scholarly journals A virtual alternative to molecular model sets: a beginners’ guide to constructing and visualizing molecules in open-source molecular graphics software

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siripreeya Phankingthongkum ◽  
Taweetham Limpanuparb
Keyword(s):  
General Chemistry ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Molecular Model ◽  
Bond Line ◽  
First Year ◽  
Molecular Graphics ◽  
Model Sets ◽  
Graphics Software

Abstract Objective The application of molecular graphics software as a simple and free alternative to molecular model sets for introductory-level chemistry learners is presented. Results Based on either Avogadro or IQmol, we proposed four sets of tasks for students, building basic molecular geometries, visualizing orbitals and densities, predicting polarity of molecules and matching 3D structures with bond-line structures. These topics are typically covered in general chemistry for first-year undergraduate students. Detailed step-by-step procedures are provided for all tasks for both programs so that instructors and students can adopt one of the two programs in their teaching and learning as an alternative to molecular model sets.

scholarly journals Teaching large undergraduate chemistry classes: A challenge or an opportunity

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-370
Author(s):  
Aishling Flaherty ◽  
Anne O’Dwyer ◽  
JJ Leahy ◽  
Oliver Richardson
Keyword(s):  
General Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Prior Learning ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Chemical Concepts ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Student Inquiry

Teaching introductory modules and classes of undergraduate programmes can present a number of subjective and objective challenges. Objective challenges include a high degree of variation in students’ prior learning experiences combined with a high student-teacher ratio. Subjective challenges include the transitional changes which first year students undergo that include cognitive, affective and physiological changes as they make the leap from the often small and secluded secondary-level environment to the all-consuming tertiary-level environment. For introductory chemistry modules, such as General Chemistry, the pertinence of these challenges can have negative repercussions on students’ acquirement of basic chemical concepts in first year which could inherently go on to hinder their successful progression through their third-level education. In an effort to tackle the challenges posed against effective learning in General Chemistry modules, this exploratory research study set out to understand how the potential incorporation of a new approach to teaching and learning would be received by the three main cohorts involved. The attitudes and recommendations of undergraduate students, post-graduate students who have a role as laboratory demonstrators and module leaders towards the potential incorporation of Student-Inquiry activities and laboratories into General Chemistry were investigated. All three cohorts welcomed the incorporation of Student-Inquiry as part of the approach to teaching and learning. While the researchers and module leaders had an initial awareness of the challenges that come with teaching General Chemistry, little was known of the potential significance of the opportunity which lay amongst these challenges.

Enhancing Student Engagement Using a Blended Learning Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 51-68
Author(s):  
M. Mahruf C. Shohel ◽  
Rosemary Cann ◽  
Stephen Atherton
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Action Research Cycles

Student engagement is the core of the teaching and learning practice in higher education. This exploratory action research project was designed to enhance teaching and learning using a blended learning approach to increase student engagement prior, during, and after lecture and seminar sessions of a module run for first-year undergraduate students. Within an academic semester, three action research cycles were carried out to collect data and redesign the classroom practice. Different data collection techniques were used along with Microsoft OneNote Class Notebook. This article presents three case studies of individual students to demonstrate how the digital workspace helped to develop the practice of participatory teaching and learning during a first-year undergraduate module. This study indicates that listening to students' voices through a blended learning approach helped to increase student engagement, thus increasing student participation in shaping and redesigning teaching and learning to engage them within the classroom and beyond.

