Interactive Multimedia and the Mental Model of Equilibrium in Chemistry

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There is widespread consensus on the crises in science education. Too few students, particularly minorities and women, are graduating with science degrees. Furthermore, students who take science courses frequently find them unengaging and they fail to understand concepts and underlying principles that represent scientific phenomena. This project proposes to develop a prototype, interactive multimedia system for introductory college chemistry using state of the art technology. With this prototype, we will develop an initial unit on chemical equilibrium that will allow the user to operate on chemical systems and observe the results in integrated, multiple, simultaneous representations, including: chemical symbols, video of the reaction, molecular-level animations, dynamic graphs, displays of absorption spectra, pH graphs, and tabular data. The software and supporting materials will be designed to make the large lecture more interactive and engaging and to help students develop multiple, integrated, mental models of chemical phenomena. We will examine the impact of the system on student understanding of and interest in science. A subsequent comprehensive proposal will extend this environment to the entire introductory chemistry course.