Many students fail to grasp the basic theories and concepts in undergraduate general chemistry and, as a result, often quickly lose interest and motivation in the subject. Student engagement through class exercises is one of the methods that can help to overcome this problem. The selection of in-class activities is a challenge because they should combine content reinforcement with some degree of “fun” for best results. Here we discuss several active learning strategies implemented in an undergraduate general chemistry class and their impact on the students’ learning process and engagement in the classroom.<br/>We implemented worksheets, clicker questions and game-based activities as active learning assessments. Worksheets, which were structured to review the material learned in class, facilitated learning through problem solving. In a regular class setting, worksheets were provided as printed copies as well as electronic ones to maximize the opportunity for every student to get involved in the exercise. Clickers were used as a feedback tool to analyze students’ understanding of the material during the lecture. Game-based activities were group tasks, which we found to be a powerful tool to keep the class engaging and interactive. We evaluated several characteristics of these activities with student surveys and an analysis of student exam performance.<br/>Through this work, we discovered that the worksheets were students’ (self-reported) most engaging activity, whereas the game-based activities were the most enjoyable and interactive. Surprisingly, we found that the availability of worksheets in hard copy format enhanced student engagement with the activity. We statistically evaluated selected exam questions that were similarly structured and equally difficult to the worksheet questions to determine students’ improvement. Results showed that all the active learning assessments enhanced students’ overall exam performance; however, worksheets slightly but significantly impacted improvement of students’ performance on certain exam questions.

Evaluation of class activities in the general chemistry classroom

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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