduate science education, laboratory courses stand as essential cornerstones of experiential learning. Chemistry laboratory courses offer students unique hands-on experiences that bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. The journey through the undergraduate chemistry curriculum is paved with a series of conceptual gateways known as threshold concepts that can dramatically shape a student's understanding and success. We identified the idea of intermolecular forces (IMFs) as a threshold concept to students' ability to link molecular structures, properties, and applications to real-world problems such as extraction and separation of compounds. The development of course-specific pedagogical tools can provide students with the scaffolding necessary for the transition from novice to expert-level disciplinary comprehension. This work presents the development process of a Threshold Concept Assessment Rubric (TCAR) based on Johnstone's triangle framework and discusses its application for evaluating students' progress in overcoming a threshold concept. The rubric is used in a 200-level multilayer laboratory course that is intentionally designed with intermolecular forces as the central theme. We analyze the role and structure of different questions to provide a holistic assessment of students' learning processes using sample assignments. Furthermore, we demonstrate how insights from statistical analyses can highlight areas in which students struggle to gain expert or exemplary-level understanding of IMFs. This rubric development approach can be applied to other threshold concepts.</p>","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"101 11","pages":"4694-4703"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11562578/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142646357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Addition to “Interactions 500: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Hybrid Board Game for Aiding Students in the Review of Intermolecular Forces During Covid-19 Pandemic”","authors":"José Nunes da Silva Júnior*,&nbsp;José Mariano de Sousa Oliveira,&nbsp;Jean-Yves Winum,&nbsp;Antonio José Melo Leite Junior,&nbsp;Francisco Serra Oliveira Alexandre,&nbsp;David Macedo do Nascimento,&nbsp;Ulisses Silva de Sousa,&nbsp;Antônia Torres Ávila Pimenta and André Jalles Monteiro,&nbsp;","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c0094610.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00946","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00946https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00946","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"101 12","pages":"5556–5560 5556–5560"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142851179","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Structuring Materials to Support Student Learning: Analysis of Instructional Materials from a Professional Development Workshop.","authors":"Andrew Kreps, Ian Brown, Thomas J Wenzel, Renée Cole","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00783","DOIUrl":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00783","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Faculty development programs play a crucial role in enhancing learning by equipping educators with the necessary skills, knowledge, and pedagogical strategies to teach more effectively. One such program is the Promoting Active Learning in Analytical Chemistry (PALAC) workshop, which aimed to educate faculty on methods to create and use active learning course materials to support students during the process of learning. This research aimed to assess the design of classroom instructional materials generated by faculty that attended the PALAC workshops. The theories of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and scaffolding were used as lenses to characterize the materials because they describe the benefits of providing support through the process of developing knowledge. The active learning materials were analyzed by assigning the cognitive levels of processing, as described by Marzano's taxonomy, to all questions asked across 134 in-class activities. The use of the cognitive levels of processing allowed the researchers to gauge the presence of scaffolding by tracking how the cognitive levels of processing changed from question to question across each in-class activity. The results from this study indicate that the majority of materials provide opportunities for students to engage with higher-order questions, but there is less evidence for the effective and consistent structuring of the materials. These results have implications for future faculty development programs, suggesting the need to allot more time for faculty to practice developing effective classroom materials. In conjunction, this work demonstrates the effective use of Marzano's taxonomy in assessing the cognitive structure of in-class activities.</p>","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"101 11","pages":"4603-4613"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11562375/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142646363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Complementary Instrumental Techniques Applied to Pain Relieving Tablets in an Undergraduate Laboratory Experiment","authors":"Klaudia Adels, Vera Thönnessen, Yulia Monakhova","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00681","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00681","url":null,"abstract":"Several unconnected laboratory experiments are usually offered for students in instrumental analysis lab. To give the students a more rational overview of the most common instrumental techniques, a new laboratory experiment was developed. Marketed pain relief drugs, familiar consumer products with one to three active components, namely, acetaminophen (paracetamol), acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), and caffeine, were selected. Common analytical methods were compared regarding the performance of qualitative and quantitative analysis of unknown tablets: UV–visible (UV–vis), infrared (IR), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies, as well as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The students successfully uncovered the composition of formulations, which were divided into three difficulty categories. Students were shown that in addition to simple mixtures handled in theoretical classes, the composition of complex drug products can also be uncovered. By comparing the performance of different techniques, students deepen their understanding and compare the efficiency of analytical methods in the context of complex mixtures. The laboratory experiment can be adjusted for graduate level by including extra tasks such as method optimization, validation, and 2D spectroscopic techniques.