Lowering Activation Barriers to Success in Physical Chemistry (LABSIP): A Community Project

Baiz, Carlos R.; Berger, Robert F.; Donald, Kelling J.; de Paula, Julio C.; Fried, Stephen D.; Rubenstein, Brenda; Stokes, Grace Y.; Takematsu, Kana; Londergan, Casey

doi:10.1021/acs.jpca.3c07015

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…There is a lack of consensus among chemistry educators on whether or not teaching programming should be considered a goal in a chemistry curriculum. According to a report by the LABSIP group, some chemistry faculty argue that PChem coursework should involve programming, while others believe that it would be an unnecessary barrier to student success. While the group did not make a recommendation about including programming, it emphasized that faculty should introduce students to the idea that many PChem problems are complex enough that computer-based approaches are superior to calculations by hand, and that many computer-based approaches (programming, using spreadsheet programs, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for Improving End-User Programming Education: A Case Study with Undergraduate Chemistry Students

Fuchs,

McDonald,

Gautam

et al. 2024

J. Chem. Educ.

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Programming is widespread in multiple domains and is being integrated into various discipline-specific university courses where, like students in a typical introductory computing course, students from other disciplines face challenges with learning to program. We offer a case study in which we study undergraduate students majoring in either chemistry or biochemistry as they learn programming in a physical chemistry course sequence. Using surveys and think-aloud sessions with students, we conducted a thematic content analysis to explain the challenges they face in this endeavor. We found that students struggled to transfer their programming knowledge to new representations and problems, and they did not have strategies in place for solving problems with programming. These facts combine to lower students' confidence in their programming abilities, making it less likely that they will reach for computing to help solve domain-specific problems. We recommend that students in end-user programming contexts be explicitly taught the skills of abstraction, decomposition, and metacognitive awareness as they pertain to programming.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%