Many junior chemistry majors entering Analytical Chemistry (a 300-level undergraduate course) in Fall 2022 are struggling to recall foundational knowledge and skills learned in General Chemistry. These students completed General Chemistry I and II in the 2020-2021 academic year, which was taught entirely online. The online learning environment and general anxiety produced by the pandemic clearly had a negative effect on student learning. This paper describes specific changes and adjustments made to a junior level Analytical Chemistry course taught at Chestnut Hill College (Philadelphia, PA), a primarily undergraduate institution (PUI) known for its small class sizes and close mentoring of students. The goal of these updates was to specifically reinforce general chemistry skills that were originally taught online in the 2020-2021 academic year. In addition to reviewing and practicing these skills in class and through homework assignments, questions were included on exams to assess student learning. The Analytical Chemistry course was taught previously using Harris’s Quantitative Analysis as the guiding text, broken into three major units: acid/base chemistry, spectrophotometry, and separations. In Fall 2022, the first unit on acid-base chemistry was changed the most: it was updated to include gravimetric analysis while the acid-base chemistry was generally limited to titrations. The inclusion of gravimetric analysis allowed for review and practice of several key general chemistry concepts: stoichiometry, mass-mole conversions, and Molarity. Limiting acid/base chemistry to titrations further reinforced chemical reactions (stoichiometry) while still including specific 300-level concepts like the systematic treatment of equilibrium. The second unit (spectrophotometry) was slightly updated to spend more time working with Beer’s Law, specifically to reinforce dilution calculations. The third unit (separations) was originally taught with a strong focus on GC and LC. In Fall 2022, more time was spent at the beginning of the unit on the concept of liquid-liquid extractions, allowing for a review of polarity and functional groups. Student exams from Fall 2022 show improvement in the skills reinforced from general chemistry, but the lasting effects of the pandemic on student learning and retention of core knowledge/skills can not yet be fully realized.

Playing catch-up from COVID: Reinforcing general chemistry skills in an upper-level analytical chemistry course

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