Offering introductory chemistry courses to a variety of majors can present challenges when it comes to finding ways to engage students with the material. Varying degrees of preexisting interest in the field as a whole, multiple types of learning styles, as well as students entering the course with different levels of math and science preparation can all add to the difficulty in both teaching the content and sustaining an excitement for the course. One of the quickest ways to lose the engagement of students in this delicate balance of challenges is to then present intricate material in ways that may not connect with predominant learning styles of the class as a whole. While often unintentional, this situation can even be nearly unavoidable if alternative resources or methods of relaying certain content areas simply do not exist. As a result, there is then a greater chance of general misunderstanding and frustration on the part of the students. This presentation describes the identification of two such problem areas in a General Chemistry course, the steps taken to create targeted content (smartphone apps) for those areas, and the resulting changes to how that material is now presented in class.

Targeted App Design: Creating specific applications to address student-learning needs by content area

2019 Spring National Meeting

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