A Simulation-Based Pedagogical Approach in Chemistry Education

在改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构（HSI计划）的支持下，该项目旨在开发、实施、验证和传播一项研究计划，该计划将支持对化学反应的基本理解，并通过计算建模将其应用于解决高级科学问题。许多院校要求工科学生先修化学课程，然而，这类课程往往与学生所学专业的知识和技能不相符，也不能立即应用于解决高级工程问题。此外，由于化学的抽象性质和缺乏以学生为中心的学习策略，学生可能会在学习化学方面遇到困难。为了应对这些挑战，基于模拟的化学教育教学方法让所有学生在STEM （SPACE）项目中取得成功，旨在通过整合先进的工程技术来填补研究空白，通过实时模拟为学生提供分子和原子水平上抽象和不可观察现象的动态表示。该项目旨在将循证实践纳入入门级课程，以改善学生的长期学习，并创建一个培养他们科学身份的社区。SPACE项目的目标是开发和测试一套辅助课程活动，以支持对化学反应的基本理解，并将其应用于解决工程专业本科生的高级科学问题。该项目将利用计算建模和仿真技能培训，结合基于证据的学习策略，并通过基于资产的教学工具进一步培养学生的科学认同感。该项目将招募在加州州立大学洛杉矶分校学习化学必修课程的工科本科生，采用多种方法。在两年的时间里，在三个不同的实现中，团队将对研究过程进行试点测试和改进。在每次实施中，学生将在四个主要领域接受评估：化学反应知识、基于情境的科学问题解决能力、科学动机和科学认同。通过三次实施，将使用一套工具对该项目进行全面评估，以审查其未来在机构一级适应和复制的承诺。HSI项目旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并建立HSI机构转型的能力。考虑到hsi的多样化性质和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(i)关于参与式学生学习，（ii）关于如何有效地多样化和增加STEM参与，以及（iii）提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解，这些都是由该计划支持的。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this project aims to develop, implement, validate, and disseminate a program of study that will support the fundamental understanding of chemical reactions and their application in solving advanced science problems by using computational modeling. Many institutions require engineering students to take a prerequisite chemistry course, however, such a course is often not aligned with knowledge and skills that students seek for their majors and is not immediately applicable to solving advanced engineering problems. Additionally, students may experience difficulties in learning chemistry due to its abstract nature and a lack of student-centered learning strategies. To address these challenges the Simulation-Based Pedagogical Approach in Chemistry Education for All Students to Succeed in STEM (SPACE) project aims to fill a gap in the research by integrating advanced engineering techniques to give students dynamic representation of abstract and unobservable phenomena at molecular and atomic levels using real-time simulations. This project intends to embed evidence-based practices in entry level courses to improve long-term student learning and create a community that will cultivate their science identity.The goals of Project SPACE are to develop and test a co-curricular set of activities that will support the fundamental understanding of chemical reactions and their application in solving advanced science problems for undergraduate students in engineering majors. The project will use training in computational modeling and simulation skills, incorporate evidence-based learning strategies, and further develop students’ science identity through an asset-based pedagogical tool. The project will recruit engineering undergraduate students who are enrolled in a prerequisite chemistry course at California State University, Los Angeles using a variety of methods. Over the course of two years in three distinct implementations the team will pilot-test and refine the course of study. In each implementation, students will be assessed before, during, immediately after, and one semester later in four main areas: chemical reaction knowledge, context-based science problem-solving skills, motivation toward science, and science identity. Through the three implementations, the project will be comprehensively evaluated using a set of instruments to examine its promises for future adaptation and replication at an institutional level. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity for institutional transformation at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs are supported by this program.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.