In an effort to provide a more academically challenging and engaging experience for well-prepared freshmen enrolled in General Chemistry, the Chemistry faculty at Spring Hill College have created a Service-Learning �Honors� section of General Chemistry I Lab.  The Honors Lab students perform more advanced experiments, utilizing much of the department's analytical instrumentation.  To increase the students' problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, the students are provided a �task-based� procedure for each experiment and expected to develop the details for their experimental procedures.  Additionally, the students participate in the Chemistry Department's outreach program, Partners in Science.  Through Partners in Science, the Spring Hill freshmen are paired with an 8th grade Physical Science class at a local inner city middle school and visit the class on 5 occasions during the semester to do hands-on laboratory activities.  The primary objectives for the service participation are to increase our students' awareness of local community needs and their ability to assist with these needs, to develop the students' abilities to communicate across cultural, ethnic, and age boundaries, to increase our students' understanding of foundational topics in chemistry, and to deepen the degree to which our students identify with their chosen academic major.  The academic and service outcomes will be assessed using end of semester course evaluations, reflection papers, and pre/post-surveys given to all students enrolled in General Chemistry.  Additionally, the performance of the 8th grade students on their End of Quarter Tests will be compared to a control group to assess effectiveness of the program.  Preliminary results and outcomes will be presented at the conference.

Engaging well-prepared freshmen: A service-learning honors general chemistry laboratory

247th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.