Lecture demonstrations, a time-honored tradition in chemistry classrooms, have recently been questioned on their effectiveness as a teaching tool. A traditional approach with the instructor performing the demonstration and explaining its relevance may need to be replaced by a more student-centered model. The NSF Project “Lecture Demonstrations: A Learning Tool” explores a format for demonstrations called Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) as an approach to enhance undergraduates’ skill at connecting macroscopic observations to explanations at the molecular level. Strategies and challenges in the development of the demonstration lessons and the assessment of student learning will be discussed, along with efforts to facilitate faculty adoption of the POE format for demonstrations.

Deepening conceptual understanding through chemical demonstrations

2019 Spring National Meeting

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