{"title":"The times of COVID-19 and beyond: how laboratory teaching evolved through the Pandemic","authors":"T. Logothetis","doi":"10.1515/cti-2022-0044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2022-0044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Pre–during–post lockdown waves, or how COVID-19 catalysed a change in practical chemistry instruction. This time-lined slogan reflects the University of Southampton’s response to recent imperatives in chemistry education. During the pandemic students had limited access to laboratory training. However, laboratory time has always been precious, and educators constantly have to rethink their approach to lab classes; how to best assess practical learning goals and focus students’ attention on the practical aspects during timetabled – and therefore time-limited – lab classes. The pre–during–post pandemic phases also govern the teaching split of our typical laboratory instruction, and the development during the three phases will be discussed. This article describes the evolution of the University of Southampton’s laboratory training, how resources changed, how in-laboratory student participation improved, how the pandemic influenced the scheduling of teaching activities and informed a development of our assessment strategy. It considers where the rethinking process has led to so far while acknowledging that the current laboratory course is not the end of the process but an interim position, subject to future improvements.","PeriodicalId":515025,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry Teacher International","volume":"81 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139687298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development of a self-test for undergraduate chemistry students: how do students solve tasks on basic content knowledge?","authors":"David Keller, J. Hermanns","doi":"10.1515/cti-2023-0068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2023-0068","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper we describe the development of a self-test on content knowledge as one element of a digital learning environment. The self-test on prior knowledge consists of tasks in the categories Periodic Table of Elements, chemical bonding, chemical formulas, and chemical reactions (reaction equations and reaction mechanisms). For the study, tasks from all topics have been used in a paper-pencil multiple-choice and multiple response test on the task at hand and an accompanying questionnaire with closed and open items. The results of the study show that the students rated the tasks as suitable. Comments for improving the tasks regarding the wording or the design were implemented. Because of students’ lack of understanding regarding some of the technical terms, a glossary and games will be added to the digital learning environment. Many students overestimated their knowledge and their competences, therefore the self-test in the learning environment will include feedback to ensure that the students can improve their content knowledge and its application.","PeriodicalId":515025,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry Teacher International","volume":"62 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139441267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. P. Cornell, Sunghwan Kim, Jordi Cuadros, E. Bucholtz, Harry E. Pence, Rudy Potenzone, Robert E. Belford
{"title":"IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI)-related education and training materials through InChI Open Education Resource (OER)","authors":"A. P. Cornell, Sunghwan Kim, Jordi Cuadros, E. Bucholtz, Harry E. Pence, Rudy Potenzone, Robert E. Belford","doi":"10.1515/cti-2023-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2023-0009","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI) is a structure-based chemical identifier that encodes various aspects of a chemical structure into a hierarchically layered line notation. Because InChI is non-proprietary, open-source, and freely available to everyone, it is adopted in popular chemical information resources and software programs. This paper describes the InChI Open Education Resource (OER) (https://www.inchi-trust.org/oer/), designed to provide educators and other interested parties with resources, training material, and information related to InChI. Currently, the OER contains over 100 materials collected from various sources and provides users with search, filtering, and sorting functionalities to locate specific records. New relevant materials can be suggested by anyone, allowing the scientific community to share and find InChI-related resources. This paper will show how to use the InChI OER tag taxonomy to filter content and demonstrate two resources within the InChI OER; the ChemNames2LCSS Google Sheet and the InChILayersExplorer, an Excel spreadsheet that breaks an InChI into its layers. While the InChI OER is of value to a broader chemistry community, this paper seeks to reach out to chemical educators and provide them with an understanding of InChI and its role in the practice of science.","PeriodicalId":515025,"journal":{"name":"Chemistry Teacher International","volume":"37 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139388325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}