UCCS The 3 C’s of Learning: Conceptualizing, Collaborating and Clicking: Hints for Improving Clickers in the Classroom Electronic Polling Symposium BCCE,

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The 3 C’s of Learning: Conceptualizing, Collaborating and Clicking: Hints for Improving Clickers in the Classroom

Electronic Polling Symposium BCCE, August, 2006

Barbara Gaddis, Science Learning Center, UCCS Margaret Asirvatham, Chemistry, UCB

Allen Schoffstall, Chemistry, UCCSLarry Augenstein, Chemistry, UCCS

University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado Springs

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How useful are Concept Tests in helping you to learn the material?

General Chemistry I, Fall 2003

General Chemistry I, Spring 2004

A) Extremely useful

B) Quite useful

C) Somewhat useful

D) Minimally useful

E) Totally useless

841 students (432 responses)

289 students (202 responses)

18%

47%

27%

27%

49%

20%

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Have Concept Tests encouraged improved performance in this course?

General Chemistry I, Fall 2003

General Chemistry I, Spring 2004

A) Yes

B) Kind-of

C) Neutral

D) Not really

E) No

841 students (456 responses)

289 students (202 responses)

28%

36%17%

13%

31%

44%

11%11%

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CourtesyMike DubsonPhysicsUCB

Why Clickers?

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• Anonymous and timely feedback

• Interactive and engaging• Increase attendance• Real-time assessment

with easy grading• Fosters collaboration• Inexpensive, easy to use• Increase individual

accountability

Clickers in the large lecture class

• Takes time• Limitations on answer

format• Trivial questions

encourage superficial learning

• Frustration• Cheating• Punitive

???? Do clickers improve learning????

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How are clickers integrated into class?

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Types of Clicker Questions

1. Testing for knowledge2. Algorithmic3. *Problem-based4. Identification of misconceptions5. Applications6. Visual representations7. Analysis8. *Synthesis

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Testing for knowledge:

Check on preparedness, provide feedback on understanding, assess knowledge from a prior course.

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Which is the strongest base?

A. CH3OHB. CH3ONaC. H2OD. NH3

E. Both A and B0

10

20

30

40

50

60

A B C D E

Catching Common Errors

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Which of the following molecules is(are) chiral?

A. I B. II C. II and III D. II and IV E. II, III, and IV

Br Br Br Br

I II III IV

Checking for Understanding

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Algorithmic

Name the following compound

A. IsopentylcyclohexaneB. 1-MethylbutylcyclohexaneC. Methyl-sec-pentylcyclohexaneD. 2-CyclohexylpentaneE. 2-Pentylcyclohexane

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Detection of Misconceptions

Iron combines with oxygen and water from the air to form rust. If an iron nail were allowed to rust completely, one should find that the rust weighs:

A. less than the nail it came from. B. the same as the nail it came from. C. more than the nail it came from. D. It is impossible to predict.

Journal of Chemical Education concept inventory ,http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu:8000/

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Follow–up with Misconception (Tier 2):

What is the rationale behind your answer?

A. Rusting makes the nail lighter. B. Rust contains iron and oxygen. C. The nail flakes away. D. The iron from the nail is destroyed. E. The flaky rust weighs less than iron.

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Application to real world experiences

Make predictions about demonstrations or experiments and explain observations.

Q1. A flask containing a small amount of boiling water and a peeled hard-boiled egg is fit snugly into the mouth of the flask. What will happen when the flask is allowed to cool?

Q2. What explanation best accounts for your observation?

http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/demolab/demoindex2.htm

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Stoichiometry: Limiting Reagent Demo

Mg(s) + 2 HCl(aq) MgCl2(aq) + H2(g)Flask # Moles of Mg(s) Moles of HCl(aq)Flask 1 0.0125 0.1000Flask 2 0.0250 0.1000Flask 3 0.0500 0.1000Flask 4 0.1000 0.1000What will be the relative sizes of the balloons above the flasks when the reaction is complete?A) V1 = V2 = V3 = V4 B) V1 < V2 < V3 < V4

C) V1 < V2 < V3 = V4 D) V1 < V2 = V3 < V4

E) V1 < V2 = V3 = V4

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

A B C D E

Colors represent threedifferent lecture sectionsin Fall 2004

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A sealed vessel filled with water is evaporated. Use the symbols below to demonstrate this process.

