Often, the aspiration of introducing new curricular ideas in general chemistry courses is associated with a desire to reduce the tendency of students to compartmentalize the learning they are achieving in the course. One mechanism that has been suggested to accomplish this goal is to enhance the incorporation of systems thinking tasks in the course. This pathway towards a richer learning experience relies on Earth and Societal systems contexts that admit a multiple-connection approach to adding context. A particular challenge of such an approach, however, lies in the assessment of student learning when the context is necessarily complex, as is true for systems thinking. This talk will consider the role of student writing as a key assessment tool as it has been explored for several different societal contexts over the years. In addition, ways that writing can be supported within this context, both using technology and more traditional writing supports, reveal ways that students approach this form of assessment of more complex learning expectations.

Measuring student learning of connections of general chemistry content to broader societal contexts

ACS Spring 2022

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