Using the WebQuest Approach to Elicit Student Engagement in a University Course

2018 ◽  
pp. 454-478
Author(s):  
Stephen Asunka
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Student Activities ◽  
Student Grades ◽  
University Course

Following a realization that first year undergraduate students at a private university in Ghana engaged very minimally in their learning processes, and consequently obtained very weak grades in their courses, this study adopted a qualitative research approach to investigate whether the integration of a WebQuest into the learning processes can help foster student engagement through interactivity, and thus improve learning outcomes. Five students and one instructor participated in the study, and over the course of one academic semester, teaching and learning processes were varied by introducing WebQuest-based learning. Data were gathered by observing student activities as they engaged in the learning processes, and also assessing student learning and satisfaction by looking at student grades and also administering a survey questionnaire to students. Findings indicate that educational technologies such as the WebQuest can potentially foster student engagement in learning and also help improve learning outcomes. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Preparing Teacher-Scholars to Inquire

2017 ◽  
pp. 227-237
Author(s):  
Erik Jon Byker ◽  
Heather Coffey ◽  
Susan B. Harden ◽  
Amy J. Good ◽  
Katie E. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
College Of Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Effective Teacher ◽  
Inquiry Process ◽  
Limited Experience ◽  
Processing Cycle

Whether it is in the sciences or humanities, inquiry is a valued pedagogy for teaching and learning. Teacher candidates often enter into their teacher preparations programs with limited experience and understanding of the process of inquiry. The chapter's purpose is to introduce and discuss the Inquiry Processing Cycle, which is a theoretical model for engaging in inquiry. The chapter explains how the Inquiry Processing Cycle emerged from Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) from an on-going qualitative study of first-year undergraduate students (n=110) in a College of Education first-year class called Prepared for Success. The study found that the participants perceived that the process of inquiry was a fundamental part of being a successful college student as well as being an effective teacher. Yet, the participants were unclear about how to actually proceed with an inquiry. From these findings, the chapter illustrates how to engage in the inquiry process using the Inquiry Processing Cycle.

Assistance in handling large-enrolment, introductory General Chemistry courses

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Pavelka ◽  
Avik Ghoshdastidar ◽  
Mitchell J. Huot ◽  
Ian S. Butler
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
General Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Year Experience ◽  
First Year ◽  
Post Secondary Education ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
The World ◽  
Mcgill University

AbstractThe post-secondary education system in the Province de Québec is quite different from that in the rest of Canada and in many other countries throughout the world. The introduction of a 2-year Collèges d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) program in 1967 has led to a reduction in the number of years that Quebec students have to spend in both high school and at university. The CEGEP program combines the last year of high school with the first year of a traditional 4-year university program meaning that students living in Quebec must do a 3-year undergraduate degree at the universities, while all other students must do a 4-year degree. Moreover, since almost 50 % of 27 000 undergraduate students at McGill come from other parts of Canada and internationally, this has led to enrolments of about 1000 students in the basic science courses. We present here an overview of how the introductory General Chemistry courses at McGill University are currently being handled so that the students have a meaningful first-year experience.

A novel social constructivist pedagogy to teach basic electrical engineering course to undergraduate students in online mode

2021 ◽  
pp. 002072092199974
Author(s):  
Srikanth Allamsetty ◽  
MVSS Chandra ◽  
Chinmoy Kumar Panigrahi
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Practices ◽  
Electrical Engineering ◽  
Social Constructivist ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
First Year ◽  
Online Mode ◽  
The Social ◽  
Teachers And Students

The way the teachers deliver the content of any course curriculum is always important. It must create enough interest in the students, especially, when it is in the online mode. In this paper, a novel pedagogy has been proposed, which can work for both online and offline classes based on the social constructivist methods. The methods followed in the proposed pedagogy are classified into two types, viz. social examples and technical drama. One of the courses of first-year engineering undergraduates, Basic Electrical Engineering (BEE), has been taken into consideration for the practical implementation of this pedagogy. A detailed explanation of the above mentioned two methods has been presented in this paper as teaching experiments (TE), with the support of different topics of the course considered. The teachers of the courses such as BEE can follow the methods described in this paper to facilitate active learning, leading to a good understanding of the concepts. The methods have been designed such as to make both teachers and students active participants in the process of teaching and learning in both online and offline classrooms. Students are well satisfied with this novel pedagogy and it is reflected in their feedback on teacher practices as well as in their performance in the semester examinations.

scholarly journals The undergraduate students’ beliefs about English language learning; a survey study in Madurese context

