Marcy H. Towns

Assessment of Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences: A Meeting Report

This report presents a summary of a meeting on assessment of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), including an operational definition of a CURE, a summary of research on CUREs, relevant findings from studies of undergraduate research internships, and recommendations for future research on and evaluation of CUREs.

A rubric to characterize inquiry in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory

Consensus does not exist among chemists as to the essential characteristics of inquiry in the undergraduate laboratory. A rubric developed for elementary and secondary science classrooms to distinguish among levels of inquiry was modified for the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. Both peer-reviewed experiments in the literature and commercially available experiments were evaluated using the rubric, revealing a diversity of uses for the word inquiry. The modified rubric provides a valid and reliable standard of measure for chemists to examine their laboratory curriculum. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2007, 8 (2), 212-219.]

Reasoning Using Particulate Nature of Matter: An Example of a Sociochemical Norm in a University-Level Physical Chemistry Class.

In college level chemistry courses, reasoning using molecular and particulate descriptions of matter becomes central to understanding physical and chemical properties. In this study, we used a qualitative approach to analyzing classroom discourse derived from Toulmins model of argumentation in order to describe the ways in which students develop particulate-level justifications for claims about thermodynamic properties. Our analysis extends the construct of sociomathematical norms to a chemistry context in order to describe disciplinary criteria for reasoning and justification, which we refer to as sociochemical norms. By examining how whole class and small group discussions shape norms related to reasoning, we provide suggestions for teaching practices in inquiry-oriented settings.

Enhancing the role of assessment in curriculum reform in chemistry

The role of assessment in the chemistry classroom is ultimately tied to the nature of the assessments available for use. Because they provide data that can inform decisions about curricular changes, or new pedagogies, the incorporation of new assessment strategies can play an important role in how educational and curriculum reform is carried out. Several recent developments in assessment have been tied together to investigate the benefits of using multiple assessment strategies in decision making about teaching innovation. These new tools include measures of student problem solving, metacognition, cognitive development within the chemistry content at the college level and evaluation of students in affective aspects of learning. Summaries of how these new tools may be combined and what measures arise from such combinations are presented.

Students' understanding of mathematical expressions in physical chemistry contexts: An analysis using Sherin’s symbolic forms

Undergraduate physical chemistry courses require students to be proficient in calculus in order to develop an understanding of thermodynamics concepts. Here we present the findings of a study that examines student understanding of mathematical expressions, including partial derivative expressions, in two undergraduate physical chemistry courses. Students participated in think-aloud interviews and responded to a set of questions involving mixed second partial derivatives with either abstract symbols or thermodynamic variables. The findings describe students’ ability to transfer mathematics knowledge to chemistry problems and how students use symbolic forms described by Sherin (2001) to make sense of mathematical expressions in physical chemistry contexts.

A review of research on the teaching and learning of chemical kinetics

We review literature on the teaching and learning of chemical kinetics at both the secondary and tertiary levels. Our aim in doing so is to summarize research literature, synthesize recommendations for future research, and suggest implications for practitioners. Two main bodies of literature emerged from the chemical kinetics education research: student understanding and instructional approaches to teaching. The student understanding findings are discussed in light of the anchoring concepts content map for general chemistry. We also review relevant literature about research on undergraduate mathematics education, as mathematics is often used as the primary language of communicating chemical kinetics. Finally, we discuss directions for future research and implications for practice.

Designing undergraduate-level organic chemistry instructional problems: Seven ideas from a problem-solving study of practicing synthetic organic chemists

The development of curricular problems based on the practice of synthetic organic chemistry has not been explored in the literature. Such problems have broadly been hypothesized to promote student persistence and interest in STEM fields. This study reports seven ideas about how practice-based problems can be developed for sophomore-level organic chemistry courses; these ideas are the result of an investigation of the problem-solving experiences of eight practicing synthetic organic chemists.

Benchmarking problems used in second year level organic chemistry instruction

Investigations of the problem types used in college-level general chemistry examinations have been reported in this Journal and were first reported in the Journal of Chemical Education in 1924. This study extends the findings from general chemistry to the problems of four college-level organic chemistry courses. Three problem typologies were used as lenses for evaluating the instructional problems. Results of this study include frequency of problem types and comparisons drawn between results in organic chemistry and those in general chemistry. Most notably, a higher percentage of conceptual problems were found in organic chemistry than reported for general chemistry. Implications for use of problem typologies in benchmarking curricular materials are discussed.

Problem Types in Synthetic Organic Chemistry Research: Implications for the Development of Curricular Problems for Second-Year Level Organic Chemistry Instruction.

Understanding of the nature of science is key to the development of new curricular materials that mirror the practice of science. Three problem types (project level, synthetic planning, and day-to-day) in synthetic organic chemistry emerged during a thematic content analysis of the research experiences of eight practising synthetic organic chemists. Project-level problems include the overarching purpose of synthesizing target molecules. Synthetic planning problems include both the retrosynthetic analysis of target molecules and subsequent development of synthetic pathway proposals. Day-to-day problems include the ‘hurdles’ faced in research laboratories while attempting to realize proposed synthetic pathways. Recommendations are made as to how understanding of the three problem types impact undergraduate-level organic chemistry instruction.

Faculty beliefs about the purposes for teaching undergraduate physical chemistry courses

We report the results of a phenomenographic analysis of faculty beliefs about the purposes for teaching upper-division physical chemistry courses in the undergraduate curriculum. A purposeful sampling strategy was used to recruit a diverse group of faculty for interviews. Collectively, the participating faculty regularly teach or have taught physical chemistry courses in 16 different chemistry departments in the United States. While faculty agreed that the goal of teaching physical chemistry was to help students develop robust conceptual knowledge of the subject matter within thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, and other major topics, some articulated strong beliefs about epistemic and social learning goals. An understanding of the relations between different ways of thinking about teaching upper-division physical chemistry courses offers practitioners with alternative perspectives that may help them expand their awareness of the purposes for teaching physical chemistry in the undergraduate curriculum. Furthermore, knowledge of faculty beliefs about their teaching provides educational researchers and curriculum developers with an understanding about the potential opportunities or barriers for helping faculty align their beliefs and goals for teaching with research-based instructional strategies. We discuss our findings with the intention to expand faculty awareness of the discourse on physical chemistry education to include various perspectives of the purpose for teaching upper-division physical chemistry courses.