The ChemCollective Virtual Lab and Other Online Materials

1. The ChemCollective Virtual Lab and Other Online Materials David Yaron, Michael Karabinos, Jordi Cuadros, Emma Rehm, William McCue, David H. Dennis, Donovan Lange, Rea FreelandDepartment of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon UniversityGaea Leinhardt, Karen EvansLearning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

2. The ChemCollective • Build community around a specific educational goal • Digital Libraries can combine expertise through remote and asynchronous collaboration • Digital Libraries can support an iterative development process • Ways to participate • Use activities and give feedback • Participate in assessment studies • Modify and create activities • Discussions around activities and topics

3. Outline • New modes of practice • Virtual labs • Scenario based learning • Alignment: What should we teach? • Whole curriculum: High school chemistry • Within topics: University chemistry • Online support for problem solving • Assessment of ChemCollective activities • Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC)

4. Learning challenges and interventions • Promoting flexibility and applicability • From mathematical procedures to chemical phenomena (use in chemistry) • Virtual laboratory • From chemical phenomena to real world (transfer to real world) • Scenario based learning • Promoting coherence • “Big picture” of chemistry

5. Use in chemistry: Virtual laboratory • Flexible simulation of aqueous chemistry • New mode of interaction with chemical concepts • Ability to “see” inside a solution removes one level of indirection in chemical problem solving

6. How is the virtual lab used? • Delivery • From www.chemcollective.org • From CD-ROM • Install on your local computer system • Classroom uses • During recitation • As take-home work • Pre- and post-labs • Lab make-ups

7. A survey of Virtual lab problems • Current topic list • Molarity - Stoichiometry • Quantitative analysis - Chemical equilibrium • Solubility - Thermochemistry • Acids and bases • Problem types • Predict and check • Virtual experiment • Puzzle problems (open-ended and inquiry based experiments) • Layered problems

8. Predict and Check Students use the virtual lab to check the results of a pencil-and-paper calculation or qualitative prediction • Potential benefits • Encourages students to see connection between calculations/qualitative predictions and an experimental procedure • Observations indicate that the shift from paper and pencil to lab activity can challenge students • Students can make use of intermediate results in locating errors

9. Predict and Check • Traditional calculation Thermochemistry/Coffee: Calculate the amount of 100C milk that must be added to 250ml of 95oC coffee to lower its temperature to 90oC. Check your answer in the virtual lab. • As part of design activity Thermochemistry/Camping 3: Using the virtual lab, create two solutions, initially at 25°C, that, when mixed together in equal volumes, cause the temperature of the mixture to increase from 25°C to 60°C Can be done as predict and check, but is often done in iterative process with some predict and check steps

10. Virtual Experiments Students generate and interpret data in the chemistry virtual lab program • Virtual Lab problem • Thermochemistry/Camping 1: “Construct an experiment to measure the heat of reaction between A and B?” • Typical textbook problem • “When 10ml of 1M A was mixed with 10ml of 1M B, the temperature went up by 10 degrees. What is the heat of the reaction between A and B?” • Students who could perform the textbook procedure had difficulty designing the experiment, and needed help from a human tutor. • The procedure is not triggered in response to relevant prompt • The Virtual Lab format requires students to beyond a strategy of matching words to equations

11. Puzzle Problems Stoichiometry/Oracle 1 and 2: Given four substances A, B, C, and D that are known to react in some weird and mysterious way (an oracle relayed this information to you within a dream), design and perform virtual lab experiments to determine the reaction between these substances, including the stoichiometric coefficients. You will find 1.00M solutions of each of these chemical reagents in the stockroom.

