Understanding and Using the New Guided-Inquiry AP Chemistry

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Understanding and Using the New Guided-Inquiry AP Chemistry Laboratory Manual Kristen L. Cacciatore, Ph.D.* East Boston High School, Boston, Massachusetts 02128 United States ABSTRACT: To support teaching and learning in the advanced placement (AP) chemistry laboratory, the College Board published a laboratory manual, AP Chemistry Guided-Inquiry Experiments: Applying the Science Practices, in 2013 as part of the redesigned course. This article provides a discussion of the rationale for the existence of the manual as well as its form, content, and pedagogical orientation; a summary of the manual’s content and structure; guidelines for how to use the manual in teaching AP chemistry; an overview of the laboratory manual development process; a review of and response to the most common criticisms directed at the manual; and finally a brief preview of future plans to enhance the manual and support its implementation. This contribution is part of a special issue on teaching introductory chemistry in the context of the advanced placement chemistry course redesign. KEYWORDS: High School/Introductory Chemistry, First-Year Undergraduate/General, Laboratory Instruction, Inquiry-Based/Discovery Learning, Curriculum

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INTRODUCTION

GUIDED INQUIRY IN THE AP CHEMISTRY LAB MANUAL The redesigned course description2 specifically requires that at least six of the laboratory experiments in an AP chemistry course be guided inquiry in their pedagogical approach, because a substantial body of chemical education research3−6 shows that students learn and retain more knowledge and skills using this approach than they do through comparable verification or “traditional” experiments. Defining “guided inquiry” succinctly is difficult; several descriptions of inquiry exist in the literature, and a full discussion of inquiry is not possible here. Briefly stated, the key feature of inquiry-based laboratories is student exploration of ideas at least somewhat independently, as opposed to confirmation of known facts via prescribed procedures, as is typical in traditional laboratories. Varying degrees of inquiry are possible, depending on the amount of direction teachers give students. Guided inquiry refers to inquiry in which teachers provide guidance to ensure that students focus their explorations on specific learning objectives, as opposed to open inquiry in which students explore content of their own choosing.7 Because guided inquiry is markedly different in instructional approach than the traditional laboratories historically implemented in many AP chemistry courses, the College Board determined that it would be helpful to provide AP chemistry teachers with detailed resources to support the transition from traditional to guided-inquiry laboratory experiments in their courses. AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments was created to address that identified need. The experiment titled How Long Will That Marble Statue Last? in the AP chemistry lab manual provides a useful comparison between a traditional and a guided-inquiry experiment.1 In How Long Will That Marble Statue Last?,

The laboratory component is a significant part of the redesigned advanced placement chemistry curriculum as detailed in the Course Description, both in terms of the instructional time it uses, at least 25% of total instructional time, according to the curriculum guidelines, and the learning expectations for students. These laboratory-based experiences will be directly assessed by both multiple-choice and freeresponse questions on the course exam that prompts students to design experiments, interpret data, and analyze errors. In order to support teaching and learning in the AP Chemistry laboratory, the College Board published a laboratory manual, AP Chemistry Guided-Inquiry Experiments: Applying the Science Practices,1 in 2013 as part of the redesigned course. The development and structure of this manual is the central focus of this article. While the laboratory component has always been central to the course, the laboratory manual is a new curriculum element, as the College Board has never previously published an AP chemistry lab manual. In the past, the AP chemistry curriculum listed a series of 22 suggested experiments, which specified certain content and laboratory techniques (e.g., acid−base titration), but the College Board did not provide any instructional materials associated with the laboratory component of the course.2 By contrast, AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments is a series of 16 experiments, each consisting of separate and complete instructional materials for both teachers and students, as well as several introductory chapters that discuss pedagogical strategies, laboratory safety, and other topics relevant to the laboratory experience in chemistry.2 Thus, the publication and dissemination of AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments in and of itself represents a significant change in the course, and a justification for its existence is appropriate. © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Special Issue: Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry

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scientific practices, quantitative analysis skills, and communication abilities, and a chapter on real-world connections to the experiments. The student manual contains parallel information appropriate for students about the experiments, safety, various types of skills, and real-world connections. The teacher manual contains two additional chapters that do not appear in the student manual; one of these chapters discusses guided inquiry and the other addresses the topic of inclusiveness in the chemistry laboratory. The chapter on guided inquiry provides a detailed rationale for using it to teach chemistry as well as information about two of the most widely accepted and wellresearched guided inquiry approaches: process-oriented, guided-inquiry learning (POGIL),8 and the science writing heuristic (SWH).9 While the laboratory manual does not follow any one particular inquiry approach, its development was informed significantly by SWH and POGIL. The chapter on inclusiveness discusses access and equity in the laboratory setting for all students, including English language learner students, students from traditionally underrepresented populations, and students with disabilities and learning challenges.

students are asked to choose a question to answer about factors that affect the rate of a chemical reaction between calcium carbonate and hydrochloric acid, such as surface area, temperature, or concentration of reactants; then to select materials, design a procedure, and collect data to answer their question. A traditional experiment on the same topic would have identified a specific question for students to answer relating to the kinetics of the reaction, such as “How does temperature affect the rate of the reaction?” The instructional materials would provide students with a detailed materials list and step-by-step procedure that asked them to carry out the reaction at several specified temperatures, measure the mass change or the rate of carbon dioxide production, and then characterize the effect of varying temperature.

