From Bhopal to Cold Fusion: A Case-Study Approach to Writing

Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

From Bhopal to Cold Fusion: A Case-Study Approach to Writing Assignments in Honors General Chemistry Donna M. Chamely-Wiik,*,† Jerome E. Haky,† and Jeffrey R. Galin‡ Departments of †Chemistry and Biochemistry and ‡English, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida 33431, United States S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: Faculty from the chemistry and English departments have developed a combined second-semester honors general chemistry and college writing course that fosters critical thinking through challenging writing assignments. Examples of casestudy writing assignments and guidelines are provided that faculty at other institutions can adapt in similar small-enrollment lower-division chemistry classes. Recommendations for the writing assignments are provided based on our experiences in developing and implementing them. These recommendations include (i) considering pedagogical principles that define instructional objectives, audience, interest and relevance, critical thinking, clarity, document design, scaffolding, scheduling, and evaluation; (ii) providing appropriate references which students use to formulate their arguments; (iii) posing ill-formed problems for students to engage course content and think critically; and (iv) staging these assignments in multiple drafts throughout the semester with detailed grading criteria provided. This guidance is necessary for such lower-division students to strengthen their college-level academic writing skills and increase their knowledge of chemistry content. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Physical Chemistry, Communication/Writing, Applications of Chemistry, Calorimetry/Thermochemistry, Electrochemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Thermodynamics

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surrounding cold fusion as a potential energy source. A set of pedagogical principles is provided that faculty at other institutions can use to develop similar assignments for smallenrollment lower-division chemistry classes.

ost faculty agree that integrating substantial writing into the chemistry curriculum fosters critical-thinking skills.1−4 Lillig5 identified three types of writing assignments commonly used: lab reports, mock journal or research articles, and review-style term papers. First-year chemistry courses that include case-study teaching methods provide another means of incorporating structured writing assignments that accomplish these goals. Regardless of where writing is integrated into the chemistry curriculum, if critical thinking and quality of writing are primary goals of these assignments, then students should focus on applying subject-matter knowledge, defining a problem and recognizing the uncertainties of a single solution, analyzing arguments, developing ones’ own claims, justifying these claims with interpretation of data, recognizing qualifications and limitations of claims, and drawing conclusions. How these assignments are integrated into courses determines the quality of writing that students produce and the effectiveness of the assignment to foster critical thinking and application of chemistry knowledge. Through a university-wide writing across the curriculum (WAC) initiative and federal grant support, faculty from chemistry and English departments at this university have developed a specialized second-semester honors general chemistry course that accomplishes these goals. Although many general chemistry courses incorporate writing assignments, the course described here is the first of its kind to satisfy simultaneously the requirements for both first-year chemistry and writing.6 This course provides a foundation for formulating scientific ideas through writing and assisting students in acquiring skills for reflection and self-assessment in chemistry and writing. The development and implementation of two casestudy writing assignments are discussed based on the chemical disaster that occurred in Bhopal India and the controversies © 2012 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

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COURSE DESIGN Our aim in integrating a case-study approach into honors general chemistry was to introduce critical-thinking strategies, improve the skills of writing in the sciences, and encourage “writing to learn” at the first-year undergraduate level. This project was part of a larger initiative that evolved over time from a 6 credit course, taught by two faculty, to a combined 7 credit course, taught by a single chemistry professor, with the assistance of a trained graduate laboratory teaching assistant. The course capacity was limited to 24 students based on lab space and the writing-intensive nature of the course. The course met for 7 h per week: 3 h for class sections and 4 h for laboratory. Two primary methods were utilized for incorporating writing: structured laboratory reports and case-study writing assignments.

