Effect of an Application-Based Laboratory Curriculum on Student Understanding of Societal Impact of Chemistry in an Accelerated General Chemistry Course

• Published in: Journal of chemical education Vol. 97; no. 1; pp. 66 - 71
• Main Authors: Demoranville, Leonard. T, Kane, Olivia R, Young, Karin J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Easton American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 14.01.2020; Division of Chemical Education, Inc; American Chemical Society
• Subjects: Academic Persistence; Acceleration (Education); Blogs; Chemistry; College students; Course Content; Curricula; Curriculum development; Electronic Publishing; Laboratory Experiments; Organic chemistry; Science and Society; Science Instruction; Scientific Concepts; Student Attitudes; Students; Teaching methods; Undergraduate Students; First-Year Undergraduate/General; Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives; Applications of Chemistry; Laboratory Instruction; Student-Centered Learning; Curriculum; Problem Solving/Decision Making; Collaborative/Cooperative Learning; Communication/Writing; Enrichment/Review Materials
• ISSN: 0021-9584; 1938-1328
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00584

Connecting chemical concepts with real-world applications has been demonstrated to increase persistence, student attitudes, and performance. In a one-semester general chemistry course, most laboratory exercises were designed to have direct implications on real-world issues, and students were asked to consider these implications. Students blogged about an issue related to one of the lab exercises and responded to classmates’ blog postings. Surveys after the implementation of the application-based laboratory curriculum suggest students were able to more clearly connect course material with the societal impact of chemistry.