Design of Electronic Learning Tools to Supplement General Chemistry Experiments

化学（12）本项目正在为圣何塞州立大学第一学期的普通化学课程中的一系列化学实验创建一系列电子学习工具（elt）。elt的设计将使它们特别强大。一种系统的发展方法被用于研究专业化学教师如何解释概念，以揭示其解释的核心特征，并将序列分解为一系列自然片段。化学学生的解释也被检查，以确定和针对他们的学习需求和常见的误解。一组图形艺术专业的学生正在与研究人员合作，根据研究结果开发雅思考试。这个项目的智力价值在于，ELTs被设计成包含亚微观水平化学反应的动画，嵌入在一个框架中，该框架利用静止图像，并与宏观概念和象征性思维水平建立联系。这种类型的学习工具提供了一个框架，以提高学生在理解反应本质的道路上对化学的三个层次（亚微观、宏观和符号）之间的联系进行推理的能力。这个项目更广泛的影响是，雅思考试可以提高学生对化学反应的理解，化学反应是普通化学课程的中心话题，经常在与化学相关的课程和媒体中被提及。具体来说，雅思考试将针对研究中揭示的特定误解，帮助学生为实验做准备。

Chemistry (12) This project is creating a series of electronic learning tools (ELTs) for a set of chemistry experiments currently taught in a first semester, General Chemistry course at San Jose State University. The design of the ELTs will make them particularly powerful. A systematic development approach is being used to study how expert chemistry instructors explain concepts to uncover key features central to their explanations and to break the sequence into a series of natural segments. Chemistry students' explanations are also being examined to identify and target their learning needs and common misconceptions. A team of graphic arts students are working with the researchers to develop the ELTs based on the research findings. The intellectual merit of this project is that the ELTs are being designed to contain animations of submicrosopic level chemical reactions embedded in a framework that makes use of still images and makes connections to macroscopic concepts and to symbolic levels of thinking. This type of learning tool provides a scaffold to enhance students' abilities to reason about the connections between the three levels of chemistry (submicroscopic, macroscopic and symbolic) on their path to understanding the nature of reactions. The broader impacts of this project is that the ELTs may improve students' understanding of chemical reactions, a central topic in general chemistry courses and often referred to in courses and media that interface with chemistry. Specifically, the ELTs will help prepare students for experiments by targeting specific misconceptions revealed through research.