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WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM Over the past 35 years, the WAC movement emerged in higher education by incorporating writing components into the curriculum across disciplines. The fundamental principles of WAC are that writing is the most efficient tool for acquiring critical-thinking skills and that having students respond to welldesigned writing assignments is one of the best strategies for engaging them in the subject matter.7 Barnes and colleagues8 demonstrated that writing is a vehicle for learning science meaningfully because it places importance on students being Published: February 8, 2012 502

dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed101129v | J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 502−508

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drew from Kovac,1,2 Burnett,22 and Walcott20 to integrate these outcomes throughout the course and establish the following nine pedagogical principles for designing and implementing case-study assignments.

able to understand and explain the meaning of fundamental science concepts.9,10 Glynn and colleagues9 indicated that writing affords a “minds-on” emphasis for learning science and can function as a conceptual tool for assisting students in analysis, interpretation, and communication of scientific ideas.7,9,11 Kovac1,2 provided recommendations for assignments used in all levels of writing-based chemistry curricula. For firstyear courses with high enrollment and diverse student populations, he recommended one-page microthemes, short summaries, journal assignments, and laboratory procedures, which afford minimal grading or peer review. He suggested that students should write longer, reading-based papers in higherlevel chemistry courses. Because our course is a small honors section, the assignments that we developed look more like the kinds of assignments that he recommended for upper-division writing.

Instructional Objectives

Content, cognitive and research tasks, and rhetorical form should be considered in developing assignments. Topics were chosen in both assignments that were grounded in secondsemester chemistry content for which available and appropriate resources from multiple perspectives could be identified and provided to students. In addition, the assignment topics focused on problems with multiple possible outcomes, otherwise known as “ill-formed”7 or “open ended problems for which an absolute correct answer cannot be known”.20 Complex situations were identified that required students to analyze and interpret pertinent chemical principles, scientific data, and social and environmental impacts to build thoughtful arguments and conclusions.

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CASE-STUDY METHODS One effective strategy for integrating writing into the curriculum that stimulates critical thinking is the use of casestudy assignments. This method, widely adopted in business and medical schools, has gained momentum in science education as an effective cooperative-learning strategy that “teaches how the process of science works while developing higher order skills of learning”.12 Using such cooperativelearning strategies improves student performance in that students have better attitudes toward the subject material.12 Case studies can be divided into four different categories based on the methods by which they are implemented. These categories include • a replacement of an entire lecture class;13 • a whole-class discussion to supplement the lecture;14,15 • small-group cases more commonly known as problembased learning;16,17 • case studies conducted by individual students.3,18 The majority of case-study approaches in chemistry have been implemented as discussions during class sessions or utilizing problem-based learning in small groups. There are few examples of individual case instruction that involve formal written assignments that use real-world scenarios to assist students in generating analytical and decision-making skills. Those that involve substantial amounts of writing are typically designed as research papers in upper-division classes.5,19 Wolcott cautioned that case-study assignments emphasizing writing as an iterative process can foster critical thinking and provide opportunities to challenge and motivate students when implemented effectively.20 She suggested that faculty cannot assume all open-ended cased-based assignments will lead students to think critically. She explained further that criticalthinking skills of students “can be inhibited when assignments are too far beyond their current abilities”.20 Our approach to designing formal writing assignments builds upon Herreid’s12 concept of case studies conducted by individual students and addresses Walcott’s20 concerns for effective critical-thinking assignments.

Audience

Students must understand the audience to which they write. In most college courses, including our first-year honors course, students write to two primary audiences: local, which includes the teacher and classmates, and institutional, which includes writing-center tutors, assessment readers, and other university audiences. Because these papers were part of an institutional evaluation process, it was important for our students to provide enough technical and social context for readers outside of the classroom. Interest and Relevance

Topics should be designed to engage student interest. In the Bhopal case, students were drawn to the scope of the human disaster. In the cold fusion assignment, students focused on the potential societal impact for solving the energy crisis. As part of a case studies approach, topics related to the assignment were integrated as discussion items and in-class problems. For example, in the Bhopal assignment, students were asked to calculate the quantity of heat produced by the explosion of various quantities of methyl isocyanate (MIC), one of the chemicals stored in the factory. Critical Thinking

Case-study writing assignments should foster critical thinking. The Foundation for Critical Thinking23 defines it as: the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness. The Bhopal and cold fusion assignments case-study assignments engage students in the processes described in this definition. For example, both assignments require students to read sources that include a wide range of data and interpretations on complex real-life events with unresolved scientific conclusions. Students analyze, synthesize, and evaluate this data to justify their own conclusions in a multidraft document. As part of this process, students also examine the clarity and validity of their claims and the quality of evidence and reasons that have been discussed. Faculty and peer

