In the Classroom

Chemistry education research is a well-established field that has the potential to inform chemistry teaching at all levels. But to the uninitiated, much of the work can seem descriptive while quantitative studies often suffer from a lack of reproducibility. Here I delve into these characteristics and explain why this should not deter chemistry teachers from engaging.

Creating a more inclusive classroom environment starts with educating instructors about the needs of their students. Once those needs are understood, work to address them may not only benefit the small group of students for whom the intervention was intended, but the wider class too.

The kitchen offers chemists an opportunity to cook up chemistry using everyday ingredients. This is the inspiration behind ‘The Science of the Modern Kitchen’, a chemistry course offered to non-science undergraduates.

Chemistry degrees are often very broad. What might a degree look like if we covered fewer topics more deeply?

R/S Chemistry is a free, game-based learning tool for students to practise stereochemical assignments in an interactive setting, leading to increased student engagement in the topic.

As academic staff scrambled into emergency remote teaching during COVID-19 restrictions, we also had to move in-person exams online without compromising integrity. This disruption caused us to think carefully about how chemistry is assessed, because ‘business as usual’ was no longer possible — and at some institutions, there are no plans for in-person exams to return.

Chemists make crucial contributions to society and are often found in a broad range of workplaces. To sustain these impactful contributions, a diverse range of career skills must be embedded into the curricula.

The world is facing multiple unfolding global crises and chemistry systems are integral in both the cause and solution to these challenges. Systems thinking can be used not only to support student learning of chemistry concepts, but also to build community within and beyond the classroom.

While there is much of the last two years we may wish to forget, it is imperative that we share our pandemic chemistry teaching experiences.

The coronavirus pandemic forced a rapid adoption of online learning. What can be done for teaching the practical elements of subjects like chemistry? Have we learned anything that we would keep outside of lockdown restrictions?

Innovative student-centred teaching, exemplified by the flipped and linked classroom approaches, is important in modernizing chemistry education to make it relevant to and effective in diverse scenarios.

If chemistry is to contribute effectively to the development of a more sustainable world, it is essential that it is taught within a broader socioeconomic and ecological context.

Creating exam questions is a skill. Understanding the anatomy of a question can help teachers write good questions and help students maximize their score.

A full grasp of chemistry requires students to be able to connect microscopic reality with symbolic representations. Immersive virtual reality provides a solution for those who need a tangible link between these representations.

Threshold concepts are the tricky ideas that underpin so much knowledge. In teaching them, it is important to recognize that a correct answer is not necessarily evidence of understanding.

QR Chem is a free resource that enables teachers and researchers to link audiences directly to three-dimensional renderings of molecules.

How do we introduce games into our classrooms and what kind of learning outcomes can we expect?

It is time for chemistry learning to be reoriented through systems thinking, which offers opportunities to better understand and stimulate students’ learning of chemistry, such that they can address twenty-first century challenges.

Integrating systems thinking into chemistry education involves the contextualization of chemistry concepts. This will allow us to better understand how students learn, and will also equip them to tackle the many and varied challenges we face as a society.

Lecture capture is just one way in which new technology is changing teaching, but we should embrace its opportunities rather than fear its shortcomings, argues Katherine Haxton.

Undergraduate practical classes that include more real science are to the benefit of students, teachers and society more broadly.