Visualizing and teaching where the reality of chemistry meets the imagination

CHED 41

Peter Garik, garik@bu.edu1, Alan D. Crosby, acrosby@chem.bu.edu2, Dan Dill, dan@bu.edu2, Alexander Golger, golger@bu.edu2, and Morton Z. Hoffman, hoffman@bu.edu2. (1) School of Education, Boston University, Two Sherborn Street, Boston, MA 02215, (2) Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
Visualizing the electron and its behavior is a key building block for every student constructing an understanding of chemistry. Students wrestling with their visualization of electrons imagine them as particle-like objects. From this imagery flows Bohr model-like conclusions that electrons travel in circles and excited electrons jump from energy to energy. We are studying the use of interactive visualization software to provide students with an understanding that electrons are best described as fields. Our visualization tools tackle one of the most difficult quantum concepts by including the time dependence of the electron's complex wavefunction to help students build a visual approach to wavefunctions and the interaction of atoms and light. The software has been used with large classes of general chemistry students with a workbook of hierarchically arranged inquiry activities. The learning gains observed for these students are significant for one of the hardest concepts to visualize in science.
 

Visualization and Learning Chemistry
1:30 PM-4:10 PM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- Melrose, Oral

Division of Chemical Education

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008