1. The ChemCollective Virtual Lab and Other Online Materials
David Yaron, Michael Karabinos, Jordi Cuadros, Emma Rehm, William McCue, David H. Dennis, Donovan Lange, Rea Freeland Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University Gaea Leinhardt, Karen Evans Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

2. Build community around a specific educational goal
The ChemCollective
Build community around a specific educational goal
Digital Libraries can combine expertise through remote and asynchronous collaboration
Digital Libraries can support an iterative development process
Ways to participate
Use activities and give feedback
Participate in assessment studies
Modify and create activities
Discussions around activities and topics

3. Alignment: What should we teach?
Outline
New modes of practice
Virtual labs
Scenario based learning
Alignment: What should we teach?
Whole curriculum: High school chemistry
Within topics: University chemistry
Online support for problem solving
Assessment of ChemCollective activities
Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC)

4. Learning challenges and interventions
Promoting flexibility and applicability
From mathematical procedures to chemical phenomena (use in chemistry)
Virtual laboratory
From chemical phenomena to real world (transfer to real world)
Scenario based learning
Promoting coherence
“Big picture” of chemistry

5. Use in chemistry: Virtual laboratory
Flexible simulation of aqueous chemistry
New mode of interaction with chemical concepts
Ability to “see” inside a solution removes one level of indirection in chemical problem solving

6. How is the virtual lab used?
Delivery
From
From CD-ROM
Install on your local computer system
Classroom uses
During recitation
As take-home work
Pre- and post-labs
Lab make-ups

7. A survey of Virtual lab problems
Current topic list
Molarity - Stoichiometry
Quantitative analysis - Chemical equilibrium
Solubility - Thermochemistry
Acids and bases
Problem types
Predict and check
Virtual experiment
Puzzle problems (open-ended and inquiry based experiments)
Layered problems

8. Predict and Check
Students use the virtual lab to check the results of a pencil-and-paper calculation or qualitative prediction
Potential benefits
Encourages students to see connection between calculations/qualitative predictions and an experimental procedure
Observations indicate that the shift from paper and pencil to lab activity can challenge students
Students can make use of intermediate results in locating errors

9. Traditional calculation
Predict and Check
Traditional calculation
Thermochemistry/Coffee: Calculate the amount of 100C milk that must be added to 250ml of 95oC coffee to lower its temperature to 90oC. Check your answer in the virtual lab.
As part of design activity
Thermochemistry/Camping 3: Using the virtual lab, create two solutions, initially at 25°C, that, when mixed together in equal volumes, cause the temperature of the mixture to increase from 25°C to 60°C
Can be done as predict and check, but is often done in iterative process with some predict and check steps

10. Virtual Experiments
Students generate and interpret data in the chemistry virtual lab program
Typical textbook problem
“When 10ml of 1M A was mixed with 10ml of 1M B, the temperature went up by 10 degrees. What is the heat of the reaction between A and B?”
Virtual Lab problem
Thermochemistry/Camping 1: “Construct an experiment to measure the heat of reaction between A and B?”
Students who could perform the textbook procedure had difficulty designing the experiment, and needed help from a human tutor.
The procedure is not triggered in response to relevant prompt
The Virtual Lab format requires students to beyond a strategy of matching words to equations
Demo the camping problem.
Then move into: oh, they had trouble with this… why… verbally say what makes heat hard.

11. Puzzle Problems
Stoichiometry/Oracle 1 and 2: Given four substances A, B, C, and D that are known to react in some weird and mysterious way (an oracle relayed this information to you within a dream), design and perform virtual lab experiments to determine the reaction between these substances, including the stoichiometric coefficients. You will find 1.00M solutions of each of these chemical reagents in the stockroom.

