A challenge for chemistry instructors is dealing with the limited retention of concepts as students progress from general chemistry courses to organic chemistry, and biochemistry through their freshman, sophomore and junior years. Students struggle grasping more advanced topics because they may see introductory concepts as isolated fragments of information that will not be needed past a given exam. However, as discussions begin to demand implicit understanding of this knowledge, a refresher tool is needed to maintain students actively and efficiently engaged in class. Here in we present a creation of a bridge module encompassing refresher concepts that tie high-school chemistry to general chemistry, general chemistry to organic chemistry, and organic chemistry to biochemistry. The module consists of concept videos tied to active learning problem sets followed by in-class sessions of small groups to discuss the application of these concepts in the advanced courses. Each topic was covered with a video presentation that focuses on problem solving that is well suited for display on mobile devices and an associated active learning project that encourages practice and application of skills developed in that topic. Voluntary student participation was sought from the general, organic and biochemistry class. Students were encouraged to take an online quiz after each set of core topics to assess their readiness in applying the concept to future content. The initial implementation of this module was tested in the Introduction to Biochemistry class and the preliminary data is presented herein.

Bridging chemistry

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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