12. Oracle Problem Observations • Intent was to give practice with determining reaction coefficients A + 2B  3C + D • Observation When A is mixed with B, some A remains so the reaction must be: A + B  C + D + A Reveals misunderstanding of limiting reagent concept (even though they could easily perform textbook limiting reagent problems)

13. Layered Problems • A set of activities involving the same chemical system, but modeling the system with varying levels of complexity and approximation. • The approximations can either be removed or invoked • Encourage students to reflect on relations between different problem types

14. Layered Problems • Acid Mine Drainage Scenario treats river at three levels • As distilled water at room temperature • As distilled water with seasonally-varying temperature • As a buffered solution • For all three models, student discuss factors influencing amount of Fe precipitated in the river bed • See http://www.chemcollective.org/AMD/

15. Authoring a virtual lab activity • Add chemical species and reactions (if desired) • Can create “fictional” proteins, drugs etc. • Create Stockroom Solutions • Specify available functionality • Viewers • For example, turn off “Solution Contents” for exercises involving unknowns • Transfer mode • Precise vs. realistic • HTML problem description can be included

16. Transfer to real world: Scenarios • Scenario based learning • Embed the procedural knowledge of the course in a scenario that highlights its utility • Scenarios that touch down at various points in the course may promote coherence • Motivated a study of alignment between: • What we teach in high school chemistry • What informed citizens need to know about chemistry

17. Traditional course structure • CA state standards • Standard 1 Atomic and Molecular Structure • Standard 2 Chemical Bonds • Standard 3 Conservation of Matter and Stoichiometry • Standard 4 Gases and Their Properties • Standard 5 Acids and Bases • Standard 6 Solutions • Standard 7 Chemical Thermodynamics • Standard 8 Reaction Rates • Standard 9 Chemical Equilibrium • Standard 10 Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry • Standard 11 Nuclear Processes • Chemistry AP exam guide’s are similarly structured around chemistry topic list

18. Domain analysis • Evidence of the domain as practiced • Nobel prizes for past 50 years • NY Times Science Times for 2002 • Scientific American News Bites for 2002 • Evidence of the domain as taught • CA state content standards • Best selling textbooks

19. Domain map: The big picture EXPLAIN ANALYZE SYNTHESIZE Hypothesis Generation Goal(What do you want to know?) Functional Motifs Hypothesis Testing Process(How to determine what you have) Structural Motifs Assembly Motifs TOOLBOX Representational Systems Quantification Systems

20. Comparison • Domain as practiced • Scientific literature spread equally between these three subdomains • Domain as taught • Textbooks and standards found only in Toolbox and Analyze subdomain

21. Full domain map

22. Domain map as basis for course design • Guide development of scenarios • Ensure distribution at both upper and lower levels • Mediate conversation between traditional and reformed course • Encourage students to reflect on how the course concepts fit into chemistry as a domain

23. Scenarios: Examples • Mixed reception (molecular weight, stoichiometry) • Cyanine dyes binding to DNA (equilibrium, Beer’s law) • Meals read-to-eat (thermochemistry) • Mission to mars (redox, thermochemistry) • Arsenic poisoning of wells in Bangladesh (stoichiometry, titration, analytical spectroscopy) • Ozone destruction (kinetics)

24. Stoichiometry review course • As in Bangladesh groundwater • Measurement of As concentration • Remediation • Challenges facing modern analytical chemistry • http://www.cmu.edu/oli

25. Mixed Reception

26. Middle school through high school: Big Concepts • Structure • Relation to properties • Functional groups • Emergent properties (bonding pattern  molecular interactions - 3 d structure) • Transformation • Physical transformations and chemical reactions • Energy and motion • Heat • Molecular motion • Organizing materials: water, gold and plastic

27. Within topic alignment: Acid base chemistry • Traditional textbook • Definition of pH • Strong acids • Weak acid dissociation equilibrium: calculate pH of a weak acid • Titrations • Buffers • Use in later courses (organic chemistry, biology) • Big idea: Will a labile proton be present on a molecule? • Compare pH to pKa • Use a buffer to control pH, so you can control the “big idea”

28. Structured dialogues, reflective prompts Templated feedback,pseudotutors Support for problem solving • Based on hourglass view of problem solving Initial problem analysis and selection of procedure Implementation of computation or procedure Reflection on problem solving efforts

29. Analysis of student response for common error types hints Templated feedback

30. Pseudotutors

31. Fading Path 3 S Determine target PH Determine target [A-]/[HA] Construct solution with target [A-]/[HA] F Path 2 Determine solutions and volumes mixed. Path 1 Schematic representation of scaffolding for design of a buffer solution. Ovals represent episodes (pseudotutors or templated feedback). Support is added/faded by switching paths.