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MANUAL CONTENT AND STRUCTURE The redesigned AP chemistry course focuses on student application of science practices in learning chemistry content that is comparable to the content of a typical college-level general chemistry course. The AP Chemistry Course Curriculum Framework specifies chemistry content in clearly stated learning objectives, each of which is categorized under one of the six big ideas into which the course is organized. To support teachers as they incorporate guided inquiry in the laboratory, the College Board published AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments1 to provide exemplar guided-inquiry experiments aligned with each of the 16 learning objectives in the Curriculum Framework2 that specifically call for students to be able to design experiments or interpret experimental data. These experiments incorporate the science practices described in the Curriculum Framework.2 Experiments cover a wide range of college-level chemistry content, including atomic structure, acid−base and other equilibria, thermochemistry, stoichiometry, kinetics, oxidation−reduction processes, intermolecular forces, and bonding. The various experiments require students to employ and understand many laboratory techniques, including titration, gravimetric analysis, calorimetry, spectrophotometry, spectroscopy, and chromatography, among others. The experiments in the manual all contain complete safety and preparation information; specify the prior skills students need to be successful in each investigation; provide detailed prelab activities, simulations, and practice exercises to prepare and orient students to the concepts and tasks involved; and contain chemistry content information to build student understanding. The teacher version of each experiment includes teaching tips to support the teachers’ ability to guide inquiry successfully as well as sample data and answers to all pre- and postlab questions and activities. The experiments are embedded in real-world contexts and tasks, such as designing a hand warmer in the calorimetry experiment and analyzing the acidity of common beverages in a titration experiment. These everyday connections provide relevance and engage students in the experimental work. The experiments ask students to analyze results and communicate their findings in a number of different ways, including peer review of a journal article, a poster, and a product development proposal. These communication tasks support development of students’ abilities to read, write, and speak scientifically. In addition to the 16 experiments themselves, the laboratory manual contains several chapters of front matter with more general resources. The teacher manual provides an overview of the experiments’ content and structure and extensive safety information as well as chapters on developing students’

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THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS FOR THIS MANUAL The lab manual development process was a long (over 2 years!) and rigorous collaborative effort involving many dedicated individuals, including longtime AP chemistry teachers, college chemistry professors, science education experts, and the College Board’s AP chemistry leaders and editorial staff. It began with the identification of the 16 learning objectives that specified data collection or interpretation tasks. These learning objectives became the backbone of the manual, as each was embodied in one of the laboratory experiments in the manual. Once the experiments themselves were identified, the College Board decided to use a team authorship approach to the manual instead of a single author, to ensure that the manual’s vision and content were informed by the perspectives and expertise of a wide range of stakeholders in the AP chemistry course. Each of the 16 experiments was written by different individuals or pairs; all of these authors are either veteran AP chemistry teachers or college chemistry teachers. I served as the lead writer on the project and worked with the College Board to design the structure of the instructional materials. I also wrote an exemplar experiment to assist the authors of other experiments with the writing process. This exemplar later became the calorimetry experiment in the final manual. Each experiment went through multiple cycles of review by myself, the College Board’s AP chemistry program director, and nationally known inquiry and content experts. After each review, authors revised the experiments in response to feedback, and following three iterative review and revision cycles, the experiments were field tested in several dozen AP chemistry classrooms, which included a diverse range of students, teachers, and educational contexts. Following fieldtest reviews from teachers and students, the experiments were revised a fourth time. Once they were in final written form, College Board editorial staff designed graphics and layout features to enhance the appearance and utility of the materials. They were published in February 2013, in advance of the implementation of the redesigned course in the fall of 2013. The teacher manual is available in electronic format (as a PDF) free of charge to certified AP chemistry teachers through a password-protected page on the College Board Web site. Bound versions of the teacher and student manuals are available for purchase through the College Board store. B

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to laboratory work, as specified in the Course Description.2 The experiments in the manual all contain detailed information about the expected time requirements for completion of the entire experiment as well as for individual components of the experiment, so that teachers can plan accordingly. Teachers can choose to carry out experiments over multiple days if they need to. They can assign certain preparatory activities or analysis components for students to complete outside of regular class time before or after experiments, thus reducing the class time that must be devoted to the activity; additionally they can choose to eliminate optional components. It is also worth noting that as teachers and students become more practiced at guided inquiry, the amount of time required will likely decrease. Regarding the content of the experiments, the manual is not intended to be comprehensive in scope or to preclude teachers from selecting experiments that address content not represented in the manual. Most AP chemistry teachers believe that electrochemistry is important content for students to experience in the laboratory, and most college general chemistry courses include electrochemistry experiments, so I expect that many AP chemistry teachers will choose to do an electrochemistry experiment they like. Likewise, many AP chemistry teachers will conduct only one or two experiments focused on acid−base chemistry. As an AP chemistry teacher myself, I definitely plan to do an electrochemistry experiment and only two acid−base experiments in my course. The same is true of any other content that teachers wish to emphasize or deemphasize in the laboratory.

