Dear NEACT'ers,
If you're hanging out at home during our blizzard, and interested in the
problems we all have with students unprepared for chemistry due to issues in
mathematics, here are some possible items of interest.
Eric Nelson, author of chemreview.net, and I were co-moderators of this fall's
ACS/JCE Division of Chemistry Education (CHED) five-week online conference on
the use of mathematics in teaching chemistry:
https://confchem.ccce.divched.org/2017FallConfChem ;
I have presented my work in this area to NEACT on several occasions, but this
provides many additional viewpoints, from anecdotal information to formal
research.
There were eight ~5000-word papers presented, two per week, with a discussion
thread each week on the two papers.
The final week, which occurred over Thanksgiving, engendered additional general
discussion.
I'm sorry I neglected to send this notice previously so you could participate
in the discussion.
Nevertheless, the papers and discussion are still available for you to read by
following the instructions at the above website.
My paper on my Chem-Math Project is Paper #6, and Eric's on cognitive-science
research appertaining to students' use of mathematics is Paper #8.
At the present time, all eight of us are preparing ~800-word summaries of our
papers and the subsequent discussion.
These will be published in the Journal of Chemical Education later this year.
There are typically two ConfChems (as they are called) run each year, with one
on a selected pedagogical theme in the fall, and one on the use of computers in
chemistry education in the spring.
These go back to the early 2000s and are still available to read.
You may find the one on the Flipped Classroom from 2015 of particular interest.
That one was co-moderated by my co-moderator, Eric (Rick) Nelson.
Feel free to engage me in discussion, if you wish.
Best,
W. Cary Kilner, Ph.D.
Chemistry Education Research
University of New Hampshire
(formally a high-school chemistry teacher)