12. Oracle Problem Observations
Intent was to give practice with determining reaction coefficients
A + 2B  3C + D
Observation
When A is mixed with B, some A remains
so the reaction must be: A + B  C + D + A
Reveals misunderstanding of limiting reagent concept (even though they could easily perform textbook limiting reagent problems)

13. Layered Problems
A set of activities involving the same chemical system, but modeling the system with varying levels of complexity and approximation.
The approximations can either be removed or invoked
Encourage students to reflect on relations between different problem types

14. Acid Mine Drainage Scenario treats river at three levels
Layered Problems
Acid Mine Drainage Scenario treats river at three levels
As distilled water at room temperature
As distilled water with seasonally-varying temperature
As a buffered solution
For all three models, student discuss factors influencing amount of Fe precipitated in the river bed
See

15. Authoring a virtual lab activity
Add chemical species and reactions (if desired)
Can create “fictional” proteins, drugs etc.
Create Stockroom Solutions
Specify available functionality
Viewers
For example, turn off “Solution Contents” for exercises involving unknowns
Transfer mode
Precise vs. realistic
HTML problem description can be included

16. Transfer to real world: Scenarios
Scenario based learning
Embed the procedural knowledge of the course in a scenario that highlights its utility
Scenarios that touch down at various points in the course may promote coherence
Motivated a study of alignment between:
What we teach in high school chemistry
What informed citizens need to know about chemistry

17. Traditional course structure
CA state standards
Standard 1 Atomic and Molecular Structure
Standard 2 Chemical Bonds
Standard 3 Conservation of Matter and Stoichiometry
Standard 4 Gases and Their Properties
Standard 5 Acids and Bases
Standard 6 Solutions
Standard 7 Chemical Thermodynamics
Standard 8 Reaction Rates
Standard 9 Chemical Equilibrium
Standard 10 Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry
Standard 11 Nuclear Processes
Chemistry AP exam guide’s are similarly structured around chemistry topic list

18. Evidence of the domain as practiced
Domain analysis
Evidence of the domain as practiced
Nobel prizes for past 50 years
NY Times Science Times for 2002
Scientific American News Bites for 2002
Evidence of the domain as taught
CA state content standards
Best selling textbooks

19. Domain map: The big picture
EXPLAIN
ANALYZE
SYNTHESIZE
Hypothesis
Generation
Goal (What do you
want to know?)
Functional
Motifs
Hypothesis
Testing
Process (How to determine
what you have)
Structural
Motifs
Assembly
Motifs
TOOLBOX
Representational
Systems
Quantification
Systems

20. Comparison Domain as practiced Domain as taught
Scientific literature spread equally between these three subdomains
Domain as taught
Textbooks and standards found only in Toolbox and Analyze subdomain

21. Full domain map

22. Domain map as basis for course design
Guide development of scenarios
Ensure distribution at both upper and lower levels
Mediate conversation between traditional and reformed course
Encourage students to reflect on how the course concepts fit into chemistry as a domain

23. Scenarios: Examples Mixed reception (molecular weight, stoichiometry)
Cyanine dyes binding to DNA (equilibrium, Beer’s law)
Meals read-to-eat (thermochemistry)
Mission to mars (redox, thermochemistry)
Arsenic poisoning of wells in Bangladesh (stoichiometry, titration, analytical spectroscopy)
Ozone destruction (kinetics)

24. Stoichiometry review course
As in Bangladesh groundwater
Measurement of As concentration
Remediation
Challenges facing modern analytical chemistry

25. Mixed Reception

26. Middle school through high school: Big Concepts
Structure
Relation to properties
Functional groups
Emergent properties (bonding pattern  molecular interactions - 3 d structure)
Transformation
Physical transformations and chemical reactions
Energy and motion
Heat
Molecular motion
Organizing materials: water, gold and plastic

27. Within topic alignment: Acid base chemistry
Traditional textbook
Definition of pH
Strong acids
Weak acid dissociation equilibrium: calculate pH of a weak acid
Titrations
Buffers
Use in later courses (organic chemistry, biology)
Big idea: Will a labile proton be present on a molecule?
Compare pH to pKa
Use a buffer to control pH, so you can control the “big idea”

28. Support for problem solving
Based on hourglass view of problem solving
Initial problem analysis
and selection of procedure
Structured dialogues,
reflective prompts
Implementation of computation
or procedure
Templated feedback, pseudotutors
Reflection on problem
solving efforts

29. Templated feedback
Analysis of student response for common error types
hints

30. Pseudotutors

31. Fading
Path 3 S
Determine target PH
Determine target [A-]/[HA]
Construct solution with target [A-]/[HA] F
Path 2
Determine solutions and volumes mixed.
Path 1
Schematic representation of scaffolding for design of a buffer solution.
Ovals represent episodes (pseudotutors or templated feedback).
Support is added/faded by switching paths.

