CHED 10 |
| Stimulating the imagination of chemistry students with vivid imagery of the molecular scale is an important goal in chemical education. In the past few years, computers have been used for this purpose to depict aspects about molecular structure and dynamics of individual molecules; however this approach is frequently limited to visualizing one or a handful of molecules since representing an ensemble of thousands of molecules requires an enormous hardware and software set up not found in a typical teaching laboratory. Herein we present an inexpensive yet effective method that uses macroscopic metaphors to represent the molecular and nanoscopic realm and that allows for the application of the same mathematical operations used in general chemistry. To demonstrate this approach, we will demonstrate how to calculate the Molarity (M) of a snowing day, assuming that each snowflake is a molecule, or a raining day, assuming that each rain drop is a molecule. We will provide five testable macroscopic metaphors and their mathematical calculations as well as the experimental set up that allows for variation in the ‘molar concentration'. We will discuss their application in a Peer-led Team Learning (PLTL) workshop environment and how these activities stimulated student's imagination and helped them to develop a better vision of the molecular world, particularly, one in which an ensemble of thousands of molecules participate.
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Visualization and Learning Chemistry
8:30 AM-11:10 AM, Sunday, April 6, 2008 Hilton New Orleans Riverside -- Melrose, Oral
Division of Chemical Education |
