Large Interactive Touchscreens as an Opportunity for Synchronous Hybrid Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year of COVID-19 and its subsequent lockdowns. The time to return to face-to-face teaching has arrived, but the shadow of the disease still hangs over teachers, students, and society. Disruption in teaching can still occur for students, or even teachers, if they are either diagnosed as COVID-19 positive or as a contact case and forced to self-isolate. In order to limit the impact of self-isolation on learning, synchronous hybrid teaching (i.e., teaching face to face to students in a classroom and to students online at the same time) was successfully implemented owing to the combination of video conference software and a large interactive touchscreen. The setup presented in this paper allows courses to be broadcast to students at home (i.e., voice, visual pedagogic support, and, more interestingly, indications handwritten by the teacher) as well as simultaneously teaching to students in the classroom face-to-face. It also allows self-isolated teachers to teach tutorials from their home to students in the classroom. This paper focuses on the use of large interactive touchscreens for synchronous hybrid teaching and its evaluation by students using a questionnaire. The key findings of this study are that students prefer synchronous hybrid teaching rather than missing a course and that synchronous hybrid teaching should only be used in case of absolute necessity. © 2023 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Chemistry Students as Science Journalists: Creating a Virtual Magazine about COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is also an infodemic, which has brought scientists closer to the popular media, highlighting the need for training in public communication of science and technology. A virtual magazine environment based on this scenario was simulated during a science communication course attended by first-year undergraduate chemistry students, who assumed the role of science journalists. The instructor, in the role of editor, organized a special issue on chemistry and COVID-19 and structured the activities into science communication classes, agenda building, interviews with nonexperts, writing popular science texts, peer reviews, and online publishing. Fifty-eight popular science texts were produced on different topics of chemistry related to the pandemic. The activity contributed to improving communication, information literacy, and media and technology learning, which are among the 21st century skills for science education. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Approaches to Promoting Student Engagement in Organic Chemistry Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights and Reflections

Active engagement is critical to student success in Organic Chemistry. In this paper, I trace the trajectory of student engagement in an introductory organic chemistry lecture series over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. I detail my approach to cultivating student engagement in an online environment, evaluate the success of these approaches and discuss modifications, and recount our efforts to combat the "learned disengagement” that students exhibited upon returning to an in-person class format. Although engagement gradually dwindled over the course of online instruction, multiple interventions succeeded in maintaining a sense of classroom community in students and encouraging active participation. By building opportunities for engagement into the course structure and rewarding students who partake in class activities, I hope to once again enjoy the level of engagement that we had prior to the pandemic. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

"The Masked Scientist": Designing a Virtual Chemical Escape Room

Chemical escape rooms (ChEsRms) are educational games in which students use their brain, chemical knowledge, intuition, and a bit of luck to solve a mystery. At the Weizmann Institute, we have developed ChEsRms that are implemented by teachers in their classes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all the educational activities that took place in physical space, we decided to design a virtual ChEsRm (VChEsRm) that is fully conducted in digital space. We describe the design principles that characterize the VChEsRm and present the students' and teachers' perceptions of the VChEsRm and how it differs from the ChEsRm. We describe "The Masked Scientist", a VChEsRm in which students must identify a scientist using their knowledge of basic topics in the chemistry syllabus: the model of the atom, radioactivity, and the periodic table. This VChEsRm has added values, a connection to history, human rights, and sustainability, as well as interesting and surprising chemical facts related to everyday life. Since it is conducted in virtual space, it could also include experiments, procedures, and materials that are dangerous and therefore forbidden in a physical ChEsRm or that could even change the course of history. Importantly, this 90 min activity includes the VChEsRm (9 puzzles) and a 45 min follow-up session that deals with the ideas behind the puzzles. It was translated from Hebrew to Arabic and English;therefore, high school and general chemistry teachers around the world can easily use the VChEsRm in their class after reading this paper by clicking on the link. © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Harry Potter Themed Digital Escape Room for Addressing Misconceptions in Stoichiometry

