Journal of Chemical Education最新文献

Balancing chemical equations involves the application of the law of conservation of mass, which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Particularly for nonscience majors, this task can be challenging because it requires an understanding of the symbolic, submicroscopic, and macroscopic representation of chemical reactions. An online, interactive activity was developed and implemented in two introductory chemistry courses to instruct students on the theory and methods behind balancing chemical equations while providing frequent feedback about the learning process. This activity involves 8 sections, 4 sections delivering new content and 4 sections assessing student learning. The impact of this activity on student learning outcomes was measured using a pre–post study design, and student feedback on the activity was also collected. Overall, this activity provided an interactive and engaging way for students in introductory chemistry courses to learn how to balance chemical equations.

Due to the scarcity of studies on culturally responsive teaching in secondary school chemistry education, the goal of this study was to establish chemistry teachers’ beliefs about the role of culture in chemistry class and their ways of considering and engaging in it. Seven secondary school chemistry teachers were interviewed. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis against the backdrop of structuralist and poststructuralist conceptions of culture. The teachers regarded culture in general as an enrichment in school and many of them showed a very nuanced concept of culture, comprising both structuralist and poststructuralist elements. However, they accorded only minor importance to the impact of culture on chemistry teaching and learning and tended to employ only a structuralist view of culture in their chemistry classroom. This creates tensions in their teaching and could be a source of discriminatory practices in chemistry class. It is argued that chemistry-specific approaches to culturally relevant science teaching need to be developed and implemented in secondary school teacher education to support teachers’ equitable chemistry teaching in secondary school. Implications for chemistry education research and teaching are discussed.

Mechanochemistry is a rapidly evolving field in chemistry, but learning and understanding mechanochemistry is challenging for college students due to its intricate microscale mechanisms. This study focuses on utilizing quantum chemistry simulations as a teaching exercise to facilitate a deeper understanding of mechanochemistry. By integrating computational tools into the learning process, students gain insight into the underlying mechanochemistry mechanisms and appreciate the significance of quantum chemistry in elucidating mechanochemical reactions. Through the analysis of key quantum chemical parameters, such as system energy, bond lengths, bond orders, and spin density, students explore the intricacies of mechanochemical reactions. This teaching exercise not only cultivates students’ chemical intuition and innovative thinking abilities but also provides educators with an engaging and effective teaching method.

Cooling curves of melts provide a wealth of information regarding latent heat, heat transfer, the Gibbs phase rule, and mass transfer kinetics during phase transition. In this study, a computer-based activity was designed to deepen upper-level undergraduate students’ comprehension of the intricate phase transition process. This activity primarily employs mathematical modeling methods based on conservation of energy and crystallization kinetic equations to derive a mathematical relationship between temperature and time during the supercooling phase transition of a single-component metal. Mathematics teaching software GeoGebra was utilized for graphing and comparing the derived mathematic model with experimental data. Following the activity, students’ learning outcomes were evaluated using a questionnaire. The average score was 86.87 for the first round of students and 88.26 for the second round of students. Incorporating mathematical modeling of cooling curves into physical chemistry laboratory teaching has resulted in noticeable enhancement in the student’s learning. Overall, this activity effectively enhanced students’ comprehension of mathematical modeling, computational skills, and problem solving skills. The activity significantly enriches students’ comprehensive understanding of cooling curves and associated experiments in physical chemistry.