Fall 1998 CONFCHEM Switching Students on to Science

Everyday Chemical Reactions: Promoting Interest and Learning Through Relevant Writing Assignments
Abby L. Parrill
Department of Chemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA

Summary:
Capturing the interest of students in required chemistry courses is a problem for which many solutions have been proposed and described. The solution proposed here is the use of a writing assignment on everyday chemical reactions. Students select their own organic reaction and apply concepts learned throughout the semester to understanding it. The assignment requires the synthesis of many concepts and has been quite challenging for students. During the course of three semesters the assignment has been modified to include incremental deadlines with feedback prior to the final paper deadline as a means to improve student learning and their papers. Considerable improvements, most notably at the low end of the grading scale, have been observed. Students have responded favorably to the assignment. Details of the assignment, student performance in the presence and absence of incremental deadlines, and student comments are available in the full text.