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142247875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Breaking the Access to Education Barrier: Enhancing HPLC Learning with Virtual Reality","authors":"Mae Taylor, Nazrul Bin Abdullah, Ayah Al-Dargazelli, Mireia Benito Montaner, Fatma Kareem, Amy Locks, Zijing Cao, Benjamin Bowles, Jean Charles Sarraf, Tamara Fajinmi, Zaid Muwaffak, Cory Beckwith, Gary N. Parkinson, Zoë A. E. Waller, Blanka R. Szulc, Stephen T. Hilton","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00540","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00540","url":null,"abstract":"This research focuses on an innovative approach to the practical teaching of High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), specifically exploring the application of Virtual Reality (VR) in undergraduate education. Traditionally, the exposure to HPLC instrumentation for undergraduates has been limited due to a substantial student population and the prohibitively high costs of these systems. To overcome these challenges, we developed our own in-house multi-user VR software, as well as a VR digital twin model of HPLC instruments in our laboratory and placed multiple copies of these in a training environment, aiming to simulate a realistic, interactive, and immersive learning HPLC environment. The investigation of its effectiveness included a group of first year undergraduate students with no previous HPLC experience, aiming to assess the reception of the VR learning environment among a student cohort. The use of the VR software positively influenced student engagement with HPLC training. Survey results indicate that the majority of students greatly enjoyed the VR sessions, with many students reporting a heightened interest in practicals and self-reporting that they learned better than they would have using text or PowerPoints, though formal assessment is needed to quantify its impact on learning outcomes. Notably, students reported a heightened confidence in their operational understanding of the instrument and exhibited a more profound grasp of the underlying theoretical concepts. In light of these findings, we propose that VR learning environments equipped with digital twins of laboratory equipment can greatly enhance practical teaching, particularly in areas constrained by equipment accessibility. This work, therefore, offers compelling insights into the potential of VR learning environments in reshaping HPLC practical teaching in undergraduate education.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"212 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142268098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of the Use of a 360° Immersive Visit of the Organic Chemistry Practical Laboratory for Pharmacy Students","authors":"Amanda Garrido, François Berthaut, Julien Manganoni","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00264","url":null,"abstract":"We report the implementation of a new pedagogical virtual tool within the Institut des Sciences Pharmaceutiques et Biologiques (ISPB) of Lyon for second-year pharmacy students. This tool provides a 360° immersive visit to the actual chemistry practical laboratory, allowing students to explore the room before attending the practical class in a video game-like fashion. The originality of this tool lies on the variety of pedagogical contents embedded in the 360° visit, such as 2D videos, lightboard videos, and animation videos. Evaluations of this immersive visit on learning, motivation, and autonomy of pharmacy students have been assessed by the students through online feedback. The positive results obtained demonstrated the usefulness of this tool in improving learning and motivation and fostering increased autonomy during practical classes. A more quantitative analysis was employed to examine the effect of watching the video before practical classes on the students’ autonomy level during the practical classes. The statistical test revealed a significant improvement in autonomy for students who watched the video before attending practical classes compared to those who did not. We hope this work will be beneficial to teaching researchers in pharmacy faculties seeking to bring innovation to their teaching methods.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142268099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integration of Teaching Laboratory Activities Based on the Valorization of Industrial Waste into Chemical Education to Address the Emerging Sustainable Development Goals","authors":"José Enrique Martín-Alfonso, Remedios Yáñez","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00729","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00729","url":null,"abstract":"The integration of learning strategies based on the valorization of industrial waste into education is crucial for students to raise awareness of climate change causes and to thrive in the emerging circular bioeconomy. An attractive laboratory experiment focused on the production of second generation bioethanol from apple pomace is proposed. With this approach, undergraduate students of technological specialties explore real routes for the valorization of industrial food wastes. The activity allows them to become aware of the current energy outlook, the causes of climate change, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda. Moreover, the proposal facilitates acquisition of chemical, technological, and mathematical knowledge and incorporation of important skills and competencies in future professional activities. In this way, students will promote social changes that guarantee the protection of the environment and improve the quality of life, in line with the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142268100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of Specifications Grading to an Analytical Chemistry Lab","authors":"Elizabeth B. Cerkez*,&nbsp;","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c0078410.