Visualization and representations

http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/

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Analysis and Justification

Draw the first step in the mechanism of the reaction of acetic acid with methanol and HCl. What is the structure of the intermediate formed in this step?

O

O H

HO

O H

H

O

O H

H

H

O

O H

H O

O HH

A B C D E

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Justifying an answer, analyzing a wrong response.

Why is the intermediate with protonated carbonyl oxygen more likely than the species with the alcohol oxygen protonated?

A. The carbonyl oxygen is more acidic.B. The alcohol oxygen is a weaker acid.C. The carbonyl oxygen had two lone pairs of electrons.D. The intermediate can delocalize the positive charge through

resonance.E. The intermediate can undergo intramolecular hydrogen bonding.

O

O H

H O

O H

H

NOT

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The student voices behind the data…

“I think it’s very beneficial when two people are sort of on the same level and are struggling together. When I actually struggled with certain concepts and I worked on them on my own… I mean, when a teacher explains certain things, you almost take it for granted, and you say ‘Okay, I understand where they can get that idea from,’ but you don’t really grasp why it is that way. It’s definitely like, when you have the discussion (with your peer)- that is really awesome… you are discussing the problem and you guys are working together and there are many common concepts that you both have problems with.” (freshman, male)

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Do you think that using clickers is beneficial to learning, why or why not?

“I look at it as really positive. They’re pausing from their lecture to take out one or two minutes, to let us get a self-test, ‘Am I understanding this?’ It’s like a bonus, to me- it breaks up the monotony of (lecture)… It forces you to pause after you’ve absorbed something, to reflect on it, to check yourself, ‘do I understand what’s happening?” (non-traditional, male)

“I think it’s really beneficial to learning… it’s about the instant feedback. It’s good even for the teachers because if they see that if the majority… well not even the majority, but if a major portion of the class is voting for something else, then they obviously need to spend more time on that concept.”

(freshman, female)

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Two beakers of distilled water are under the same room conditions in the laboratory. One beaker is boiling vigorously, and the other is boiling gently. Which is true?

a. The temperature of the vigorously boiling water is higher.

b. The temperature of the gently boiling water is higher.c. The temperature of the water in both beakers is the

same.d. The boiling points of the

water in the two beaker are different.

e. The temperature in the vigorously boiling water is not uniform.

Learning: Pre- and Post-Tests

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Conclusions• Clickers improve attendance, interest,

engagement, participation.

• Students think they are learning more.

• Carefully constructed questions can help to optimize learning.

• Collaboration is important

• Large lecture becomes a “conversational classroom”

W. M. Waite, M. H. Jackson, and A. Diwan. The Conversational Classroom. In Proceedings of the 34 SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Reno, Nevada, pages 127--131. ACM Press, New York, Feb. 2003.

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Sources of Concept Questions

• Journal of Chemical Education Online (http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu:8000/JCEDLib/QBank/collection/CQandChP/index.html)

• Burness, James H. The use of "marathon" problems as effective vehicles for the presentation of general chemistry lectures. J. Chem. Educ. 1991, 68, 919.

• Conceptual Challenge Problems in Moore, J. W.; Stanitski, C. L.; Wood, J. L.; Kotz, J. C.; Joesten, M. D. The Chemical World, 2nd ed.; Saunders: Philadelphia, 1998.

• End-of-chapter marathon problems (the equivalent of challenge problems) in Zumdahl, S. S. Chemistry, 4th ed.; Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 1997.

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• Mike Dubson, Department of Physics, UCB

• Student Achievement Assessment Committee, UCCS

• College of LAS, UCCS• Information Technology,

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[email protected]

Acknowledgements