Chemistry Discipline Network - Practical Chemistry

Investigating A Waste Sample: Analysis, Treatment and Disposal

TrevorDaniels — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 10:38:31 +0000

A laboratory based whole of subject 'Capstone' project which student carry out in teams. Multiple assessments cover lab performance, research skills, teamwork, communication in various modes and report writing.

This project constitutes a 6 credit point subject (1/8 annual load) and is designed to be a ‘Capstone’ subject. In teams, students investigate a complex waste sample for components of interest based on the team’s research of the material and its context. Teams or individual team members report at different times for different purposes. There are multiple assessments covering lab skills, research skills, teamwork, communication in various modes, report writing. Components of the assessments could easily be taken from the whole and utilised or adapted for use elsewhere.

Click here to see the project members evaluation of this item.

Click here to see the instructions to staff / students.

Assessment summary, details about each assessment follow:

#	Assess	%	Description
1	Laboratory performance	20	Individual: in-class observation and assessment of your actual laboratory practice, assessment of your laboratory notebook.
2	Individual contribution to team work. This assessment item is a hurdle component, requiring a minimum of 10/20 to pass the subject.	20	Individual, in four parts: Individuals are assessed in lab for collaborative activities and practices that support their team members. Regular contributions to online team discussion. Online end of session peer and self-assessment of individual input to team communication and collaborative processes. Individual students write two scaffolded self-reflection pieces on effective functioning in the team, one at beginning of session and one at end of week 13. Submitted to Moodle.
3	Week 4 Project Proposal	5	Team: Project proposal with introduction, methods and rationale; summary of planning to date; answers to set questions. Submitted via Moodle
4	Week 9 Results Summary	5	Individual: This is your individual table of results summarising all team data to date.
5	Major Report This assessment item is a hurdle component, requiring a minimum of 20/40 to pass the subject.	40	Individual: Written as a technical report, 30-40 pages.
6	Team Presentation	10	Ppt or other team presentation to class. Assessed on content, communication skills and team work.

Objective:

Year:

Three

Topic:

Parallel Practicals

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:49:57 +0000

Run practicals in parallel with the curriculum.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Active Learning
Lab-Based

Introductory and Applied Practicals

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:48:17 +0000

Provide more than one practical on a topic - an introductory 'this is how it works', and a second 'applied' version.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Active Learning
Lab-Based

Relevance of Practicals

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:46:21 +0000

Choose practicals that align closely with important topics. For Example, three ways of experimentally determining a rate law - all three ways should be used in the lab.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Active Learning
Lab-Based

Pre-Lab Activities

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:41:11 +0000

Carefully structure the pre-lab flow chart and pre-lab presentation to carefully explain all the key concepts involved.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Active Learning
Lab-Based

Concentration vs Total Quantity

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:36:57 +0000

For a demonstration of concentration versus total quantity: get three 100 mL graduated cylinders. And put a bit of food colouring in one and maybe dilute to 10 mL. Put an equivalent amount of food colouring in another and make it up to 30 and 100 mLs. It’s the same amount of food colouring in 10 mL, 30 mL, 100 mL. What will they look like? Dark, medium and lighter. Look down the top, what will they look like? Identical. It’s the same amount of molecules absorbing, blue, or whatever colour’s being absorbed. When you look sideways the concentration is shown but when you look downwards the total amount is shown.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Representations
Demonstration and Simulation

PhET Simulations

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:30:50 +0000

Use PhET and similar tools.

Link to PhET Colorado

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Representations
Demonstration and Simulation
Technology
Online and e-Resources

Link to Lab Experience

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:26:33 +0000

Use examples from the lab course/component to link to their own experience.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Content Structure
Big Picture Focus

Concept Map the Calculations

bdargaville — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 04:23:00 +0000

The way back-titrations are taught is often confusing. Get them to concept map the calculation. So, instead of trying to do the calculation in their head, map it out starting from where they end up, and then relate each of those steps to where that number is coming from. Have them think about it like it’s a reaction. Because they know how to do the math, and they can understand how to do it for a reaction. An example is the dissolution of calcium carbonate and trying to get them to work out how much carbonate is in a limestone sample. We use diprotic acid, so it’s got stoichiometry involved as well, and they quite often slip up on the stoichiometry problem, even at second-year level. Use that initial map that they’ve created to do the calculations and also map the uncertainties, so they can calculate an uncertainty in a multi-step process. That simple act of getting it out of their head and onto a piece of paper in a visual way works really well. You can do that as part of the pre lab, so get the group together, and create the map before doing the actual experiment.

Topic:

General Chemistry
Practical Chemistry

Strategy:

Representations
Models and Representations
Visualisation