Fall 2009 CONFCHEM

Excellence in Education with CCLI: Notes from Recent Awardees

An on-line conference, September and October 2009

Abstracts

Papers

Instructions

Discussion Archive

Conference Schedule and Abstracts
September 18-24, 2009	Eileen L. Lewis	P1. "The Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Program"

September 25-October 1, 2009	Gary Trammell, Keenan Dungey, and Eric Voss	P2. A Tale of Two Universities: Collaborative Proposals in the CCLI Program
The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) have collaborated on two successful NSF CCLI/A&I grants. These grants enabled our institutions to purchase advanced instrumentation for each school and incorporate them across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. One grant funded powder X-ray diffractometers, and the second provided scanning probe microscopes. Each institution has one of “twin” instruments to help in sharing experiments and methods and to aid in troubleshooting. This partnership pairs a small public liberal arts institution (UIS) in which faculty teach all lab sections with a medium-sized public institution with a large undergraduate chemistry enrollment which utilizes graduate teaching assistants in laboratories. Cooperation was enhanced through joint training and monthly meetings held at alternate institutions, along with frequent e-mail exchanges. This paper will discuss the advantages of cooperation between these two types of institutions for developing and assessing lab activities. Besides collaboration between institutions, these projects involve cooperation among faculty teaching across the curriculum since these instruments are used in introductory, general, organic, analytical, physical, inorganic chemistry and in undergraduate research projects.
October 2-8, 2009	Regina F. Frey (gfrey@wustl.edu), Pat L. Brown, R. Keith Sawyer	P3. "An Analysis of Discourse in Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL)"
Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a structured method for helping students engage actively in collaborative conversations. The method originated in undergraduate chemistry courses, but is now used in math and in other science classes as well. Previous studies have shown that PLTL results in improved learning in undergraduate chemistry. However, researchers have not studied the group mechanisms and discourse processes that lead to this improved outcome. This study is the first to explore those mechanisms and processes. We observed videotapes of PLTL sessions and analyzed the actions and interactions of peer leaders and of students. We found that peer leaders used two distinct interactional styles, which we call instructional and facilitative. The effects of these two interactional styles on the students’ dialogue and participation will be presented.
October 9-15, 2009	Dean H. Johnston (djohnston@otterbein.edu)	P4. Visual-Spatial Learning: Development of an Interactive Web-Based Symmetry Tutorial
A variety of web-based materials for teaching concepts of point group symmetry have been developed using the Jmol applet. Example molecules are displayed as three-dimensional structures combined with the interactive display of symmetry elements as translucent points, axes and planes. Symmetry operations are demonstrated through animations. Along with this development, we have undertaken a study to compare the relative effectiveness of two-dimensional (2D) versus three-dimensional (3D) computer representations for teaching concepts of symmetry. Two groups of first and second-year undergraduate students with no formal instruction in concepts of symmetry completed a 2D and a 3D version of an online symmetry tutorial in random order and were assessed with a 20-question quiz after completion of each tutorial. Preliminary analysis shows significant score gains with both tutorials, strong interactions between mental rotation scores and pre/post-test gains, and an intriguing advantage for the non-interactive (2D) tutorial.
October 16-22, 2009	Debbie Beard	P5. "Implementation of FT-NMR Across the Chemistry Curriculum"
The objectives were to implement NMR spectroscopy theory into all undergraduate chemistry laboratories for STEM majors and to give hands-on experience on the Bruker AVANCE 300 MHz NMR spectrometer to all of these students. We used NMR laboratory experiments from the Journal of Chemical Education that were successful at other colleges/universities. A brief NMR spectroscopy lecture, notes, and an NMR problem set as well as the experimental procedure were given to each laboratory section to inform the students on the content and test their understanding of the concepts. All laboratory sections began with a survey to evaluate the students’ attitudes toward chemistry and their prior knowledge of and exposure to NMR spectroscopy. This voluntary survey was given before the NMR lecture and before the experiment was performed. A post-laboratory survey was performed one week later to assess changes in attitudes toward chemistry and the effectiveness of their hands-on NMR laboratory experience. The results of these assessments will be discussed. Also described will be the challenge of giving a large number of students the opportunity to use the NMR spectrometer.

