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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1999  > July  >
In the Classroom
View from My Classroom
A pHorseshoe
Roger Plumsky
Gar-Field Senior High School, Woodbridge, VA 22192
Cover
July 1999
Vol. 76 No. 7
p. 935
Abstract
Students often find pH calculations boring and irrelevant, and many memorize calculation schemes without understanding. It has been suggested that such topics should be dropped from the first-year chemistry course. I have found an approach that involves memorization but enables students of average ability to achieve understanding through its use and subsequent development of the topic. Providing students with a memorization scheme at the outset eliminates initial frustration and discouragement and leads to better understanding by the time the unit has been developed. Understanding is developed after the students have successfully calculated conversions between pH and hydrogen ion concentration. In this article the pHorseshoe is described not only for the purpose of sharing with other teachers who might find it useful but also to explain why, in this case at least, memorization is the servant of understanding and not a substitute for it.
More Information
*  Citation
 Plumsky, Roger. J. Chem. Educ. 1999 76 935.
*  Keywords
 Introductory / High School Chemistry; Teaching / Learning Aids; Acid-Base Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 9, 1999
June 23, 2005
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