This article presents a new instructional model called Argument-Driven Inquiry (ADI) that can be used in undergraduate college chemistry laboratory courses. ADI is designed to provide students with an opportunity to develop their own method to generate data, to carry out investigations, use data to answer research questions, write, and be more reflective as they work. In addition, the ADI instructional model integrates opportunities for students to engage in scientific argumentation and peer review. This article describes the ADI instructional model, provides the empirical and theoretical foundation for it, and presents a detailed semester pacing schedule for general chemistry I laboratories, peer-review guides, and instructor scoring rubrics.

Educators are increasingly being called upon to provide evidence of student learning. Traditional assessments are not always the best venue for demonstrating conceptual understanding, particularly in science. This paper presents details on the design, use, and scoring of a performance-based assessment for measuring student understanding of limiting reactants. The authors encountered a variety of challenges in the process of designing the performance-based assessment; these are described as well.