A first-year general chemistry course based on constructivist principles and the learning cycle has been developed. Through the use of cooperative learning techniques, students are active participants in the learning process. No lectures are given; students follow guided inquiry worksheets to develop and understand the course concepts. Groups of about four students are formed and the instructor moves among the groups, serving as a facilitator. The laboratory is designed in the same way as the classroom component of the course. The students form hypotheses and collect data, leading to further refinement of the hypotheses and to formation of chemical concepts.
More Information
Citation
Farrell, John J.; Moog, Richard S.; Spencer, James N. J. Chem. Educ.1999 76 570.
Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.