Industry, government, and academic scientists regularly write in a variety of styles (e.g., reports, memos, standard operating procedures, journal articles, patents, etc.) but  may receive little formal writing instruction in these styles as undergraduates. Most chemistry students do a majority of their writing in lab courses, but traditional academic “lab reports” are often formulaic, tedious to write, and students struggle to imagine using this writing form outside of class. Re-imagining chemistry lab writing assignments using a Backward Design approach can lead to more meaningful student engagement and development of writing skills students can carry into their professional lives. In this presentation, I will describe the development, implementation, and student outcomes of a Writing-Enhanced Organic Chemistry II Laboratory course at New College of Florida in Spring 2020. Students in this course received writing instruction on how to write Memoranda and a Journal Article.<br/><br/>Short Briefs were added to experiments to describe real-world scenarios when a scientist might perform each experiment and give the student a role to play (e.g. junior national lab scientist tasked by a lab manager to recommend a new lab protocol). After performing each experiment, students wrote a two-page memo to the given audience, using experiment data to support their claim/argument/suggestion. Students reported strong engagement with the Brief-Experiment-Memo model and appreciated learning how to write in a useful style. Most students demonstrated and, more importantly, recognized their own growth in persuasive writing and critical analysis over the semester.<br/><br/>Students performed a four-step synthesis of hexaphenylbenzene and wrote drafts, peer-reviewed, and revised each part of a journal article throughout the semester; writing instruction and detailed rubrics were provided for each part. Fall 2020 faculty teaching upper-level chemistry laboratories noticed a significant improvement in student writing relative to previous years; students credited their strong writing skills to this scaffolded journal article writing assignment. Several non-chemistry majors who took this course also included the writing and revision skills developed in this course into summer internships and graduate school personal statements, suggesting that inclusion of these writing assignments has made lasting impacts on students and their development of transferable scientific communication skills.

Building professional writing instruction into Organic Chemistry II lab: Replacing the lab report

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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