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DESIGN OF THE ASSIGNMENTS The Council of Writing Program Administrators “Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition” articulates specific outcomes for first-year writers including rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, reading and writing processes, knowledge of conventions, and composing in electronic environments.21 We 503



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station was not pursued because the topic was too technical. A substantial amount of time was spent considering an assignment on the Vioxx controversy because it was so significant and recent. However, this topic was not used because the chemistry involved was primarily organic and biochemistry, which was not covered in the course. Two assignments were developed over the course of three years. Our initial case-study assignment, used for the first two years of the course, required students to explore the scientific principles involved in the Bhopal disaster where thousands of people died in an industrial chemical accident (see the Supporting Information). The second assignment, used in the third year, required students to formulate and defend an argument whether research in the field of cold fusion should continue to be supported (see the Supporting Information). A two-year cycle was implemented for these assignments to allow fine-tuning after evaluation of student papers and to provide a larger pool of papers on each assignment for assessment of student work. Our small class size and the continuity of faculty involved in this course minimized the possibility of plagiarism.

feedback provide opportunities for reflection and revision through employment of a checklist, as discussed later. Clarity

Specific guidelines and instructions should be provided to students to ensure they stay focused and respond fully to the assignment. Document Design

The assignments should make clear expectations for a thesisdriven argument with a strong introduction, body, and conclusion that establish a set of claims to be supported with evidence, reasons, and counterclaims, consistent with a writing assignment given in college composition. Scaffolding

Multiple forms of support should be provided to guide students through the writing processes and help them build their knowledge base. For example, to reinforce the iterative nature of writing, the assignments are sequenced by introducing tasks in stages over the course of the semester: an introductory paragraph, first draft, and a 5−6 page final draft. This distribution of work enables instructors and peers to provide early and ongoing feedback to students as the research paper is written over a 14-week period. Additional scaffolding is provided by utilizing writing checklists and error logs and providing additional time for self-reflection. Furthermore, topics relevant to the paper are introduced as the course proceeds, including thermodynamics and stoichiometry for the Bhopal assignment and thermochemistry, nuclear chemistry, and electrochemistry for the cold fusion assignment.

Bhopal Assignment

The Bhopal assignment introduced the disaster as an interplay of numerous factors: physical, chemical, and toxicological properties of MIC; methods of manufacture; and quantities and storage of the chemicals in the factory. Students were provided The Black Box of Bhopal24 and the course textbook.25 The assignment required students to demonstrate how these factors interacted to produce such a disaster. Students were asked to consider as they built their arguments how the following factors combined to create a unique situation that was so destructive: • Physical properties of MIC, including its boiling point and vapor pressure • Chemical properties of MIC, including the rate and enthalpy of its reaction with water • Toxicological properties of MIC, including hazardous concentration levels • Methods of manufacture and storage of MIC at the factory in Bhopal • Quantities of MIC stored at the factory and released into the atmosphere Deadlines for the three drafting stages were spread across the semester: five weeks for the introduction, one month for the first draft, and five weeks for the final draft. Written comments based on the assessment checklist were provided on each draft. Students were also invited to discuss their writing on an individual basis during office hours.

Scheduling

The syllabus should provide clear deadlines for each stage of the assignment and timely feedback from professors. Evaluation

Assessment criteria should be provided for each stage of the assignment. A checklist is provided that is consistent with assessment criteria in first-year writing. It includes such categories as response to the assignment, introduction with thesis and organizational statement, body organization, argument, conclusions, formatting, and editing. Additional criteria are included to address chemistry content (see the Supporting Information). Students and faculty use this checklist to identify weaknesses in thinking and writing, including the need for additional evidence for assertions; considerations of counterarguments; and corrections of scientific, grammatical, and organization problems. For example, in the Bhopal assignment, students needed help discussing the mechanism of the reaction between methyl isocyanate and water and how it could be used to support their arguments. In the cold fusion paper, students needed assistance discussing the thermochemistry involved in the cold fusion process to argue whether it actually occurred.

