Inspired by the curriculum development and dissemination organization SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), incorporating issues of environmental sustainability into the general chemistry curriculum has become a key component in an ongoing effort to develop more innovative and engaging classroom experiences. More specifically, focus has been placed in developing and implementing problem-based case studies for large enrollment general chemistry courses that focus on a variety of environmental sustainability issues.  These efforts have been successful in engaging students in active learning pedagogies and allowing students to better appreciate the value of chemistry in their everyday lives, particularly how chemistry can be used to address issues related to environmental sustainability. However, initial assessment indicates that while facilitating these case studies in co-curricular recitation sections does not impede student learning compared to traditional recitation activities, these new learning activities also do not result in significant increases in student learning gains.  In an effort to increase the impact of the civically engaged case study activities on student learning, a SENCER-ized flipped classroom module has been piloted. This presentation will describe how the flipped learning module has been implemented, including how the case study activities have been adapted as collaborative group learning activities in a large enrollment general chemistry lecture. Preliminary assessment data about the impact of the flipped class module will also be presented. The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the NSF (DUE Award #1140522) for support of this project.

SENCER-ized flipped classrooms in general chemistry: Adapting an NSF-funded case study curriculum development project in an effort to maximize student learning

248th National Meeting (2014)

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