Development of an at-Home Chemistry Lab Experience for Survey of Organic Chemistry Students

Pitre, Danielle; Stokes, Sean; Mlsna, Deb

doi:10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c01262

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…However, accessibility challenges may remain. Previous reports on at-home laboratory experiments included student challenges such as lack of available space for conducting experiments and difficulty obtaining even commonplace supplies, due to cost or availability. − , As this feedback was gathered on laboratories conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, some of these challenges may have resulted from the unexpected switch to online instruction. For future semesters, setting clear guidelines and expectations at the start of the semester (or even before it begins) may help to mitigate some of these issues.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For future semesters, setting clear guidelines and expectations at the start of the semester (or even before it begins) may help to mitigate some of these issues. Regarding supplies, one way to create an equitable environment for students is for the institution to prepare the reagents and supply them to students, as was done here, or even to prepare in-house lab kits with both equipment and reagents for distribution to students. , This has the added benefit of ensuring personal protective equipment is provided to all students. However, this option may be impractical for courses with large enrollments, students who live too far from campus to pick up supplies, and/or insufficient laboratory staff to support this effort.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

et al. 2022

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At-home chemistry experiments are increasingly important to enable high-quality online and hybrid instruction. These class modalities provide significant challenges and also dramatically expand the accessibility of education to those who work or care for family during traditional school hours or have significant commutes to campus. This work demonstrates a novel approach to quantifying citric acid in lemon juice using baking soda as a titrant that requires no specialized equipment. Despite being a weak acid/weak base titration, the gas evolution of carbon dioxide brings this reaction to near completion. Since this process can be relatively slow, the candy Mentos is used to drive rapid gas evolution. The cessation of this vigorous gas evolution is used to track the end point of the titration. The results of this at-home titration were compared to a traditional in-person titration of citric acid in lemon juice (using sodium hydroxide as the titrant and a phenolphthalein indicator) performed by the same students. The at-home titration and the in-person titration yielded citric acid concentrations in lemon juice of 0.20 M (±0.08 M) and 0.25 M (±0.03 M), respectively.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

et al. 2022

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“…Intrinsically, the experiment websites did not provide students with hands-on experience. For fully remote laboratory courses, supplementing with at-home hands-on experiments involving kitchen chemistry (examples: refs and − ) or home laboratory kits (examples: refs − ) is a possible solution. Difficulties in collaboration between students was another clear disadvantage of online laboratory courses.…”

Section: Conclusion and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Evaluation of the BeArS@home and Slugs@home Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Style Online Laboratory Experiments

et al. 2022

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Cruz, instructors adapted to the necessity of remote laboratory instruction by creating choose-your-own-adventure-style video-based online experiments introduced to thousands of students across 11 different courses. These experiments are designed to provide students with the opportunity to make and receive feedback on experimental decisions and learn from common mistakes that they may have encountered in hands-on laboratory instruction. Students' and instructors' impressions of the online experiments and student learning outcomes in both online and traditional laboratory courses were assessed using surveys, focus groups, and interviews via a mixed-methods approach. Though most respondents (79%) did not agree that online laboratory instruction was as effective as in-person instruction, the majority agreed that the online experiments were clear and easy to follow (75%), interesting and engaging (52%), and helpful for learning about lab techniques (70%) and the concepts underlying these techniques (77%). Many also mentioned benefits of online laboratory instruction, including flexibility in scheduling and an increased focus on conceptual learning. Assessments of student learning also suggested that students who took the course online learned as much conceptually as students who had previously completed the course in-person. The results of this study highlight the positive and negative aspects of this type of interactive online laboratory instruction, which could help inform the design of future lab experiences whether they take place in an online, hybrid, or in-person environment.

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“…The diversity of hands-on, at-home laboratories for chemistry and related fields, i.e., analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, general chemistry, and chemical engineering, has been reported [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Since we could not avoid using chemicals in the chemistry laboratory, the chemicals used in the designed handson, at-home laboratories must be safe for students and their family members as well as friendly to the environment, so that those chemicals could be discarded as household waste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lab-at-Home: Hands-On Green Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for New Normal Experimentation

et al. 2022

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced analytical chemistry educators in Thailand to change methods of teaching and learning to new normal ones. Higher education has faced additional challenges because of a lack of hands-on experiments and an increasing number of students in foundation chemistry courses being hindered from practicing skills. This work aimed to develop a Lab-at-Home (LAH) for new normal, analytical chemistry experimentation. The LAH implemented a hands-on green chemistry experiment, i.e., colorimetric determination of iron using non-hazardous reagents (supporting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12-responsible consumption and production). The LAH was sent to students at their location before the synchronous class, where the instructors were prompt to supervise. Thus, this supports SDG4-quality education and SDG10-reduced inequalities. The learning outcome achievements, i.e., the analytical characteristics and colorimetry principles comprehension, as well as the ability to perform data analysis, were evaluated by a quiz and laboratory report. LAH satisfaction was assessed by questionnaire and focus group discussion. The learning outcomes were successfully achieved, although students who performed the experiment individually received higher scores than those who did in groups. Students were very satisfied with the LAH as a tool for new normal experimentation, yet some students faced a poor Internet connection during the synchronous online class.

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Development of an at-Home Chemistry Lab Experience for Survey of Organic Chemistry Students

Cited by 10 publications

References 12 publications

A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

A Simple At-Home Titration: Quantifying Citric Acid in Lemon Juice with Baking Soda and Mentos

Design and Evaluation of the BeArS@home and Slugs@home Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Style Online Laboratory Experiments

Lab-at-Home: Hands-On Green Analytical Chemistry Laboratory for New Normal Experimentation

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