Cold Fusion Assignment

The assignment was introduced as a hotly debated controversy whether cold fusion is possible and whether it has the potential to solve the world’s energy crisis. The book entitled The Rebirth of Cold Fusion: Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy,26 a Scientific American article on the topic,27 and the textbook25 were provided to students as references. Students were asked to argue whether scientists should continue research in this area. They were provided with the following questions to assist in building their arguments: • What is the potential social, economic, and scientific significance of cold fusion as an energy source? • What are the physical and chemical processes associated with cold fusion?

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ASSIGNMENT TOPIC CHOICES On the basis of these pedagogical principles, several topics were explored before on Bhopal and cold fusion were chosen. Examples included the improper chemical disposal at the Love Canal district of New York, the chemistry behind the Hindenburg disaster, the design of air systems for a new space station, and the safety of the drug Vioxx. Recent references for either Love Canal or the Hindenburg disaster were not available, which made designing assignments based on these topics difficult. The air filtration system in the space 504



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• What are the theoretical and experimental challenges in proving whether it works? • What data, observations, and analyses can be used to support your claims? • What are the implications of your argument about cold fusion, if your recommendations are followed? Students were encouraged to discuss both arguments and counterarguments in their analysis, rather than list and describe each question in isolation. The deadlines associated with the multiple drafts were consistent with the Bhopal assignment.

focus on writing and analysis, and facilitate faculty assessment of student papers. If students had been asked to identify the references, they would have encountered the same difficulties that we encountered to identify appropriate and balanced resources in a timely manner. We wanted students to focus primarily on analysis. This approach takes a middle ground between assignments that may overextend students within a fully open-ended approach to engender critical thinking and highly structured assignments that may direct their attention too narrowly and thereby limit their abilities to think critically. As Wolcott suggests, “students must learn less complex skills before they can learn more complex skills”.20

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DISCUSSION Educators have proposed and implemented similar writing and critical thinking into chemistry courses for different purposes. For example, Lillig5 developed a structured writing assignment for an upper-division biochemistry course that extends the review-style term paper to incorporate analysis. Students identify their own topic of choice and references to develop an original thesis-driven argument. Students are provided with a set of general questions to answer, ensuring detailed and comprehensive analyses. The assignment is divided into multiple stages across the semester to provide clear guidance as students build and support their claims and to ensure they pace their work effectively. The sophistication and complexity of this type of writing would, however, be difficult to implement effectively in a first-year general chemistry class. Oliver-Hoyo3 provided an example at the first-year level. She developed a six-point primary-trait rubric, each trait targeting cognitive skill levels defined by Bloom’s taxonomy.28 Additionally, she embedded into the rubric 10 intellectual standards that define critical thinking to study the improvements in student writing across the semester. Students were provided a list of broad topics from which they selected their writing project for the semester. All students chose unique topics and found their own references for their arguments. Feedback was provided using the rubric on four full drafts. The assignments that we have developed share several important components of the above models, including a WAC approach that emphasizes analysis of arguments, multipledrafts, and consistent and substantive feedback. In contrast, our assignments also provide our first-year students with a single, well-defined case-study writing assignment in which the leading questions are specific to the case study. Furthermore, students are required to use a checklist for self-assessment (see the Supporting Information). Students also track their patterns of error using error logs to help them catalogue these patterns and proofread their papers. Instructors mark the first occurrences of common error patterns by circling mistakes. Not all errors are marked and not all varieties of errors are marked. Students then identify mistakes using The ACS Style Guide,29 visiting the writing center, or getting advice from a friend or instructor. They record the wrong wording, corrected wording, and rule followed to correct mistakes. These error logs are cumulative and are attached to each new writing submission. If previously identified mistakes are not addressed in a new draft, the paper is returned to the student for proofreading before it receives a full review. Instructors skim the error logs to ensure accurate corrections. This system ensures that faculty spend little time on such concerns and students take responsibility for their own error correction. Students are also provided with the primary reference materials to streamline the writing process, enable them to

