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The initial planning phase was completed for the introduction of Excel and KaleidaGraph for calculations and graphing data in the laboratory and Problem Sets of the General Chemistry courses, Chemistry 153 and 154. Written instructions as well as appropriate problems have been designed both for the lab, and for the lecture portion of the course. The laboratory instructors will complete a training session in January, in final preparation for using these materials in three experiments of the Chemistry 154 course in the spring semester.
Goals
Accomplished
1. THE
ENTRY
A set of directions for entering and starting EXCEL was prepared
with the able help of Abdul Shibli; Abdul found existing directions,
as I had asked him, and modified them initially to fit the general
needs of the course. I have taken these and added information
pertinent to the particular data and calculations, as these are
needed for the laboratory (experimental "wet" data as
well as "dry" exercises) in chemistry.
These directions will be used with the laboratory instructors
over the last two weeks in January, and then finally adapted and
edited before students use them in the spring semester.
2. THE WORK
Four sets of exercises were prepared:
(a) For the "Heat of Vaporization" laboratory a new
problem dealing with the topic, which will require students to
analyze the temperature and vapor pressure data in order to find
the heat of vaporization. This imitates a simpler problem that
students used to solve by hand calculations and graphing in the
past; the new data are more extensive and will show students the
advantage of spreadsheets in performing multiple, identical and
rather complex calculations.
(b) Directions for analyzing the data from the "Monochromator"
experiment, in which a non-linear curve is generated and used
for calibration of the visible scale to obtain wavelengths of
the observed colored lines of the atomic spectra. This is a fall
semester experiment, so the exercise will be used in the fall
of 1998.
(c) A long spreadsheet containing the atomic weights of all atoms
was generated, with the help of a sophomore assistant Dory Lev,
class of '00. This will be posted in the course dropbox and can
be used to calculate the molecular weights of all compounds with
ease. The molecular weight spreadsheet will form the basis of
the first exercise students will perform in the spring semester.
Herb Ellison is teaching the lecture portion of Chemistry 154
for the spring semester, but since I teach the enhanced section
we will collaborate in using this file as preparation for the
lab described in part (a).
I am considering guiding my sophomore students to the same file,
although I have not specifically planned to teach them Excel;
in this case I might let the computer-experts enjoy using the
file, as needed, and offer myself as a one-on-one teacher during
office hours for other students interested in learning to use
it.
(d) Data from the "Is Volume Additive?" experiment were
analyzed by spreadsheet by the students in the "enhanced"
section of the course, Chemistry 174a, during the fall term. I
prepared specific directions for a critical understanding of the
results. In this case, Herb Ellison had prepared the spreadsheet,
which we modified to use with the updated version of the laboratory
experiment.
[Is a 3% difference significant in view of the expected precision
of each measurement? The answer is "yes" and the conclusion
can be drawn that volumes of (some) liquids are not additive.]
3. THE STUDENT INVOLVEMENT
Unfortunately, I did not get far into this aspect of the project.
As described above, the original goals were met and exceeded for
the students in the "enhanced" course; but this we had
already introduced in the 1996-97 academic year. This time around
of course, I knew what I was doing far better, and could teach
the novices, while taking advantage of the expertise of the one
"computer-geek" in the group. (Miles Sweet '01 and I
shared some long sessions in which we happily taught each other
useful Excel tricks!)
Remaining
tasks
(a) Training Sessions for the Laboratory Instructors. Since one-on-one
teaching in small groups (in the manner used for the enhanced
section) is by far the best way to address and to take advantage
of student idiosyncrasies, introduction of the computer component
of these courses must be done during laboratory sessions. In my
proposal of July 1997, I did not think to consider that an extra
layer of training was a necessary component of this whole process.
In particular, I need to have a pretty thorough and chemistry-specific
workshop for the laboratory instructors, who know how to use spreadsheets,
but not necessarily how to teach others to construct them. It
was not possible to make the time for such a workshop once the
semester itself started. Instead, we will complete the training
in January, in time for using the materials for the course this
spring.
(b) Development of yet more chemistry appropriate problems, an
ongoing part of my regular work from now on. [J. Billo, from the
Chemistry Department at Boston College, has just published "Excel
for Chemists". The material covered is too advanced for the
purposes of this project, but the book will give me ideas and
inspiration.]
(c) Kaleidagraph has to be introduced into the picture now that
the Excel work is effectively in place.
(d) Evaluation of this component of the course by students. This
will be done according to my original proposal with an extra sheet
of questions added to our regular departmental course evaluation
in May. Last Wednesday's Faculty Workshop was very useful (in
many many ways) but particularly for thinking about what to ask
students in this May evaluation.
THE END, of the Report, but the project continues...
Last updated
on 1/26/99; 3:01:22 PM
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