Chemistry is often seen as an and content-heavy subject. Many students struggle with chemistry because they attempt to memorize the content without understanding the concepts. As a result, students often have misconceptions. COVID-19 has driven teaching and learning online, and an escape room teaching method, which is a way to enhance student engagement, has gained popularity among educators in higher education. This study examines the effectiveness of teaching through a digital escape room as compared to a typical online lesson with a collaborative learning method to address misconceptions in stoichiometry. A Harry Potter themed digital escape room is created to spark the students' interest in chemistry and address misconceptions. Thirty-eight students from the Nanyang Polytechnic Foundation Program participated in this study. The students completed a pretest, a post-test, and a survey, in addition to participating in the digital escape room and a typical online lesson. Four topics were covered in this study: balancing chemical equations, calculating empirical formulas, identifying the type of chemical bonding, and interpreting element symbols. Out of these four topics, it was discovered that students tended to have difficulty calculating empirical formulas. It was found that, on average, students showed a 10% improvement in test scores after being taught through the digital escape room. This result is similar to results obtained from a typical online lesson with a collaborative learning method (9% improvement). This implies that a digital escape room is equally as effective as a typical online lesson with a collaborative learning method at addressing misconceptions. Teaching through a digital escape room has shown potential additional benefits of enhancing soft skills, promoting teamwork, the ability to work under time pressure, communication skills, innovation competency, and increasing student motivation. The researcher recommends the use of a digital escape room to complement typical lessons for these additional benefits.

Design and Evaluation of the BeArS@home and Slugs@home Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-Style Online Laboratory Experiments

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of designing effective methods for remote teaching. At the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Cruz, instructors adapted to the necessity of remote laboratory instruction by creating choose-your-own-Adventure-style video-based online experiments introduced to thousands of students across 11 different courses. These experiments are designed to provide students with the opportunity to make and receive feedback on experimental decisions and learn from common mistakes that they may have encountered in hands-on laboratory instruction. Students' and instructors' impressions of the online experiments and student learning outcomes in both online and traditional laboratory courses were assessed using surveys, focus groups, and interviews via a mixed-methods approach. Though most respondents (79%) did not agree that online laboratory instruction was as effective as in-person instruction, the majority agreed that the online experiments were clear and easy to follow (75%), interesting and engaging (52%), and helpful for learning about lab techniques (70%) and the concepts underlying these techniques (77%). Many also mentioned benefits of online laboratory instruction, including flexibility in scheduling and an increased focus on conceptual learning. Assessments of student learning also suggested that students who took the course online learned as much conceptually as students who had previously completed the course in-person. The results of this study highlight the positive and negative aspects of this type of interactive online laboratory instruction, which could help inform the design of future lab experiences whether they take place in an online, hybrid, or in-person environment. ©

Going Virtual: Successes and Shortcomings of a Synchronous STEM Outreach Event

Gender disparities in STEM fields emerge starting in the fourth grade, when girls are less likely than boys to express interest in STEM fields. Outreach events targeted to girls during this crucial developmental period can foster a sense of belonging in STEM. Women+ Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and the Sciences (F.E.M.M.E.S.) is a student-run organization at the University of Michigan that organizes STEM outreach events for children in the fourth grade and older. During the COVID-19 pandemic, F.E.M.M.E.S. transitioned events to a virtual setting. This manuscript describes the design of the virtual program, which included hands-on activities, live virtual demonstrations, and engaged role models. This manuscript also presents survey results from participants and volunteers to demonstrate the overall success of the virtual program and areas for improvement. ©

The Development, Use, and Evaluation of Digital Games and Quizzes in an Introductory Course on Organic Chemistry for Preservice Chemistry Teachers

Due to the COVID pandemic, the introductory course on organic chemistry was developed and conducted as an online course. To ensure methodical variety in this course, educational games and quizzes have been developed, used, and evaluated. The attendance of the course, and therefore also the use of the quizzes and games, was voluntary. The quizzes' main goal was to give the students the opportunity to check whether they had memorized the knowledge needed in the course. Another goal was to make transparent which knowledge the students should memorize by rote. The evaluation shows that the students had not internalized all knowledge which they should apply in several tasks on organic chemistry. They answered multiselect questions in general less well than single-select questions. The games should combine fun with learning. The evaluation of the games shows that the students rated them very well. The students used those games again for their exam preparation, as the monitoring of accessing the games showed. Students' experiences with using electronic devices in general or for quizzes and games have also been evaluated, because their experience could influence the students' assessment of the quizzes and games used in our study. However, the students used electronic devices regularly and should therefore be technically competent to use our quizzes and games. The evaluation showed that the use of digital games for learning purposes is not very common, neither at school nor at university, although the students had worked with such tools before. The students are also very interested in using and developing such digital games not only for their own study, but also for their future work at school. © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Engaging K–8 Preservice Science Teachers through an NGSS-Based Climate Change Project