SUCCESSES Students demonstrated interest in the assigned research topics during class discussions and in student evaluations of the course. In a survey administered after the course was completed, over 70% of the students ranked the topic of the term paper as either extremely interesting/engaging or considerably interesting/engaging on a six point Likert scale. One student’s response is particularly revealing in describing her experiences with this assignment and its affect on her current and future academic work: The report on the Bhopal disaster undoubtedly required me to use my skills in both chemistry and writing. The help provided by the writing experts involved in the course was very useful to me in regard to this paper. I had never heard of this historical event and since writing the paper, I have used my knowledge on the subject in other courses, in academic conversations, etc. The topic was engaging and relevant to my future in a science-related career much more so than a comparable research paper on, for example, an art or humanities topic, in a regular english/literature course. I just took the MCAT and some of the passages in the physical science section seem to be based on similar events, like a reallife experiment or event that ties back to chemistry. Students also expressed their appreciation of a case-study approach to writing in chemistry and the opportunities for multiple revisions. The process in which the assignment was given was well thought out. By allowing student to first write an introduction to their paper and have that introduction reviewed by the professor ensured that students were on the right track in regards to their paper. Although the chemistry associated with the disaster and presented in the book was not simple to follow, it was doable provided that the student research accordingly. Of course, this is essential to any paper written. It was an interesting read and allowed us to experience chemistry outside of the typical lectures in class and see its effects on the real world. Furthermore, it was helpful to learn how to discuss as scientific subject not in the form of a lab report, but utilizing a typical research paper format. I believe it allowed us to strengthen our writing/ English skills and learn how to communicate scientific ideas effectively without a lab paper format. These comments were consistent with the attitudes represented in student responses to the survey. They demonstrate that the goals were met in the design of the assignments and supporting processes. In most cases, student responses to these assignments met or exceeded expectations, demonstrated by faculty evaluations and course grades. Most students responded thoughtfully to faculty feedback and produced substantially restructured and well-developed final drafts. 505



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Final Draft Excerpt

CHALLENGES Although students achieved a high degree of success in completing these assignments, they responded in more complex ways to the Bhopal assignment than the cold fusion assignment. In the former, students discussed the relative significance of many factors causing the disaster. In the latter, students unanimously favored continuing research in cold fusion without critically analyzing the data provided and acknowledging the many contradicting factors regarding the controversy. The differences in student responses to the assignments can be attributed to the objectivity of the references chosen and the manner in which the assignment problem was posed. Perhaps the students would have produced a more diverse set of claims in the cold fusion essays if a single, balanced, reference source was identified similar to the The Black Box of Bhopal.24 Such a source would have provided the context, offered possible arguments, and presented data objectively so that students could have approached the controversy from multiple perspectives. For the cold fusion assignment, two references were provided for students to use. The first was a recently published book26 (the only one in print) that presented the historical context and data but was unbalanced in its representation of its argument, and the

Though these objections may have been valid when the discovery of cold fusion was first announced, there is now, more than 15 years after the initial announcement, a mountain of evidence has been amassed by thousands of scientists support the validity cold fusion. Cold fusion experiments are reproducible, show evidence of a nuclear process, and have been verified to produce accurate measurements of excess heat. Cold fusion is potentially the answer to our societies mounting energy crisis: a source of power that is cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly. But the promises of cold fusion can only be brought to fruition with further research. With the end of the fossil fuel era creeping ominously closer, we as a society need to further research in all avenues, particularly cold fusion, which could potentially alleviate our addiction to fossil fuels.

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First Draft Excerpt

Table 1. Comparison of a Student’s First and Final Drafts of the Introduction

On the basis of students’ first drafts of their introductions, without the revision process it was apparent that the student papers would not have been nearly as strong. Students tended to write about the human impact of the Bhopal disaster and the political implications of the cold fusion controversy. Many needed to be guided back to the primary purpose of the assignment, which was to engage scientific content to produce rational arguments. Excerpts from the first and final drafts of the introduction from a student paper on the cold fusion assignment offer instructive examples (Table 1). The primary argument in the first draft is that cold fusion has not been properly funded because many scientists consider it pseudo-science. This focus addresses only the first of five questions required for the assignment. The paper does not go on to address the scientific evidence for and against the pursuit of cold fusion. Instead of focusing solely on the social significance of cold fusion, the final revision uses this context to introduce a new primary focus, which fully responds to the assignment. The primary focus of the final draft opening states that there is substantial evidence supporting cold fusion as a nuclear process that is reproducible and can generate excess heat. Based on feedback from the instructor, the students improved their writing significantly. The average grade raised from a C range to B range as students refocused their arguments. In addition to the qualitative assessments, a university-wide WAC assessment of writing was conducted in which 422 student papers from 12 disciplines were evaluated using a 12trait, analytical rubric across all undergraduate levels. The traits analyzed included:1 thesis, purpose, and argument;2 organizational statement;3 reasoning;4 evidence;5 rhetorical structure;6 implications and consequences;7 academic tone;8 disciplinary convention;9 presentation and citation format;10 mechanics;11 clarity; and12 style. A comparison of results for each trait, analyzed on a 4−1 scale (4 representing highest possible score) indicates that students in this chemistry course outperformed the majority of students across all undergraduate levels at the university (Table 2). For a first-year writing course, these results are unexpected and significant.

