scholarly journals Mapping undergraduate chemistry students' epistemic ideas about models and modeling

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 794-824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Lazenby ◽  
Avery Stricker ◽  
Alexandra Brandriet ◽  
Charlie A. Rupp ◽  
Kathryn Mauger‐Sonnek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Undergraduate Chemistry ◽  
Models And Modeling

How well does A-level Mathematics prepare students for the mathematical demands of chemistry degrees?

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1190-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellie Darlington ◽  
Jessica Bowyer
Keyword(s):  
First Year ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Undergraduate Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Study ◽  
Pure Mathematics ◽  
Entry Requirements ◽  
Good Preparation

332 undergraduate chemistry students were surveyed in order to establish whether they had found A-level Mathematics and/or Further Mathematics to be good preparation for their degree. Perceptions of both subjects were found to be positive, with more than 80% of participants describing Mathematics or Further Mathematics as good preparation. In particular, pure mathematics and mechanics topics were found to be the most useful. Additionally, over 90% of participants who had studied at least AS-level Further Mathematics reported that there was an overlap between the material they encountered at A-level and in the first year of undergraduate study. This indicates that prospective undergraduate chemists would significantly benefit from studying A-level Mathematics, and in particular may benefit from specialising in the study of mechanics, something which will only be possible through the study of Further Mathematics after qualifications are reformed in September 2017. Universities should consequently consider revising their entry requirements or recommendations to applicants.

scholarly journals Compreensão textual de artigos originais de pesquisa por graduandos em química

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. e8
Author(s):  
Flávia Gabriele Sacchi ◽  
Salete Linhares Queiroz
Keyword(s):  
Oral Presentation ◽  
Text Comprehension ◽  
Scientific Communication ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Undergraduate Chemistry ◽  
The Subject

Reading and comprehension of research articles (RA) by undergraduate chemistry students provides a greater ability to develop criticism and establish links between scientific contents. Even being such a relevant skill, research on the subject is scarce, especially in the Brazilian context. From this perspective, this paper aims to investigate the text comprehension of RA about the topic of biofuel, extracted from the “Química Nova” journal, by undergraduates from the area, in the context of a scientific communication discipline.  Therefore, we initially analyzed the retextualization carried out by a group of students from RA for corresponding oral presentation, and then established links between retextualization operations and text comprehension. The analysis was based on studies on retextualization operations and text comprehension, from the perspective proposed by Marcuschi.  The results indicated that the development of the oral presentation component slides took place without impairing the communicative purpose established by the RA authors, suggesting the undergraduates understood it.

Development and validation of an instrument to measure undergraduate chemistry students’ critical thinking skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-78
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Danczak ◽  
Christopher D. Thompson ◽  
Tina L. Overton
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Chemistry Education ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Internal Reliability ◽  
Validity Testing ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Undergraduate Chemistry

The importance of developing and assessing student critical thinking at university can be seen through its inclusion as a graduate attribute for universities and from research highlighting the value employers, educators and students place on demonstrating critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are seldom explicitly assessed at universities. Commercial critical thinking assessments, which are often generic in context, are available. However, literature suggests that assessments that use a context relevant to the students more accurately reflect their critical thinking skills. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a chemistry critical thinking test (the Danczak–Overton–Thompson Chemistry Critical Thinking Test or DOT test), set in a chemistry context, and designed to be administered to undergraduate chemistry students at any level of study. Development and evaluation occurred over three versions of the DOT test through a variety of quantitative and qualitative reliability and validity testing phases. The studies suggest that the final version of the DOT test has good internal reliability, strong test–retest reliability, moderate convergent validity relative to a commercially available test and is independent of previous academic achievement and university of study. Criterion validity testing revealed that third year students performed statistically significantly better on the DOT test relative to first year students, and postgraduates and academics performed statistically significantly better than third year students. The statistical and qualitative analysis indicates that the DOT test is a suitable instrument for the chemistry education community to use to measure the development of undergraduate chemistry students’ critical thinking skills.

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