An interdisciplinary climate change project aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) was developed and implemented in an undergraduate chemistry course for K–8 preservice science teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Three demonstration activities aligned with NGSS and the Framework for K–12 Science Education are included in this project, which can be adopted and implemented in science classes in primary/middle schools. This project demonstrated to students how to align the activities with NGSS and the three-dimensional framework, as well as how to select phenomena on the basis of local relevant context and using the 5E instructional model in the teaching of the project. The preservice science teachers also learned chemistry concepts related to climate change through the project. Moreover, this project provides the opportunity for instructors to introduce the teaching of NGSS-based science activities to preservice science teachers using phenomena-based learning and a 5E instructional model. © 2022 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

Linking Chemistry to Community: Integration of Culturally Responsive Teaching into General Chemistry I Laboratory in a Remote Setting

The COVID-19 pandemic redefined how chemistry laboratories were taught. It also introduced a racial health disparity for Black and Brown people. The General Chemistry I laboratory curriculum at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Baltimore, MD, was redesigned to meet student needs during this challenging time. While surrounded by civil unrest and uncertainty, we wanted to reach our underrepresented students in a way that they felt seen and heard. "The Mystery of Mr. Johnson" series was designed to reinforce the role chemistry can serve in advancing equity in their community. This interconnected series of three experiments (Solutions, Titration, Spectroscopy) developed chemistry laboratory skills which were applied to diabetes, a COVID-19 comorbidity, and health disparity highly prevalent in Baltimore. "The Mystery of Mr. Johnson" series provided opportunities for students to gain exposure to the role of chemistry in addressing a health disparity that impacts their community. The culminating project was a public service announcement to communicate lifestyle changes and the prevalence of diabetes in the black community.

Student Perceptions of Remote Chemistry Laboratory Delivery Models

The COVID-19 pandemic of Spring 2020 saw chemistry instructors across the globe working to deliver traditional hands-on laboratory learning within a remote learning environment. This study focused on the student perspective on remote laboratory delivery models across 13 Fall 2020 chemistry courses with students from all four years of undergraduate study and varying declared majors. For those students who were able to experience in-person laboratory experiments, the majority indicated that they were of high value to their overall learning experience. Specifically, the students noted that the value of the in-person experiential laboratory learning was tied to their ability to learn and practice their technical skills while putting the theory learned in class into practical context and application. Remote laboratory alternatives in the form of video-recorded experiments and online simulations were seen to be less valuable to the overall student learning experience. While students indicated that they highly valued in-person laboratory experiences and would like to see them continually implemented within their learning experiences, careful design and implementation of remote alternatives may provide meaningful alternatives when in-person laboratory instruction is not possible or perhaps enhance already existing laboratory curricula.

Investigating Meaningful Learning in Virtual Reality Organic Chemistry Laboratories

Virtual reality (VR) lab experiences for organic chemistry were developed at NC State University as an accessibility tool for students who are unable to attend in-person laboratories due to disabilities, attendance challenges such as pregnancy or military deployment, or safety concerns. The resulting first-person VR experiences are immersive and realistic, with a virtual teaching assistant guiding the user along the steps required to complete the experiment, including feedback as needed. During the COVID pandemic, these laboratories replaced traditional face-to-face laboratories at NC State and several other universities. During the summer of 2020, we used the Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI) to measure both the cognitive and affective dimensions of students' expectations of the virtual lab before the course and their experiences with virtual reality after completing the course. Students who completed virtual reality laboratories reported more positive affective experiences than they anticipated, including little frustration or confusion in the laboratory. © 2021 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.