Enhancing Conceptual Understanding And Problem Solving Skills In The Organic Chemistry Laboratory

该项目将增强学生对有机化学的概念理解，发展学生解决科学问题的技能，并通过将密歇根大学新的有机化学序列的发现方法改编成适合郊区社区学院的形式，增加学生对科学的享受。关键的修改是提供一个更具支持性的环境，以鼓励和激励非常多样化的学生群体。将使用基于计算机的工具来为实验室工作提供概念性的组织和结构，并在讲座和实验室之间建立更紧密的联系。基于计算机的组织外壳将分子模型和机械动画的可视化与光谱数据和实验室观察相结合，帮助学生根据化学家在分子水平上的思维方式建立化学现象的心理模型。在课堂和实验室讲课中，教师通常会使用计算机显示器来说明有机化学的基本概念，并展示理论和实验之间的相互关系。学生将在实验室中使用该软件来更好地理解基本概念、实验设计和仪器数据分析。

The project will enhance students' conceptual understanding of organic chemistry,develop students' scientific problem solving skills, and increase students' enjoyment of science using an adaptation of the discovery approach of the new University of Michigan organic chemistry sequence to a format suitable for a suburban community college. The key modification is the provision for a more supportive environment to encourage and motivate a very diverse student population. Computer based tools will be used to provide conceptual organization and structure to laboratory work and to establish stronger links between the lecture and laboratory. The computer based organizational shell will combine visualizations of molecular models and mechanistic animations with spectroscopic data and laboratory observations to help students build mental models of chemical phenomena based upon how chemists think at the molecular level. In classroom and laboratory lectures, faculty routinely will use computer displays to illustrate basic concepts of organic chemistry and to show the inter- relationships between theory and experiments. Students will use the software in the laboratory to better understand the underlying concepts, experimental design, and analysis of instrumental data.