Chemical Education Today
Commentary Simple Techniques Can Give Pleasurable Results by Marcetta Y. Darensbourg The following does not seem to constitute a “Provocative Opinion”, a section which is so interesting in the Journal of Chemical Education. Neither is it exactly a letter to the editor. It is just a response to J. N. Cooper ’s …to optimize “Open Letter to a Burned-Out learning experiences, Teacher” where he so eloquently stated the challenge I am incorporating “to sort out among the armatorium of educational bits and pieces of techniques those you are will“new technology” or ing to try in the battle against alternative teaching the evils of ignorance and intellectual lethargy… You approaches… would be surprised how simple some are to adopt; how downright pleasurable the results can be” (1). My comment is in corroboration of the last sentence and how I was able to slip in a bit of a fresh approach with minimal effort. How we use this stuff is quite personal. Perhaps my experience will inspire others to try/share their own. In an attempt to optimize learning experiences, I am incorporating bits and pieces of “new technology” or alternative teaching approaches into my Chemistry 103 class. It is a small (35 student) course of Chemistry Majors—not especially the best students (those are in the Honors 103 class) but a very big range of students. Most of my teaching is via traditional lectures. I have, however used the following ancillaries. • Email. A separate address has been set up for Another benefit (of Chem 103 students to access me. Here they are very email): questions free to ask for help, set up are better thought appointments, clarify a concept or problem, discuss out, more specific than when students chemistry, freshman coping skills, etc. I really enjoy this just show up for correspondence. Of course some use it more than othoffice hours. ers, but even if only a third of the class actively communicates, it gives me a much better handle on their development. And I get to know some students by name, skill level, and most importantly, personality much more quickly. Another benefit: questions are better thought out, more specific than when students just show up for office hours. • Internet. Thus far I’ve only used this for the Berkeley Mirror Periodic Table. Each student was assigned an element to search for specific proper-
ties, which were recorded in the back of his or her …on the day I notebook. For example, on the day I presented presented trends trends in ionization po- in ionization tential energies, I simply potential energies, called out elements and students called back the I simply called out values, which I wrote on elements and the board, and we saw the trend in terms of real students called numbers. It was really a back the values lot of fun. I think this could be used for “Group Learning” quizzes, also. • “Group Learning” (2). I have approached this by having students in class form informal groups of 4 or 5 and I assign each group a problem from a sheet given to all. After a 10-min discussion, I call the question and each group calls its answer. We deal with uncertainties. These were usually planted in the questions to emphasize or “cover” interesting issues not addressed in lecture. I don’t think this should replace my lectures. But it is a useful adjunct and break. The students seem to really enjoy this for the chemistry as well as the opportunity to meet each other. (They are 18 and 19 years old, you know!) Literature Cited 1. Cooper, J. M. J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 1098. 2. Cooper, M. M. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 162.
Marcetta Y. Darensbourg teaches in the Department of Chemistry at Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255;
[email protected].
Vol. 73 No. 11 November 1996 • Journal of Chemical Education
A273
