Chemistry Learning For Undergraduates

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Carol Snyder (American Association of Colleges and Universities) observed that change in undergraduate STEM might be supported more effectively by collaborative work in departments than by the efforts of individual faculty members. Heidi (National Research Council) asked what the speakers are doing to measure the goals of developing positive attitudes toward science, noting that increasing students' science knowledge will not necessarily lead to changes in their behavior or degree of motivation to learn. For example, some physicians smoke, despite their knowledge of the overwhelming evidence of the health dangers of smoking. Middle-camp responded that she believes that the Chemistry in Context goal to develop students' motivation for lifelong science learning is more important than the goal to help them learn specific chemistry content. This is why the Chemistry in Context team selects chemistry content that matters to people for inclusion in the curriculum, she said.

Linda (National Science Foundation) asked Middle-camp about directly introducing chemistry concepts related to real-life issues, without first introducing ...
... students to the basic topics of general chemistry, which she considers to be the scaffolding on which to build new understanding. Celeste Carter (National Science Foundation), who teaches a 9-month course in biotechnology at a community college, said that many of her students, including some with advanced degrees, do not understand basic concepts in biology. She said she tries to build conceptual understanding through discussion of scientific methods and through laboratory activities. James Stith (American Institute of Physics) asked how departments can be held accountable for ensuring that prerequisite courses provide the basic understanding students need to benefit from more advanced courses.

Middle-camp responded to Linda that a scaffold in Chemistry in Context would be the real-life issue, such as "the air we breathe" or "the water we drink." Grant said that people have very different definitions of the word "scaffold"; he thinks of it as an awareness of one's own learning process and how one builds understanding in response to instruction. Mestre responded that he uses class time to scaffold student learning, drawing on his own expertise, and asks students to read more basic content material outside class. Responding to the question about holding departments accountable, Mestre observed that new doctoral graduates lack knowledge of active learning strategies and proposed that departments should be held accountable for bringing their newly hired faculty up to speed on the findings of cognitive research and their implications for instruction.

Moderator Adam Gamoran offered three concluding remarks. First, he observed that the evidence underlying promising practices in STEM is thin, as each speaker had described local, anecdotal evidence. Second, he suggested that cognitive scientists, educational testing experts, and disciplinary experts collaborate to develop new forms of assessment to guide STEM teaching and learning. Third, he called for increasing the scope and scale of research to support development of approaches that are useful across different faculty members, departments, and institutions.

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