Teaching Kinetics through Differential Equations Constructed with a Berkeley Madonna(TM) Flow Chart Model

Abstract

The alias feature of the Berkeley Madonna platform allows this author to create a chemical kinetics project manual for students, who create flow charts solving almost all kinetics problems using rate equations. The versatile and powerful platform allows students to explore any chemical kinetics problems, from simple (e.g. 1 st or 2 nd order kinetics) to complex (e.g. stratosphere ozone depletion, the Lotka-Volterra mechanism), bypassing complicated syntax that is required by most of powerful mathematical programs.This kinetics manual has been successfully implemented in Physical Chemistry at UW-Green Bay in the fall semester of 2017, with the students' success rate greater than 80%.