Chemistry courses have the potential to present learning difficulties for many students.  To overcome these difficulties, Messiah College’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has adopted the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program first established at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  The goal of the program is to improve learning and boost retention rates in traditionally challenging courses.  At Messiah College, SI has been implemented in Chemical Science, Introduction to Organic Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry I/II.  The standard approach of the SI program is to appoint a student leader, rather than a “tutor”, who attends class and hosts evening review sessions twice a week.  The program does not target remedial or struggling students, but rather offers opportunities for all students to review and master course material.  SI leaders act as facilitators and are trained to foster group discussions and redirect questions back to the students to promote peer-to-peer learning.  Furthermore, leaders are advised to not directly answer questions or approach the chalkboard to provide demonstrations.  When applied to chemistry, however, certain problems become apparent with standard SI strategies. Adapting the model to include some leader-centered discussion as necessary ensures students do not become frustrated and maximizes comprehension of material during the SI sessions. The addition of chalkboard demonstrations is also vital in allowing students to visualize certain concepts. With these slight changes to the SI model in chemistry, statistics show the adapted SI program benefits students by one half to a whole letter grade in chemistry courses at Messiah College. <br/>

Application of adapted supplemental instruction program to chemistry education

251st National Meeting (2016)

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