Undergraduate chemical thermodynamics is a challenging subject for many students cutting accross different majors, throughout the world. Yet, owing to it's vast application in diverse areas such as biochemistry, material science, and engineering, it is a significnat part of the curricula in almost all the major universities/colleges around the world. A prominant reason for the difficulty faced by students learning chemical thermodynamics stems from a perceived dissonance between the arcane mathematical equations used to quantify the subject and the realistic experimental conditions they encounter. This situation can be eased by advocating a "mistake based approach" to study chemical thermodynamics, wherein the students are intentionally asked to make mistakes and the instructor subsequently sytematically corrects them. In this presentation, I highlight how the concept of "PV-type work done" can be used as a protype for the mistake based approach to overall facilitate a more thorough understanding of chemical thermodynamics.

Advocating a "mistake based approach" to learn undergraduate chemical thermodynamics

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

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