Using digital learning and assessment tools to supplement course instruction has become prevalent in General Chemistry and other first-year undergraduate chemistry courses. Chem101 is a web and mobile app-based platform that enables instructors to integrate chemistry-specific active learning exercises into lecture and for student practice at home. This presentation discusses the development and implementation of Chem101’s novel answer type for dimensional analysis, which helps students tackle aspects of unit conversions, stoichiometry, and working with density and concentration values.<br/><br/>Dimensional analysis is well-known for being a difficult teaching problem in introductory STEM courses. In particular, students commonly struggle with the concept of working with units that are associated with numerical values and/or orienting conversion factors in order to “cross out” units. Traditional digital tools have assessed students on dimensional analysis problems by mainly focusing on the final answer in a “numeric entry” format but do not capture the intermediary steps and work that are required to achieve that answer. In lieu of traditional numeric entry, Chem101 presents a custom user interface that enables students to drag and drop value and unit tiles into a dimensional analysis scaffold. This provides a tactile and intuitive method for performing conversion-based problems and that allows for students to visualize multiple steps, the crossing out of units, breaking of fractional units, and working with units to a power. Chem101 intelligently analyzes the student dimensional analysis chain in order provide feedback on errors such as inverted conversion factors, invalid conversion ratios, and mistakes with math. The user interface and tile authoring process will be discussed in detail and case studies from the University of Rhode Island, Duquesne University, and Truckee Meadows Community College where the new technology was implemented in first-year courses will be shared.

Chem101: Drag and drop dimensional analysis for active learning assessments and practice in first-year chemistry

2019 Spring National Meeting

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