LEKSIKA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Fithriyah Rahmawati
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Style ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
First Year ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Beliefs About Language Learning

The discussion in line with students’ beliefs about language learning is still popular nowadays since it is believed that the student’s beliefs may influence the language learning process, such as motivation, learning style, and strategies, etc. which later ultimately affected the success of language learning. This study was conducted to investigate how students of the English program at IAIN Madura (State Islamic Institute of Madura), Indonesia, express their beliefs about English language learning. This study was implemented in terms of survey study in which the data was primarily gathered by administering the questionnaire entitled Beliefs About Language learning Inventory (BALLI) of Horwitz’s (1987). The questionnaires were administered to students of English teaching and learning program through Google form. About 144 undergraduate students in the first year have participated in this study.  The finding revealed the students’ beliefs in terms of percentage of agreements in all area of BALLI, namely language aptitude, the strategy of learning and communication, the nature of learning language, motivation and expectation in learning, and the difficulty faced by students

Using the WebQuest Approach to Elicit Student Engagement in a University Course

2016 ◽  
pp. 304-326
Author(s):  
Stephen Asunka
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Student Activities ◽  
Student Grades ◽  
University Course

Following a realization that first year undergraduate students at a private university in Ghana engaged very minimally in their learning processes, and consequently obtained very weak grades in their courses, this study adopted a qualitative research approach to investigate whether the integration of a WebQuest into the learning processes can help foster student engagement through interactivity, and thus improve learning outcomes. Five students and one instructor participated in the study, and over the course of one academic semester, teaching and learning processes were varied by introducing WebQuest-based learning. Data were gathered by observing student activities as they engaged in the learning processes, and also assessing student learning and satisfaction by looking at student grades and also administering a survey questionnaire to students. Findings indicate that educational technologies such as the WebQuest can potentially foster student engagement in learning and also help improve learning outcomes. Implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Sudoku puzzles for practicing SI prefixes: A case study with Turkish undergraduates

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 1065-1077
Author(s):  
Handan Urek
Keyword(s):  
General Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Physical Science ◽  
Educational Games ◽  
First Year ◽  
State University ◽  
Biology Teaching ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Before And After

The purpose of this study was to develop two Sudoku puzzles for undergraduate students which can be utilised in the context of introductory physical science courses in order to assist them to practice SI prefixes. For this reason, SI prefixes for decimal multiples and submultiples were addressed in two separate puzzles. To test the puzzles, a case study was conducted with 20 biology teaching students studying their first year in a state university in Turkey. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire posed to the students before and after the application of the puzzles. According to the results, 18 students (90%) completed the puzzles successfully. In addition, the students agreed that solving the Sudoku puzzles made contributions to them in terms of practicing SI prefixes. It is recommended that the Sudoku puzzles developed in this study might be used efficiently for all undergraduate students taking courses such as general chemistry and physics.   Keywords: SI prefixes, educational games, Sudoku puzzles, introductory science courses.

scholarly journals Student perspectives of independent and collaborative learning in a flipped foundational engineering course

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy H Fox ◽  
Paul David Docherty
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Learning Styles ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Independent Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Learning And Collaboration

Flipped teaching and learning approaches are being increasingly used in higher education. Some advantages associated with the approach include providing opportunity for self-directed learning and enhanced collaboration between students. In this study, an implementation of a flipped approach in a first year foundational engineering dynamics course was researched to investigate student views on independent and collaborative learning inherent in flipped learning. Eighteen undergraduate students (11 male and 7 female) participated in this qualitative study. The flipped part of the course was designed to include self-paced independent learning and in-class learning, with opportunities to collaborate, ask questions, and work on examples. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The results of the study indicated that students universally enjoyed learning independently and appreciated the increased collaboration induced by the flipped approach. The flexibility of the approach enabled a range of approaches to independent learning and collaboration, and students were able to find learning styles that suited them. This article concludes with a range of recommendations for practice to further support independent and collaborative learning with the use of flipped approaches.

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