At the University of Redlands, we use a laboratory-based approach to teaching our second semester of General Chemistry, with a focus on four main topics:  chemical equilibrium, electrochemistry, kinetics, and transition metal chemistry.  We have also been gradually introducing guided inquiry activities specifically written to integrate with our laboratory experiments.  To prepare students for experiments, guided inquiry activities introduce students to the fundamental concepts and definitions essential to upcoming experiments.  In lecture, students work on activities that segue into lab experiments in which students explore key aspects of each topic, such as designing and testing a buffer, developing an activity series for a set of oxidizing and reducing agents, and developing and conducting experiments to determine the rate law of a reaction.  Follow-up guided inquiry activities incorporate the experimental results into critical thinking questions to help students analyze results and construct knowledge.  Students write detailed lab reports for the experiments which gives them the opportunity to apply their knowledge by explaining their results thus reinforcing concepts.  The combination of guided inquiry, laboratory experiments, and laboratory reports creates a framework to help students engage in their own learning, deepen their understanding of the concepts, and develop problem-solving skills.

An integrated laboratory-based and guided inquiry approach to teaching the second semester of the general chemistry sequence

255th National Meeting (2018)

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