32. Support for problem solving
Based on hourglass view of problem solving
Initial problem analysis
and selection of procedure
Structured dialogues,
reflective prompts
Implementation of computation
or procedure
Pseudotutors,
templated feedback
Reflection on problem
solving efforts

33. Current approach leaves this as “implicit knowledge”
Problem analysis
Current approach leaves this as “implicit knowledge”
Structured dialogue for heat exchange
What is the source of the heat?
How do you describe that effect: (q=m Cv DT, q=n DH, ..)
What is the drain of the heat?
Observations on heat exchange
Most students have difficulty with above questions if heat is coming form a chemical reaction.

34. Implicit knowedge in equilibrium and acid-base chemistry
General strategy
Determine majority species first
Then determine minority species
Key skill for which students do not get sufficient practice
Given a solution (1 M HCl, 0.5M NaOCH3), what are the majority and minority species.

35. Results from other domains
Geometry
Sub-goal structure of proofs was implicit knowledge (Anderson, Koedinger, Greeno..)
Statistics
Students could carry out statistical analysis procedures, but could not select appropriate procedures (Lovett)

36. Student surveys (data is % response)
Student opinion data
Student surveys (data is % response)
Attitude towards virtual lab correlates strongly with confidence measures (R2=0.82)
Confidence does not correlate to performance (R2=0.01)
Not helpful
helpful
Lectures 10 33 40
Reading 8 34 25
Textbook problems 7
Graded HW 5 37
Vlab 18 28
Recitation 2 16 30

37. Study at Carnegie Mellon Information used
Assessment
Study at Carnegie Mellon
Second semester intro course, 150 students
Information used
Pretest
9 homework activities
3 hour exams
2 pop exams (practice exam given 5 days before hour exam)
Final exam

38. Correlations
Pre
Test
Home-work
Pop Exam
Exam
Final
test
1.00
Home work
0.03
Pop
0.50
0.15
0.32
0.43
0.51
0.23
0.58
0.37
0.59

39. Structural equation modelPT
PEX3
PEX2
EX2
C-ACH
EX1 H1 H2 H3

40. Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC)
Chemistry is one of seven domain “Learnlabs”
Bring learning scientists and educators together to perform well controlled studies in real classrooms
Questions of interest to the chemistry Learnlab
What is the best balance of worked examples and problem solving?
Relative benefits and dangers of virtual vs. real labs?
Relative benefits of explicit instruction versus discovery, especially of strategies?
Actively soliciting instructors for studies in 2006

41. Thanks To Carnegie Mellon LRDC, University of Pittsburgh Funding
Michael Karabinos
William McCue
David H. Dennis
Jodi Davenport
Donovan Lange
D. Jeff Milton
Jordi Cuadros
Rea Freeland
Emma Rehm
Tim Palucka
Jef Guarent
Amani Ahmed
Giancarlo Dozzi
Katie Chang
Erin Fried
Jason Chalecki
Greg Hamlin
Brendt Thomas
Stephen Ulrich
Jason McKesson
Aaron Rockoff
Jon Sung
Jean Vettel
Rohith Ashok
Joshua Horan
LRDC, University of Pittsburgh
Gaea Leinhardt
Karen Evans
Baohui Zhang
Funding
NSF: CCLI, NSDL, SLC
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dreyfus Foundation

42. Stoichiometry review course
Basic tools of stoichiometry
Significant figures
Unit conversions, including Avogadro’s number
Molecular weight/ molar mass
Composition stoichiometry
Solution concentration
Empirical formula
Reaction stoichiometry
Stoichiometric conversion and percent yield
Limiting reagents
Titration
Analysis of mixtures

43. Pseudotutors

44. Thermodynamic properties
Fictitious chemicals
Protein-drug binding
Add 3 species: Protein, Drug, Protein:Drug
Add reaction: Protein + Drug  Protein:Drug
Thermodynamic properties
Protein Drug  Protein:Drug
DHfo DH
S DS
Determine DH and DS from K at two different temperatures

45. Thermodynamic properties
Fictitious chemicals
Add a new acid
Add 2 species: HA, A-
Add reaction: HA  H+ + A-
Thermodynamic properties
HA  H A-
DHfo DH (H+) DH (H+) DH
S0 So (H+) So (H+) DS
Determine DH and DS from K at two different temperatures
We also have a “Chemical Database Management System” that will generate thermodynamic data from a list of K’s etc.