The Chemical Kitchen: Toward Remote Delivery of an Interdisciplinary Practical Course

Abstract

This commentary responds to the Covid-19 pandemic which poses a serious challenge for the delivery of “wet laboratory” practical education. We discuss the “Chemical Kitchen” project, which teaches laboratory skills and the scientific method through the parallel discipline of gastronomy and its transformation into a home-based program: how it came to be, its successes to date, and our plans to deploy it for remote delivery in the uncertain future.

Microscale Educational Kits for Learning Chemistry at Home

“…II. General chemistry experiments using Kit I: (1) conductivity tests,(2) measuring pH, indicators and the buffer effect, (3) precipitation reactions, (4) acid−base reactions, (5) redox reactions and electrochemical cells, (6) complexation reactions (7) exploring the everyday chemistry, with notes for the instructor. III.…”

“…III. Coordination Chemistry Experiments using Kit II: (1) stereochemistry of complexes, symmetry, and point groups, (2) magnetic properties of complexes monitored with Galileo's pendulum, (3) colors and spectra of coordination compounds−exploring Ligand Field Theory, (4) complexation of Fe(II) and Cu(I) ions with bipyridine ligands−exploring the spin inversion, (5) complexation of Ni(II) and Pd(II) ions with dimethylglyoxime−exploring the Feigl test, ( 6) spot tests of Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) ions with dithioxamide and (cyanopyridine)pentacyanidoferrate(II) complexes, (7) monitoring the kinetics of substitution in metal complexes with a smartphone, (8) ferrioxalate actinometry and photolithography, (9) catalysis and bioinorganic chemistry−kinetics of the catalase reaction (PDF, DOCX )…”

“…In the case of chemistry, several kitchen experiments have been recently proposed. − However, even before the pandemic, laboratory chemistry courses constituted a great challenge for many schools. In addition to the lack of equipment and materials, there are safety problems to consider, including the appropriate discard of reagents.…”

Off-campus but hands-on: Mail out practicals with synchronous online activities during COVID-19

“…Embracing online learning has opened a raft of new teaching pedagogies for tertiary education as well as a new economy of wholly online Universities and courses ( Wallace, 2003 , Tallent-Runnels et al, 2006 ). The trend towards greater online learning was accelerated in 2020 in response to widespread campus closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic ( Marinoni et al, 2020 , Nogales-Delgado et al, 2020 , Park, Park et al 2020 , Qadir and Al-Fuqaha 2020 , Slamnik-Kriještorac et al, 2020 , Bishop et al, 2021 , Khant and Patel 2021 , Radzikowski et al, 2021 ). The need to rapidly backfill planned face-to-face teaching content with online or remote equivalents forced many academic coordinators into a reactionary mode: doing whatever worked.…”

Unique Data Sets and Bespoke Laboratory Videos: Teaching and Assessing of Experimental Methods and Data Analysis in a Pandemic

“…Videos, − live online streaming, , simulations, − and virtual or augmented reality have been used as interactive lab replacements. Alternatively, students have conducted experiments at home using bespoke or commercial kits. − To teach data processing skills, students have been supplied with historical data sets, ,,, with data generated by teaching assistants or instructors, , or have generated data themselves using simulations . Assessing students fairly and robustly is challenging in an online environment.…”