A Flexible Networked Laboratory Simulation for Use in Introductory Chemistry Courses

由于化学入门课程的内容是抽象的，教师很难向学生传达一种直观的理解，而没有直观的理解，记忆就会受到影响。这种困难部分源于教师目前可用的工具。课堂上使用的纸笔活动根本不适合传达对化学现象的直观感受。在实验课程中，实际的限制使得很难超越照本宣科的实验程序，向探究性学习方向发展。这里提出的化学实验室模拟允许教师：(i)创建讲座演示，在讨论基础数学之前和讨论基础数学时，能够对材料的定性性质进行具体的讨论；（ii）创建除了纸笔之外还涉及化学操作的作业；（iii）设计练习，让学生为实际的实验室实验做好准备，并允许学生设计自己的程序，然后在实验室中实施。该软件的设计很容易融入现有的课程结构。由于它使用Java网络计算语言，因此只需要将其安装在Web服务器上。使用网络数据库，教师可以创建自动评分的作业，并实时监控学生的表现。该软件允许用户从数百种标准试剂中进行选择，并以他们认为合适的任何方式将它们组合起来。由于这种灵活性，我们不仅将为教师提供完整的材料，还将使他们能够根据当地的需求和环境创建有效的课程。除了形成性评估外，对学生保留效果的总结性评估将基于收集并存储在网络数据库中的学生个人数据、课程考试成绩以及课程结束后3个月和15个月进行的保留测试。在过去的两年中，我们收集了留存率数据作为本研究的基准。

As the material covered in introductory chemistry courses is abstract, teachers find it difficult to convey an intuitive understanding to their students, and without an intuitive understanding, retention is bound to suffer. Part of this difficulty stems from the tools currently available to faculty. The paper-and-pencil activities used in lecture courses are simply not well suited to convey an intuitive feel for chemical phenomena. In laboratory courses, practical constraints make it difficult to go beyond scripted laboratory procedures and toward inquiry-based learning.The chemical laboratory simulation proposed here allows faculty to: (i) create lecture demonstrations that enable a concrete discussion of the qualitative nature of the material before and while discussing the underlying mathematics (ii) create assignments that involve chemical, in addition to paper-and-pencil, manipulations and (iii) design exercises that prepare students for actual laboratory experiments, and that allow students to design their own procedures which they will then implement in the laboratory. The software is designed to be easily incorporated into existing course structures. Since it uses the Java network computing language, it need only be installed on a Web server. Use of a network database allows faculty to create automatically graded assignments and monitor student performance in real time. The software allows users to select from hundreds of standard reagents and combine them in any way they see fit. Due to this flexibility, we will not only present faculty with completed materials, but also empower them to create effective curricula that are tailored to their local needs and environment.In addition to formative assessment, summative assessment of the effects on student retention will be based on individual student data collected and stored in the network database, performance on course exams, and retention exams given 3 and 15 months after the end of the course. For the past two years, retention data has been collected to act as a baseline for this study.