Event Title
Improving scientific thinking and writing in the general chemistry laboratory
Start Date
12-3-2015 12:00 AM
End Date
12-3-2015 12:00 AM
Description
We use many guided inquiry laboratory exercises and focus on making predictions (hypotheses) formulating molecular scale models, and reformulating the hypotheses and models as we collect data that test the initial hypotheses and models. The students keep a “formal” laboratory notebook. Almost every experiment requires the student to formulate a hypothesis that can be tested in the experiments we will perform. Questions at the end of each experiment suggest the items that should be included in a scientific discussion of the results. Over the course of the first semester we guide them through the process of keeping a good notebook and writing a complete report sans discussion. In the second semester we include discussions of the results and error analysis. Most experiments are conducted before the material comes up in lecture, and we see that the students are better prepared to benefit from the lecture. The students are also seen as better prepared for their subsequent science courses, whatever discipline they are in.
Improving scientific thinking and writing in the general chemistry laboratory
We use many guided inquiry laboratory exercises and focus on making predictions (hypotheses) formulating molecular scale models, and reformulating the hypotheses and models as we collect data that test the initial hypotheses and models. The students keep a “formal” laboratory notebook. Almost every experiment requires the student to formulate a hypothesis that can be tested in the experiments we will perform. Questions at the end of each experiment suggest the items that should be included in a scientific discussion of the results. Over the course of the first semester we guide them through the process of keeping a good notebook and writing a complete report sans discussion. In the second semester we include discussions of the results and error analysis. Most experiments are conducted before the material comes up in lecture, and we see that the students are better prepared to benefit from the lecture. The students are also seen as better prepared for their subsequent science courses, whatever discipline they are in.