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00784","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00784https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00784","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Specifications Grading was implemented in a multisection upper-level analytical chemistry laboratory, the first reported for a full lab course redesign in the discipline or in an upper-level chemistry lab class. The primary goals of the redesign were (1) to assess student proficiency of three separate goals: techniques, data quality, and written communication, with three separate assignments, (2) to encourage growth across the semester, providing students the opportunity to show their improvement, and (3) to implement a clear grading system that emphasized equity across the multisection course. Mark distributions on assignments show an increase in students earning exemplary marks on first attempts as the semester progressed, indicating improvement not only within assignments but also across assignments. Student feedback surveys indicate high satisfaction with the grading scheme, with over 72% of survey respondents indicating they would like the grading scheme applied to other courses. Additionally, survey results demonstrate success in achieving the three goals, with students able to articulate the benefits associated with the priorities of the course structure. A particular focus was on the actionability and timeliness of instructor feedback, a hallmark of specifications grading, which students also highly rated. Teaching Assistant feedback indicated that, despite more time spent on grading, teaching satisfaction was higher compared to other courses. The use of regular student feedback to improve the course design is also discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"101 10","pages":"4268–4275 4268–4275"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142403156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"MedChem Game: Gamification of Drug Design","authors":"Tomasz Danel, Jan Łȩski, Sabina Podlewska, Igor T. Podolak","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00253","url":null,"abstract":"The growing importance of computer methods in drug discovery encourages greater accessibility of cheminformatics tools. The methods that enable automated analysis of molecules, e.g., molecular docking or machine learning models, remain out of reach for nonexpert computer users. To address the shortage of easily accessible tools that can be used to practice drug design, we created MedChem Game, an Android application that uses gamification and artificial intelligence to help users learn about medicinal chemistry and design new small-molecule drugs. Our application includes a simplified molecule drawing tool used to propose new drug candidates that can be docked to one of the four target proteins currently implemented in the game. Additionally, we have implemented a 3D ligand–protein viewer so that players can inspect molecular docking results. All the designed compounds are stored in a database with the sequence of operations the user performs. The key component of our system is a continuously trained deep generative model that utilizes user-developed compounds to improve the quality of generated molecules. Learning directly from the expertise and creativity of players, including medicinal chemists, could help advance computer-aided drug design in the future. Moreover, MedChem Game could be a useful supplement to courses on small-molecule drug design.","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142268101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inquiry-Based Experiments with No-Mess Markers","authors":"Thomas S. Kuntzleman*,&nbsp;Joshua B. Kenney and Melissa Hemling,&nbsp;","doi":"10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c0091910.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00919","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00919https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00919","url":null,"abstract":"<p >A previous article in this <i>Journal</i> focuses on “No-Mess” coloring products that utilize the chemical reaction between colorless leuco dyes and zinc ions, which act as Lewis acids ( <cite><i>J. Chem. Educ.</i></cite> <span>2022</span>, <em>99</em> (6), 2364−2371). This reaction causes the leuco dyes to become colored. There are two main types of No-Mess marking systems. The first type includes markers containing leuco dyes that become colored upon contact with zinc ions embedded in marking paper. In the second type, the system is reversed. The markers contain zinc ions that activate leuco dyes embedded in the paper. These products offer new opportunities for guided and open inquiry-based investigations. This paper reports that solutions of zinc ions develop the color of leuco marker dyes to a degree comparable with commercial systems. While solutions of other metal ions also induce this color change, they do so to a lesser extent. Therefore, using zinc ion solutions allows for experiments and demonstrations with No-Mess marking products to be more visually stimulating than those previously reported.</p>","PeriodicalId":43,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Chemical Education","volume":"101 10","pages":"4523–4527 4523–4527"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142403060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}