We as a species are totally dependent on a limited rapidly vanishing supply of expensive, pollution forming fossil fuels. Many skeptics scoff at the idea of cold fusion because it sounds too good to be true (no pollution, an almost infinite fuel supply) and because very little money has been invested into fully researching its plausibility. With the end of fossil fuels in sight, the need for a Manhattan Project of Cold Fusion has arisen, to guide humanity away from impending doom. All research so far on Cold Fusion has 1) been done on a shoe string budget, and 2) been most limited by scoffers declaring it a too good to be true, and not worth f urther research. Cold fusion is far to promising to not be researched, and given the world we face if no alternatives for fossil fuels are found, a large scientific project, with a big budget, must be implemented with the goal of developing a practical cold fusion system that can be scaled up beyond the experimental level to eventually meet our energy needs.

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oversimplifying. When designing such assignments for an honors first-year audience, the students need more guidance than that which would be provided for upper-division courses. Our experiences with the quality of student writing in this course as well as the results from the university-wide WAC assessment indicate that this case-study approach is worthwhile. To ensure the effectiveness of such case-study assignments, faculty must consider each of the pedagogical principals described in this paper during the design process and integrate them carefully. We hope that by providing the principals for designing effective assignments and describing our experiences in implementing them, others will be persuaded to use this approach in their lower-division honors courses.

Table 2. Summary of Mean Results from the UniversityWide WAC Assessment Comparing Chemistry Student Papers with Other Student Traits

All Studentsa,bN = 422

Chem and Biochemb N = 16

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

2.963 2.257 2.761 2.557 2.664 2.322 2.905 3.399 2.654 2.781 2.961 2.595

3.375 2.469 3.281 3.219 3.156 2.750 3.344 3.406 3.281 3.219 3.375 3.094

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Student papers were from 12 disciplines. representing highest possible score.

b

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ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

Likert scale with 4

Assessment checklist used for effective chemistry case-study assignments; Bhopal case-study assignment; cold fusion casestudy assignment. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

second was a Scientif ic American article27 that provided only the counterarguments, but not enough data or background information to serve students’ needs. Although the Scientif ic American article27 was compelling enough to counter the arguments presented in the book, students may have given more weight to the arguments in the book because of its narrative style and its emphasis on the politics and personae of the scientists involved in the controversy. It is also possible that students found the Scientific American article more difficult to understand. More significant than the choice of the references, the manner in which the underlying problems were posed in the cold fusion assignment may not have encouraged a critical (i.e., writing to learn) approach. Instead of posing the underlying problem as a relationship among a variety of relevant factors that would lead to a critical analysis as in the Bhopal assignment, the cold fusion assignment asked a series of informational questions that encouraged the gathering of data. In retrospect, the assignment should have challenged students to test the claims being presented in the book by employing the arguments presented in the Scientif ic American article. This approach would have better engaged students in the intellectual values of critical thinking. We now realize that the choice of references needs greater consideration in designing effective case-base writing assignments for a first-year audience. Therefore, the following criterion should be added to the nine pedagogical principles presented earlier: Appropriate choice and use of references: References for case-study writing assignments in courses such as ours should be carefully chosen and provided to students. In addition, readings should be discussed during class time, consistent with most first-year writing classes. In addition, greater emphasis needs to be placed on the way in which the underlying issues are framed in the assignment. This focus will encourage objective analysis of data and arguments presented from multiple perspectives to assist students in building and defending their own arguments.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected].

