Many undergraduate chemistry experiments are selected to provide students with an opportunity to connect material covered in lectures with practical applications, but they also serve to provide students with the opportunity to develop and practice particular technical skillsets within the chemistry laboratory. While the experience that students gain within the undergraduate laboratory allows them to practice and refine these technical skills, students often lack a full understanding of the theory behind the proper completion of such skills, even after having performed the corresponding laboratory experiment.<br/>To provide students with a more robust theoretical understanding of the technical skills being learned in a second-year analytical chemistry course, a series of critical thinking and reflection assessments were incorporated as part of the laboratory component of the course. Within these assessments, students were asked to critically reflect on why each skill learned is performed in a certain manner, with the goal of ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data obtained.<br/>The technical skills assessments consisted of a series of pre-recorded videos relating to five different analytical skills: pipetting, quantitative transfer, serial dilutions, weight-by-difference, and the use of burettes within titration analyses. Skills were selected such that they aligned with the technical skills students would be developing in the subsequent laboratory experiment, providing a theoretical understanding before implementation. For each skill, two videos were prepared; one demonstrating the proper performance of the technical skill, and one with deliberate errors included. Students were asked to watch each video and determine which represented the properly demonstrated technique and which was performed incorrectly. Once identified, students then critically reflected upon the incorrect video, indicating the errors found, in relation to the properly demonstrated method, and discussing how the error would impact the accuracy or safety of the subsequent experiment and how they would go about correcting the error.<br/>The goal of this presentation will be to discuss the overall experience of implementing these technical skills assessments into a large (N=220) second-year analytical course and well as providing feedback from students about their perceived learning outcomes from these assessments.

Developing a theoretical understanding of hands-on laboratory skills through critical thinking and reflection

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