32. Structured dialogues, reflective prompts Pseudotutors, templated feedback Support for problem solving • Based on hourglass view of problem solving Initial problem analysis and selection of procedure Implementation of computation or procedure Reflection on problem solving efforts

33. Problem analysis • Current approach leaves this as “implicit knowledge” • Structured dialogue for heat exchange • What is the source of the heat? • How do you describe that effect: (q=m Cv DT, q=n DH, ..) • What is the drain of the heat? • How do you describe that effect: (q=m Cv DT, q=n DH, ..) • Observations on heat exchange • Most students have difficulty with above questions if heat is coming form a chemical reaction.

34. Implicit knowedge in equilibrium and acid-base chemistry • General strategy • Determine majority species first • Then determine minority species • Key skill for which students do not get sufficient practice • Given a solution (1 M HCl, 0.5M NaOCH3), what are the majority and minority species.

35. Results from other domains • Geometry • Sub-goal structure of proofs was implicit knowledge (Anderson, Koedinger, Greeno..) • Statistics • Students could carry out statistical analysis procedures, but could not select appropriate procedures (Lovett)

36. Student opinion data • Student surveys (data is % response) • Attitude towards virtual lab correlates strongly with confidence measures (R2=0.82) • Confidence does not correlate to performance (R2=0.01)

37. Assessment • Study at Carnegie Mellon • Second semester intro course, 150 students • Information used • Pretest • 9 homework activities • 3 hour exams • 2 pop exams (practice exam given 5 days before hour exam) • Final exam

38. Correlations

39. Structural equation model PT PEX3 PEX2 EX2 C-ACH EX1 H1 H2 H3

40. Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC) • Chemistry is one of seven domain “Learnlabs” • Bring learning scientists and educators together to perform well controlled studies in real classrooms • Questions of interest to the chemistry Learnlab • What is the best balance of worked examples and problem solving? • Relative benefits and dangers of virtual vs. real labs? • Relative benefits of explicit instruction versus discovery, especially of strategies? • Actively soliciting instructors for studies in 2006

41. Thanks To Carnegie Mellon • Michael Karabinos • William McCue • David H. Dennis • Jodi Davenport • Donovan Lange • D. Jeff Milton • Jordi Cuadros • Rea Freeland • Emma Rehm • Tim Palucka • Jef Guarent • Amani Ahmed • Giancarlo Dozzi • Katie Chang • Erin Fried • Jason Chalecki • Greg Hamlin • Brendt Thomas • Stephen Ulrich • Jason McKesson • Aaron Rockoff • Jon Sung • Jean Vettel • Rohith Ashok • Joshua Horan LRDC, University of Pittsburgh • Gaea Leinhardt • Karen Evans • Baohui Zhang Funding • NSF: CCLI, NSDL, SLC • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Howard Hughes Medical Institute • Dreyfus Foundation

42. Stoichiometry review course • Basic tools of stoichiometry • Significant figures • Unit conversions, including Avogadro’s number • Molecular weight/ molar mass • Composition stoichiometry • Solution concentration • Empirical formula • Reaction stoichiometry • Stoichiometric conversion and percent yield • Limiting reagents • Titration • Analysis of mixtures

43. Pseudotutors

44. Fictitious chemicals • Protein-drug binding • Add 3 species: Protein, Drug, Protein:Drug • Add reaction: Protein + Drug  Protein:Drug • Thermodynamic properties Protein + Drug  Protein:Drug DHfo 0 0 DH S0 0 0 DS Determine DH and DS from K at two different temperatures

45. Fictitious chemicals • Add a new acid • Add 2 species: HA, A- • Add reaction: HA  H+ + A- • Thermodynamic properties HA  H+ + A- DHfoDH (H+) DH (H+) DH S0 So (H+) So (H+) DS Determine DH and DS from K at two different temperatures • We also have a “Chemical Database Management System” that will generate thermodynamic data from a list of K’s etc.