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work was supported by Florida Atlantic University and the National Science Foundation (DUE-0632894). We also acknowledge Krista Kasdorf for her contributions to the development of the Bhopal assignment.

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REFERENCES

(1) Kovac, J.; Sherwood, D. W. Writing Across the Chemistry Curriculum: An Instructor’s Handbook, 1st ed.; Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2001; pp 1−34. (2) Kovac, J.; Sherwood, D. W. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76 (10), 1399− 1403. (3) Oliver-Hoyo, M. T. J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80 (8), 899−903. (4) VanOrden, N. J. Chem. Educ. 1987, 64 (6), 506−507. (5) Lillig, J. W. J. Chem. Educ. 2008, 85 (10), 1392−1394. (6) Chamely-Wiik, D.; Galin, J.; Kasdorf, K.; Haky, J. Honors Pract. 2009, 5, 77−96. (7) Bean, J. C. Engaging Ideas: The Professors Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. 1st ed.; Wiley & Sons: San Francisco, CA, 2001. (8) Barnes, D.; Britton, J.; Rosen, H.; Language, the Learner and the School; Penguin: Harmondsworth, England, 1969. (9) Glynn, S. M.; Muth, K. D. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 1994, 31 (9), 1057− 1073. (10) Holliday, W. G.; Yore, L. D.; Alvermann, D. E. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 1994, 31, 933−946. (11) Beall, H. J. Sci. Educ. Tech. 1998, 7(3), 259-271. (12) Herried, C. F. Start with a Story: The Case Study Method for Teaching College Science; NSTA Press: Arlington, VA, 2007. (13) General Chemistry Case Studies Home Page. http://www. chemcases.com/ (accessed Feb 2012). (14) Bennett, N.; Cornely, K. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78 (6), 759−761. (15) Liberko, C. A. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81 (4), 509−512. (16) Challen, P. R.; Brazdil, L. C. Chem. Educator 1996, 1 (5), S1430−4171. (17) Hodges, L. C.; Harvey, L. C. Chem. Educator 2003, 8, 346−351. (18) Shibley, I. A. Jr.; Nicotera, L. C. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78 (1), 50−53.

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CONCLUSIONS The most effective case-study writing assignments are those that encourage critical thinking without being overwhelming or 507



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(19) Stoller, F.; Jones, J. K.; Costanza Robinson, M.; Robinson, M. Demystifying Disciplinary Writing: A Case Study in the Writing of Chemistry. Across the Disciplines, Special Issue, May 2005. (20) Wolcott, S. K. Designing Assignments and Classroom Dicussions to Foster Critical Thinking at Different Levels in the Curriculum. In Educational Innovation in Economics and Business, Borghans, L., et al., Eds.; Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2000; pp 231−251. (21) Council of Writing Program Administrators. http://wpacouncil. org/positions/outcomes.html (accessed Feb 2012). (22) Burnett, R. Writing Assignments in the Disciplines; 22nd Annual Wildacres Retreat, Little Switzerland, NC, May 13th, 2003. (23) Critical Thinking Organization. http://www.criticalthinking.org (accessed Feb 2012). (24) D’Silva, T. The Black Box of Bhopal: A Closer Look at the World’S Deadliest Industrial Disaster; Trafford Publishing: Oxford, U.K., 2006. (25) Laird, B. B. University Chemistry; McGraw-Hill Publishing: New York, NY, 2009. (26) Krivit, S. B.; Winocur, N. The Rebirth of Cold Fusion: Real Science, Real Hope, Real Energy; Pacific Oaks Press, Los Angeles, CA, 2004. (27) Scientific American Online, Ask the Experts: What is the current scientific thinking on cold fusion, 1999? http://www. scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-the-current-scien (accessed Feb 2012). (28) Bloom, B. S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals: Handbook I, Cognitive Domain, 1st ed.; Longmans, Green: New York, 1956. (29) Dodd, J. C., Ed.; The ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors and Editors, 2nd ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington DC, 1997.

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From Bhopal to Cold Fusion: A Case-Study Approach to Writing

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