Developing Undergraduate Scientists through Inquiry-Based Chemistry Laboratories

纽约州立大学老韦斯特伯里分校化学系(SUNY-OW)将探索如何激励本科生独立工作，并通过探究式实验室经验获得技能。该项目将在期望的学生学习结果和当前的教学实践之间架起一座桥梁。与传统的食谱形式的实验室体验相比，探究式体验提供了更丰富、更有意义的学习体验。传统的烹饪书式实验室体验让许多学生不熟悉科学方法和论证。该项目还将探讨团队教学对学生参与度和学习进度的影响。纽约州立大学俄勒冈州分校接收了更多的转校生，并将积极地将他们的调查结果传播给他们的支线社区学院和其他机构。该项目将研究改善STEM学习和学习环境的创造性方法，重点是研究丰富和技能丰富的化学实验室课程。目标是通过探究式实验教学和议论文写作，提高本科生对科学方法论和议论文的理解。通过将学生自己设计的项目整合到教学实验室中，该项目将为学生提供独立工作和作为科学家进行批判性思考的机会。通过指导性的议论文写作，学生的深度思考将持续集中在项目上，同时他们对知识的理解也将得到发展。本课程将考察教师指导和学生提出的问题对学习的影响。这个项目将产生关于化学实验室有效教学的新证据，从而导致更好的本科化学教学设计。

The Department of Chemistry at State University of New York at Old Westbury (SUNY-OW) will explore how undergraduate students can be motivated to work independently and gain skills with inquiry-based laboratory experiences. This project will bridge the gap between desired student learning outcomes and current instructional practices. Compared to traditional cookbook-style laboratory experiences, which leave many students unacquainted with scientific methodology and argumentation, inquiry-based experiences provide a richer and more meaningful learning experience. The project will also explore the impact of team teaching on student engagement and learning progress. SUNY-OW accepts a larger number of transfer students and will actively disseminate their findings to their feeder community colleges and other institutions. This project will study creative approaches for improving STEM learning and learning environments, with a focus on a research-rich and a skills-rich chemistry laboratory curriculum. The goal is to improve undergraduates' understanding of scientific methodology and argumentation via inquiry-based laboratory teaching and argumentative writing. By integrating students' self-designed projects into teaching laboratories, the project will provide opportunities for students to work independently and to think critically as scientists. Through guided argumentative writing, students' deep thinking will be persistently focused on projects while their knowledge-based understanding develops. The impact of instructor-guided and student-generated inquiries on learning will be examined. This project will generate new evidence regarding effective instruction in the chemistry laboratory, thus leading to a better instructional design in undergraduate chemistry.