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This study is a follow up to two earlier studies characterizing student real-time use of mechanistic arrows. In these previous studies, students were asked to predict a product by drawing a curved arrow mechanism using an interface that allowed recording and replay of student actions. In the present study two different student cohorts responded to the same tasks as the original studies: a cohort who were enrolled in a traditional organic course, and a cohort who were part of a transformed organic course (Organic Chemistry, Life, the Universe and Everything, OCLUE). Both cohorts improved in their ability to predict an appropriate product over the two semesters, and we found little meaningful difference in the ability of students from either cohort to predict the outcome of a familiar reaction. However, students in the OCLUE cohort were more likely to draw mechanistic arrows than the students from the traditional course. In contrast, when the task involved predicting the product of an unfamiliar reaction, OCLUE students were over three times more likely to draw mechanistically reasonable steps and produce a plausible product than students from the traditional cohort. We propose that the differences between the two cohorts emerge from the following: (1) explicit attempts in the OCLUE course to link drawing reactions mechanisms using the electron pushing formalism to the scientific practice of constructing explanations. It is our contention that this approach changes the arrow pushing mechanism from a skill to the construction of a model which students can use to predict and explain outcomes; and (2) the numerous opportunities in the OCLUE course to try out ideas without penalty, leading to a willingness to try to determine outcomes in unfamiliar situations.
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Investigating the impact of three-dimensional learning interventions on student understanding of structure–property relationships
The ability to predict macroscopic properties using a compound's chemical structure is an essential idea for chemistry as well as other disciplines such as biology. In this study we investigate how different levels of interventions impact the components of students’ explanations (claims, evidence, and reasoning) of structure–property relationships, particularly related to boiling point trends. These interventions, aligned with Three-Dimensional Learning (3DL), were investigated with four different cohorts of students: Cohort 1 – a control group of students enrolled in an active learning general chemistry course; Cohort 2 – students enrolled in the same active learning general chemistry course but given Intervention 1 (a 3DL worksheet administered during class time); Cohort 3 – students enrolled in the same active learning general chemistry course but given Intervention 1 and Intervention 2 (a 3DL course exam question administered after instruction); and Cohort 4 – a reference group of students enrolled in a transformed active learning general chemistry curriculum in which 3DL is an essential feature and includes Intervention 1 and Intervention 2 as part of the curriculum. We found that Cohort 2 students (with the 3DL worksheet intervention) were more likely than the control group (Cohort 1) to correctly predict the compound with a higher boiling point as well as incorporate ideas of strength of intermolecular forces into their explanations of boiling point differences. When a 3DL exam question was given as a follow up to the 3DL worksheet, students in Cohort 3 were more likely than Cohorts 1 and 2 to correctly identify the claim. Further comparison showed that Cohort 4 (transformed general chemistry curriculum) were more likely than Cohorts 1–3 to also include the ideas of energy needed to overcome stronger forces for a more sophisticated explanation (50% of Cohort 4 students compared to 17–33% for Cohorts 1–3). In addition, 80% of Cohort 4 students were able to construct a correct representation of hydrogen bonding as a non-covalent interaction compared to 13–57% for the other three cohorts.
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- PAR ID:
- 10290156
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Chemistry Education Research and Practice
- Volume:
- 22
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1109-4028
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 247 to 262
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D0RP00216J
