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JCE Online
Jon L. Holmes University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI 53706
Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems
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edited by Susan C. Nurrenbern and William R. Robinson Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1393
The Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems Web site is a new resource of JCE Internet. This site provides a source for conceptual questions and challenge problems, offers tips for writing these questions and problems, discusses types of conceptual questions, and serves as a means of sharing conceptual questions and challenge problems among chemical educators. This is a living site that will grow as you share conceptual questions and challenge problems and as we find new sources of information. We would like to make this site as inclusive as possible. Please share your questions and problems with the editors and alert them to references or Web sites that could be included on the site. Addresses can be found in the mission statement. Conceptual Questions Conceptual questions are questions that tap a student’s understanding of chemical ideas associated with the question. Many conceptual questions involve all three forms of the representations—macroscopic, particulate, and symbolic—used with chemical information. These questions can be used to challenge students to articulate their understanding and, in the process, to evaluate that understanding. Student knowledge can be assessed by three broad categories of questions: recall, algorithmic, and higher order. Conceptual questions fall into the third of these categories. These questions require a student to synthesize an answer rather than simply recall the answer or activate an algorithm. Many conceptual questions present a chemical situation that a student has not trained with and ask the student to Justify a choice Predict what happens next Explain why something happens Explain how something happens Link two or more areas or topics Recognize questions phrased in a novel way Extract useful data from an excess of information
Concepts or skills that are unfamiliar to the students are included in some conceptual questions. Consequently, what constitutes a conceptual question for a given group of students depends on where the students are located on the academic ladder. Novice students may find stoichiometry problems involving chemical equations conceptually challenging, but practice can make the numerical computations into routine algorithmic exercises. Interestingly, although students can 1502
handle the calculations, they may lack the qualitative understanding of the chemical changes represented by the chemical equations. Using Conceptual Questions In addition to their use in assessing knowledge at different stages in the learning process, conceptual questions can be used in the classroom as occasions of learning. When used as the focus of group discussions, these questions serve as vehicles for students to actively practice Analyzing information in order to select the necessary relevant data Visualizing a system and using that visualization to reach a conclusion Identifying relevant or related concepts and the corresponding algorithms to invoke Recognizing related situations Transferring knowledge to new, yet related, situations Organizing and explaining unfamiliar phenomena Adapting a familiar explanation to a new situation Assessing what they do not understand about the fundamental ideas of chemical phenomena
Challenge Problems Challenge problems are multi-step (and sometimes multi-concept) problems that are designed to be worked in groups, with the instructor serving as a facilitator rather than a lecturer. The major difference between a conceptual question and a challenge problem lies in the complexity and length of task and the differing ways each is used in the learning environment. Challenge problems are generally characterized by the requirement that students present, explain, and justify the strategies they use to understand a problem or question and to come to an answer. Using Challenge Problems Challenge problems are designed to replace a formal lecture and to promote the learning benefits that can be derived from discussion among students and instructor(s). The goal is to move students from a passive sit-and-observe mode to a situation where they think about the information and knowledge that is to be learned as they restructure or organize it, choose appropriate parts for use or elaboration, draw diagrams involving the relationships among components, explain how they solved a problem and why that process worked, or work with the problem in other ways.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 75 No. 11 November 1998 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
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While groups of students work with a challenge problem, the instructor guides their thinking with questions or suggestions, provides feedback, and brings closure to an activity. Within a group, students present, explain, and justify the strategies they use to understand and obtain an answer to a problem or question. In some cases, they present the group’s strategy to the class. Student presentations can be written or verbal, although a verbal presentation has the advantage of incorporating additional participation in a question and answer period. Even for a group composed of individuals who work problems independently and then compare answers, members of that group must be required to present, explain, and justify their processes to each other or, preferably, to the class. Challenge problems can be used to encourage Development of related or linked knowledge among several concepts, ideas, and/or problems Reinforcement of knowledge by explaining to others Identification of what students do or do not know Recognition that a variety of problem solving techniques are often available Understanding that some problem solving techniques may be more efficient than others
Acknowledgment Many of the challenge problems currently available were prepared by the New Traditions Curriculum Project with support from NSF, grant 9455928.
Conceptual Questions and Challenge Problems: Mission Statement The JCE Internet Conceptual Question and Challenge Problem Web site is a source of questions and problems that can be used in teaching and assessing conceptual understanding and problem solving in chemistry. Here you can find a library of free-response and multiple-choice conceptual questions and challenge problems, tips for writing these questions and problems, and a discussion of types of conceptual questions. This site is intended to be a means of sharing conceptual questions and challenge problems among chemical educators. This is a living site that will grow as you share conceptual questions and challenge problems and as we find new sources of information. We would like to make this site as inclusive as possible.
Please share your questions and problems with us and alert us to references or Web sites that could be included on the site. You can use email, fax, or regular mail. Email:
[email protected] or
[email protected] Fax: 765/494-0239 Mailing address:
Susan C. Nurrenbern or William R. Robinson Department of Chemistry Purdue University 1393 Brown Building West Lafayette, IN 47907-1393
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 11 November 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education
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