Developing and trialling PBL resources for undergraduate chemistry students Dylan P. Williams

1. Developing and trialling PBL resources for undergraduate chemistry students Dylan P. Williams dpw10@le.ac.uk (@dpw_uk on Twitter) DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

2. BACKGROUND • PBL approach introduced to chemistry teaching at Leicester in 2007 as part of the HEA/RSC ‘Chemistry for our Future’ project • Initially we used content based on existing i-Science courses for use in year 1 of our degree • Since 2007 we have modified the problems that we use in the year 1 module. We have also increased the amount of PBL in the course

3. WHY PBL? • Our original aims were: • To encourage students to engage with the subject at a deeper level • To allow students to see how to apply abstract chemical concepts to real-world situations • To embed the development of workplace skills in the chemistry curriculum

4. PBL IN YEAR ONE • The key features of our original implementation were: • Problems combined some existing resources with custom written material • Academic staff and postgraduates were used as facilitators – overseen by an educational developer • PBL unit ran for 10 weeks in a first semester year one inorganic and physical chemistry module – problems covered core chemistry (bonding, states of matter, etc.)

5. FINDINGS • The key findings from the 2007-2011 period included: • The use of PBL in year 1 had an impact on student retention (an increase from 83% to 89% in spite of an increased student intake) • Students appreciated the development of transferable (workplace) skills “Teaches you to work with different group members” and that it “reflects industry”1 • Student performance was at least as good as it was before the introduction of PBL • 1. A Nijjar, Robert Ward, “Formative Evaluation of Strand 3.2 of ‘Chemistry for our Future”, Centre for Recording Achievement, 2008.

6. KEY LESSONS • During this period we learnt some important lessons: • The resource has to be realistic! Use a consultant to help write it if necessary • To ensure sustainability, teaching by PBL must be efficient in terms of staff and student time and effort • There must be plenty of opportunities to give student feedback • Key findings summarised in two publications2-3 • 2. "A Tiny Adventure: the introduction of problem based learning in an undergraduate chemistry course." Dylan P. Williams, Jonathan R. Woodward, Sarah L. Symons and David L. Davies, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2010, 11, 33-42 • 3. "Context/Problem Based Learning in Chemistry - Sharing Lessons and Making it Work." Simon Belt, Dai Davies, Paul Martin, Karen Moss, Tina Overton, Sarah Symons, Dylan P Williams and Jonny Woodward, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2009.

7. THE CHEMISTRY OF ENERGY • In 2011 we made two successful bids to develop a series of new PBL resources as part of the National HESTEM project: • The Chemistry of Energy – developed by DPW in collaboration with a consultant who had industrial experience (Dr Kevin Parker, KKI Associates Ltd) • Chemistry’s Frontiers – developed by a Leicester based team (DPW with Dr Sarah Gretton and Dr Carys Bennett)

8. THE CHEMISTRY OF ENERGY • The Chemistry of Energy - a 5 credit resource which aims to challenge the popular perception that chemistry’s benefit to society is confined to medicine • Resource piloted in 2011-12 at Leicester, Edinburgh and Huddersfield • The problem is based on the search for a sustainable solution to a nation’s energy needs Miggslives on Flickr. Creative Commons Licence James Marvin Phelps on Flickr. Creative Commons Licence

9. ASSESSMENT • As well as the scientific learning outcomes, The Chemistry of Energy has a strong focus on the development of communication skills: • Students give a press conference • Students prepare written reports in the form of articles and letters • Students use a spreadsheet model to calculate the energy demands of a nation

10. PROBLEM DEVELOPMENT • The development of draft problems took place July-December 2011. • An RSC advisory panel helped ensure authenticity of the scenarios used in the resources • Draft resources were trialledand reviewed (by Professor Simon Belt) in early 2012 • Final resources were submitted in June 2012

11. HOW THE PROBLEM WAS USED • Two different approaches were used during the trial of the problem: • At Leicester – the problem was run in three workshops (each of two hour duration) in a year two communication module • At Huddersfield – the problem was run as a day long workshop in a year three industrial skills module

12. EVALUATION (LEICESTER) • 71.4 % of respondents agreed that the problem was interesting • 85.7 % of respondents agreed that this was a useful way of learning how to communicate science • “I thought this module was very useful, because I reckon employers always look for scientists that know how to communicate their words effectively and for all kinds of audience”

13. EVALUATION (HUDDERSFIELD) • 100 % of (24) students agreed that the scenario was interesting • Over 90 % of students stated that they liked working in teams • Over 70 % of students agreed that they were more comfortable about talking in public after this problem • “Overall, I think this is an excellent scenario. The resource provides just enough details to get started”Dr Christine Lamont

14. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • Royal Society of Chemistry and National HE STEM programme for funding • Professor Simon Belt for reviewing the draft resources • Dr Sarah Gretton, Dr Carys Bennett, Dr Kevin Parker, Dr Dai Davies (author team) • Dr Jason Love and Dr Christine Lamont (trial team)