CHED 386 |
| We administered a new stereochemistry pre-test (Molecular Rotation Test) to all organic chemistry students prior to instruction in circular dichroism. This test measured students' prior knowledge of stereochemistry principles. After students used the CD equipment and learned about this experimental method, they took the post-test version of this assessment instrument. By comparing the two scores, we were able to measure any student gains in understanding stereochemistry and CD spectroscopy. All students also took the 20-item Purdue Rotation test (ROT) at the beginning of every course. This test has been used as a general measure of students' spatial ability but it is not known whether these skills correspond into improved scores with chemistry content questions dealing with stereochemistry. We examined the degree of correlation between the students' scores on the ROT instrument and their scores on the pre- and post- versions of our new Molecular Rotation Test. The project is supported by the NIH grant number P20 RR016469 from the INBRE Program of the National Center for Research Resources and by the NSF (DUE-0633462). |
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Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Chemical Education
11:00 AM-1:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Poster
Division of Chemical Education |