Conference Schedule and Abstracts

September 18-24, 2009

Eileen L. Lewis

P1. "The Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Program"

September 25-October 1, 2009

Gary Trammell, Keenan Dungey, and Eric Voss

P2. A Tale of Two Universities: Collaborative Proposals in the CCLI Program

The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) have collaborated on two successful NSF CCLI/A&I grants. These grants enabled our institutions to purchase advanced instrumentation for each school and incorporate them across the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. One grant funded powder X-ray diffractometers, and the second provided scanning probe microscopes. Each institution has one of “twin” instruments to help in sharing experiments and methods and to aid in troubleshooting. This partnership pairs a small public liberal arts institution (UIS) in which faculty teach all lab sections with a medium-sized public institution with a large undergraduate chemistry enrollment which utilizes graduate teaching assistants in laboratories. Cooperation was enhanced through joint training and monthly meetings held at alternate institutions, along with frequent e-mail exchanges. This paper will discuss the advantages of cooperation between these two types of institutions for developing and assessing lab activities. Besides collaboration between institutions, these projects involve cooperation among faculty teaching across the curriculum since these instruments are used in introductory, general, organic, analytical, physical, inorganic chemistry and in undergraduate research projects.

October 2-8, 2009

Regina F. Frey (gfrey@wustl.edu), Pat L. Brown, R. Keith Sawyer

P3. "An Analysis of Discourse in Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL)"

Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is a structured method for helping students engage actively in collaborative conversations. The method originated in undergraduate chemistry courses, but is now used in math and in other science classes as well. Previous studies have shown that PLTL results in improved learning in undergraduate chemistry. However, researchers have not studied the group mechanisms and discourse processes that lead to this improved outcome. This study is the first to explore those mechanisms and processes. We observed videotapes of PLTL sessions and analyzed the actions and interactions of peer leaders and of students. We found that peer leaders used two distinct interactional styles, which we call instructional and facilitative. The effects of these two interactional styles on the students’ dialogue and participation will be presented.

October 9-15, 2009

Dean H. Johnston (djohnston@otterbein.edu)

P4. Visual-Spatial Learning: Development of an Interactive Web-Based Symmetry Tutorial

A variety of web-based materials for teaching concepts of point group symmetry have been developed using the Jmol applet. Example molecules are displayed as three-dimensional structures combined with the interactive display of symmetry elements as translucent points, axes and planes. Symmetry operations are demonstrated through animations. Along with this development, we have undertaken a study to compare the relative effectiveness of two-dimensional (2D) versus three-dimensional (3D) computer representations for teaching concepts of symmetry. Two groups of first and second-year undergraduate students with no formal instruction in concepts of symmetry completed a 2D and a 3D version of an online symmetry tutorial in random order and were assessed with a 20-question quiz after completion of each tutorial. Preliminary analysis shows significant score gains with both tutorials, strong interactions between mental rotation scores and pre/post-test gains, and an intriguing advantage for the non-interactive (2D) tutorial.

October 16-22, 2009

Debbie Beard

P5. "Implementation of FT-NMR Across the Chemistry Curriculum"

The objectives were to implement NMR spectroscopy theory into all undergraduate chemistry laboratories for STEM majors and to give hands-on experience on the Bruker AVANCE 300 MHz NMR spectrometer to all of these students. We used NMR laboratory experiments from the Journal of Chemical Education that were successful at other colleges/universities. A brief NMR spectroscopy lecture, notes, and an NMR problem set as well as the experimental procedure were given to each laboratory section to inform the students on the content and test their understanding of the concepts. All laboratory sections began with a survey to evaluate the students’ attitudes toward chemistry and their prior knowledge of and exposure to NMR spectroscopy. This voluntary survey was given before the NMR lecture and before the experiment was performed. A post-laboratory survey was performed one week later to assess changes in attitudes toward chemistry and the effectiveness of their hands-on NMR laboratory experience. The results of these assessments will be discussed. Also described will be the challenge of giving a large number of students the opportunity to use the NMR spectrometer.