GUIDELINES FOR USING THE LAB MANUAL A question of much interest to teachers of AP chemistry is how to use AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments1 in their courses. The manual is designed to achieve three primary goals: first, to be a resource for teachers and students to use in planning and carrying out their laboratory program; second, to serve as a starting point for teachers to discuss guided inquiry in the AP chemistry context and collaborate with one another to implement it; and third, to give teachers and students an idea of the kinds of data analysis and experimental design skills students will need to be successful on the course exam. Exactly how the manual is used is up to individual teachers and will vary from one teacher to another, based on a teacher’s level of comfort and facility with guided inquiry, experience teaching AP chemistry, teaching context and student population, and personal preferences. The manual is most definitely not a prescription: teachers are not required or expected to use all (or any) of the experiments in their courses. Rather, teachers are free to choose the six required guided-inquiry experiments from any source, so long as those experiments are aligned to learning objectives, employ science practices in the Curriculum Framework,2 and address a range of content and experimental techniques. Experienced AP chemistry teachers may prefer to rely on experiments they have historically used in AP chemistry and simply modify those experiments to employ guided-inquiry instructional strategies. There are many ways to modify traditional experiments to make them guided inquiry, such as asking students to choose their own experimental question, select materials for use in the lab, or design their own procedure and data collection strategies, among others.

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FUTURE PLANS FOR THE LAB MANUAL As we look beyond the initial implementation of the redesigned AP chemistry course as a whole and the guided-inquiry paradigm in general, questions around future plans for the laboratory manual arise. The College Board has not yet decided on specific initiatives focused on the laboratory manual. However, enhancements to the redesigned course are ongoing; an AP Insight program, which is an online resource that supports teachers and students in the most challenging areas of the AP chemistry course, is currently in development. The AP Teacher Community Web site10 provides a discussion board that many teachers find helpful. The College Board is monitoring implementation of the redesigned course and encouraging AP chemistry teachers and students and other stakeholders to provide feedback on the redesigned course, including the laboratory manual. Accordingly, this information will be used to direct future plans.

ADDRESSING CRITICISMS OF THE MANUAL

The shift to guided inquiry in the laboratory is, as discussed above, a major change to the AP chemistry course as it has historically been described by the College Board and implemented by many, or even perhaps most, AP chemistry teachers. The AP Chemistry Guided Inquiry Experiments1 manual is an attempt to formalize the change to guided inquiry, and as such it is perhaps to be expected that its publication would elicit significant anxiety and criticism. Teachers vary widely in their beliefs about the role of the laboratory in AP chemistry and student learning in general and about which experiments are best to use in the course. These beliefs may not align with the guided-inquiry pedagogical approach or the particular content or activities presented in the manual. The two main criticisms directed at the manual include the length of time necessary to carry out the investigations, which is experienced by some as excessive, and the mix of content represented by the 16 experiments. With regard to the content, the inclusion of four experiments addressing acid−base chemistry while none address electrochemistry or qualitative analysis of solutions, two topics historically addressed in many AP chemistry laboratory programs, has provoked significant concerns from many teachers. It certainly is true that guided-inquiry experiments can and often do take more time than verification laboratories. This time difference is one major reason that the manual contains only 16 experiments, rather than the 22 suggested in the previous curriculum. While the time requirements do present a challenge for teachers, experiences in the laboratory are so critical to students’ development of content understanding and experimental skills that it is worth devoting 25% of course time

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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REFERENCES

(1) AP Chemistry Guided-Inquiry Experiments: Applying the Science Practices; The College Board: New York, 2013. (2) AP Chemistry Course Description. The College Board: New York, 2013; http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ IN120085263_ChemistryCED_Effective_Fall_2013_lkd.pdf (accessed June 2014). (3) Oliver-Hoyo, M. T.; Allen, D.; Hunt, W. F.; Hutson, J.; Pitts, A. Effects of an Active Environment: Teaching Innovations at a Research I Institution. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 441−448.

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(4) Farrell, J. J.; Moog, R. S.; Spencer, J. N. A Guided-Inquiry General Chemistry Course. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 570−574. (5) Bodner, G.; Hunter, W.; Lamba, S. What Happens When Discovery Laboratories Are Integrated into the Curriculum at a Large Research University? Chem. Educator 1998, 3 (3), 1. (6) Cacciatore, K. L.; Sevian, H. Incrementally Approaching an Inquiry Lab Curriculum: Can Changing a Single Laboratory Experiment Improve Student Performance in General Chemistry? J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 498−505. (7) Herron, M. D. The Nature of Scientific Inquiry. School Rev. 1971, 79, 171−212. (8) Moog, R. S., Spencer, J. N., Eds. Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 994; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008. (9) Burke, K. A.; Greenbowe, T. J.; Hand, B. M. Implementing the Science Writing Heuristic in the Chemistry Laboratory. J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1032−1038. (10) The College Board. AP Chemistry Teacher Community. https://apcommunity.collegeboard.org/web/apchem (accessed June 2014).

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