The development of Chinese undergraduate students’ competence of scientific writing in the context of an advanced organic chemistry experiment course

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 270-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Deng ◽  
Gregory J. Kelly ◽  
Lishi Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Chemistry Experiment ◽  
Development Of Students

This study examines scientific practices associated with scientific writing in organic chemistry in China. Although there is rapidly growing literature on the features and strategies of scientific writing, further research in this area is needed to recognize and treat scientific writing as a social endeavor to evaluate it in a more comprehensive and detailed way in order to effectively convey scientific information to readers. This study shared these important premises and attempted to investigate the development of Chinese undergraduate students’ competence of scientific writing. Twenty-two undergraduate students majoring in chemistry participated in this study. They experienced a researcher-intervenedAdvanced Organic Chemistry Experimentcourse and were asked to write scientific articles on the six course experiments. Their scientific writings were analyzed based on normativity, objectivity, and logicality. These dimensions of the development of students’ competence in scientific writing during the course were portrayed. This study suggested that student's development in scientific writing can be divided into categories, demonstrating the importance and implications of teaching “learn to write” in science.

Investigating students' similarity judgments in organic chemistry

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 774-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Graulich ◽  
G. Bhattacharyya
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Direct Perception ◽  
Critical Attribute ◽  
Visual Science ◽  
Similarity Judgments ◽  
Lewis Structures

Organic chemistry is possibly the most visual science of all chemistry disciplines. The process of scientific inquiry in organic chemistry relies on external representations, such as Lewis structures, mechanisms, and electron arrows. Information about chemical properties or driving forces of mechanistic steps is not available through direct perception, and thus looking beyond the respresentation is challenging for learners. In this study, we investigated the categorization behavior of undergraduate students enrolled in an organic chemistry course when engaged in various categorization tasks involving electrophilic addition reactions to alkenes. The critical attribute a student chose to make a category out of a set of reactions was classified as perceptual or relational and gave insights into how students process and store information about reactions at an early level of expertise. Our results support the notion that students are prone to the surface level of representations and make sense of reactions depicted in a very minimalistic fashion. Implications for approaching this phenomenon in teaching are discussed.

Dediazoniations in Water: An Integrated Physical Organic Chemistry Experiment

2000 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Bravo-Díaz ◽  
Ugo Costas-Costas ◽  
Román Pazo-LLorente ◽  
Elisa González-Romero
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Physical Organic Chemistry ◽  
Physical Organic ◽  
Chemistry Experiment

Introducing Undergraduate Students to Electrochemistry: A Two-Week Discovery Chemistry Experiment

2008 ◽  
Vol 85 (8) ◽  
pp. 1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa P. Nestor ◽  
Mauri A. Ditzler ◽  
Kenneth V. Mills ◽  
Richard S. Herrick ◽  
Louise W. Guilmette ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Chemistry Experiment

scholarly journals Public perception of science of undergraduate students from the state of São Paulo: a study through the perspective of biotechnology

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Fernanda Oliveira Simon ◽  
Estéfano Vizconde Veraszto ◽  
José Tarcísio Franco de Camargo ◽  
Dirceu da Silva ◽  
Nonato Assis de Miranda
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Mixed Approach

The association between scientific knowledge and attitudes toward science has historical, social and political implications. Therefore, it becomes essential to assess public attitudes in face of science as these relate to the changing context of scientific practices and their implications on practical and social problems. Thus, this paper presents results of a survey developed from a mixed approach, which evaluated the public perception of science and attitudes in face of the scientific and technological development, from the perspective of biotechnology, in a public composed of undergraduate students from different places of São Paulo State, in Brasil. The results obtained by confirmatory factor analysis are indicators that show that the conceptions that people have about science directly and positively influences their attitudes to science.

A critical perspective on industry involvement in higher education learning: Enhancing graduates’ knowledge and skills for job creation in Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 095042222091965
Author(s):  
Ugochukwu Chinonso Okolie ◽  
Chinyere Augusta Nwajiuba ◽  
Beatrice Eneje ◽  
Michael Olayinka Binuomote ◽  
Christian Ehiobuche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Job Creation ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Career Training ◽  
Rich Information ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
Development Of Students

This study explores how Nigerian higher education institutions can facilitate industry involvement in the design of programmes and activities that enhance the development of students’ knowledge and skills for business start-ups, leading to job creation. Using interview and focus group methodologies, the researchers obtained rich information from 50 participants, including higher education teachers, final year undergraduate students who had taken part in the compulsory Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme and industry executives with an understanding of how industry can make a meaningful contribution to learning in higher education. Focusing on four dominant themes from the thematic analysis, the authors analyse the factors that contribute to students’ knowledge and skill development. Building on human capital theory, they make recommendations for curriculum restructuring, renewed pedagogical approaches and competencies, building linkages between higher education and industry and career training and mentoring to enhance the development of students’ knowledge and skills for job creation.

Explicit versus implicit similarity – exploring relational conceptual understanding in organic chemistry

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 924-936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Graulich ◽  
Sebastian Hedtrich ◽  
René Harzenetter
Keyword(s):  
Organic Chemistry ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Substitution Reactions ◽  
Representational Competence ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Large Molecules ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Research And Teaching

Learning to interpret organic structures not as an arrangement of lines and letters but, rather, as a representation of chemical entities is a challenge in organic chemistry. To successfully deal with the variety of molecules or mechanistic representations, a learner needs to understand how a representation depicts domain-specific information. Various studies that focused on representational competence have already investigated how learners relate a representation to its corresponding concept. However, aside from a basic connectional representational understanding, the ability to infer a comparable reactivity from multiple different functional groups in large molecules is important for undergraduate students in organic chemistry. In this quantitative study, we aimed at exploring how to assess undergraduate students’ ability to distinguish between conceptually relevant similarities and distracting surface similarities among representations. The instrument consisted of multiple-choice items in four concept categories that are generally used to estimate the reactivity in substitution reactions. This exploratory study shows that the item design for assessing students’ conceptual understanding influences students’ answering patterns. Insights and pitfalls gained from this investigation and future directions for research and teaching are provided.

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