Using Models for Learning Chemistry
The August 2014 issue of the Journal of Chemical Education is now available online to subscribers. The August issue contains content to spark thinking about models and how to foster meaningful learning in chemistry classrooms and improve student understanding.
3D Printing
Cover
Tangible models help students and researchers visualize chemical structures in three dimensions. 3D printing offers a unique and straightforward approach to fabricate plastic 3D models of molecules and extended solids, as shown on the cover and discussed in 3D Printed Molecules and Extended Solid Models for Teaching Symmetry and Point Groups. In the article, Vincent F. Scalfani and Thomas P. Vaid describe the preparation of a series of digital 3D design files of molecular structures for teaching chemical education topics such as symmetry and point groups.
Additional applications of 3D printing for teaching chemistry in this issue:
3D Printers Can Provide an Added Dimension for Teaching Structure–Energy Relationships by David N. Blauch and Felix A. Carroll
3D Printing of Molecular Potential Energy Surface Models by Phalgun Lolur and Richard Dawes
Editorial
In “What Were You Thinking?” Editor-in-Chief Norbert J. Pienta reflects on the end of his first five-year term and moving forward, especially with respect to issues concerning the future of the Journal and publication in a digital world.
Commentary
Vicente Talanquer describes 10 cognitive heuristics that are often responsible for biases in student thinking. Helping students tame these heuristics may foster more meaningful learning in chemistry classrooms.
Review Articles on Models
The Kimball Free-Cloud Model: A Failed Innovation in Chemical Education?, an historical review by William B. Jensen, traces the origins of the Kimball free-cloud model of the chemical bond (or the charge-cloud or tangent-sphere model), and the central role it played in attempts to reform the introductory chemical curriculum at both the high school and college levels in the 1960s. It also critically evaluates the limitations of the model, its current implicit role in the teaching of VSEPR theory, and its pedagogical implications, as well as providing a resource paper for those chemical educators interested in exploring its present-day applications.
In Humanizing Chemistry Education: From Simple Contextualization to Multifaceted Problematization, Jesper Sjöström and Vicente Talanquer discuss and reflect on different approaches to include the human element into chemistry education. They describe and illustrate how various levels of complexity in the humanistic dimension can be characterized using different facets of our chemistry knowledge for teaching.
Chemical Education Research
Assessment
The Development of the Redox Concept Inventory as a Measure of Students’ Symbolic and Particulate Redox Understandings and Confidence by Alexandra R. Brandriet and Stacey Lowery Bretz
Investigating Faculty Familiarity with Assessment Terminology by Applying Cluster Analysis To Interpret Survey Data by Jeffrey R. Raker and Thomas A. Holme
Visualizations
Using Variation Theory with Metacognitive Monitoring To Develop Insights into How Students Learn from Molecular Visualizations by Resa M. Kelly
Improving Students’ Understanding of Molecular Structure through Broad-Based Use of Computer Models in the Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Lecture by Mike T. Springer
Using PhET Interactive Simulations
The PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder has developed over 30 interactive simulations for teaching and learning chemistry. Two articles that discuss this project and how to use its resources are:PhET Interactive Simulations: Transformative Tools for Teaching Chemistry by Emily B. Moore, Julia M. Chamberlain, Robert Parson, and Katherine K. Perkins ; Use of a PhET Interactive Simulation in General Chemistry Laboratory: Models of the Hydrogen Atom by Ted M. Clark and Julia M. Chamberlain
Laboratory Experiments
Inquiry-Based Lab
A Discovery Chemistry Experiment on Buffers by Suzanne E. Kulevich, Richard S. Herrick, and Kenneth V. Mills
Integrating Biology into the General Chemistry Laboratory: Fluorometric Analysis of Chlorophyll a by Meredith C. Wesolowski Journal of Chemical Education 2014 91 (8), 1224-1227
Kinetics
Efficient Method for the Determination of the Activation Energy of the Iodide-Catalyzed Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide by William Sweeney, James Lee, Nauman Abid, and Stephen DeMeo
Dual Studies on a Hydrogen–Deuterium Exchange of Resorcinol and the Subsequent Kinetic Isotope Effect by Richard Giles, Iris Kim, Weyjuin Eric Chao, Jennifer Moore, and Kyung Woon Jung
Studying Polymorphs
Mechanochemical Synthesis of Two Polymorphs of the Tetrathiafulvalene-Chloranil Charge Transfer Salt: An Experiment for Organic Chemistry by Alex Wixtrom, Jessica Buhler, and Tarek Abdel-Fattah
High-Resolution Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy: Characterization of Polymorphism in Cimetidine, a Pharmaceutical Compound by Julia E. Pacilio, John T. Tokarski, Rosalynn Quiñones, and Robbie J. Iuliucci
Using Electrospray
Examination and Manipulation of Protein Surface Charge in Solution with Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry by Deborah S. Gross and Hal Van Ryswyk
Hands-On Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry for Upper-Level Undergraduate and Graduate Students by Naomi L. Stock and Raymond E. March
From the Archives: Accessible Learning for Students with Blindness or Low Vision
In this issue, Cary A. Supalo, April A. Hill, and Carleigh G. Larrick discuss Summer Enrichment Programs To Foster Interest in STEM Education for Students with Blindness or Low Vision.
Other articles available in past issue of JCE to help teach students with blindness or low vision include:
Nobody Can See Atoms: Science Camps Highlighting Approaches for Making Chemistry Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired Students by Henry B. Wedler, Lee Boyes, Rebecca L. Davis, Dan Flynn, Annaliese Franz, Christian S. Hamann, Jason G. Harrison, Michael W. Lodewyk, Kristin A. Milinkevich, Jared T. Shaw, Dean J. Tantillo, and Selina C. Wang
Making Hands-On Science Learning Accessible for Students Who Are Blind or Have Low Vision by Cary A. Supalo, Mick D. Isaacson, and Michael V. Lombardi
Adaptive Instructional Aids for Teaching a Blind Student in a Nonmajors College Chemistry Course by Debra Boyd-Kimball
Sonified Infrared Spectra and Their Interpretation by Blind and Visually Impaired Students by Florbela Pereira, João C. Ponte-e-Sousa, Rui P. S. Fartaria, Vasco D. B. Bonifácio, Paulina Mata, Joao Aires-de-Sousa, and Ana M. Lobo
Seeing Chemistry through the Eyes of the Blind: A Case Study Examining Multiple Gas Law Representations by Jordan Harshman, Stacey Lowery Bretz, and Ellen Yezierski
91 Volumes of JCE on the (Electronic) Wall, 91 Volumes of JCE…
Take the August issue down and you will find all of the articles mentioned above, and many more, in the Journal of Chemical Education. Articles that are edited and published online ahead of print (ASAP—As Soon As Publishable) are also available.
The January 2014 issue is available as a sample issue for the entire year. If you like what you read, subscribe! If you have something to share, write it up!