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Valence: An App for Teaching Chemical Bonding. Lisa B. Lewis and Alex M. Clark July 16, 2014. Students and mobile devices. i n CHEM 121. Mobile devices to change education?.
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Valence: An App for Teaching Chemical Bonding Lisa B. Lewis and Alex M. Clark July 16, 2014
Students and mobile devices in CHEM 121
Mobile devices to change education? *A different vision of the way people will access information, learn, amuse themselves and create material with others is emerging.*(Apps are) ubiquitous, powerful, and strongly structured, and Gardner and Davis argue that they’re changing the way we think. “Young people growing up in our time are not only immersed in apps,” they write, “they’ve come to think of the world as an ensemble of apps, to see their lives as a string of ordered apps,…” - Howard Gardner The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/ & The Future of Apps and Web, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web.aspx & Is There an App for That? By K. Xue, Harvard Magazine Nov.-Dec. 2013.
Mobile devices to change education? --Just-in-time information--62% of the entire adult population have used their cell/smartphone within the last 30 days to: *find information to settle an argument, *solve an unexpected problem, *get up-to-the-minute traffic information, *decide on a restaurant, etc. Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Just-in-time.aspxt
Mobile devices to change education? http://www.cellphonebeat.com/5-reasons-sleep-cellphone.html
This, not this... How smartphones make people feel http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/great-lecture-what-was-it-about-again/2004222.article# KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.
Our vision for mobile apps... * Provide immediate access * Fun (exciting) * Sense of accomplishment (productive) * Social (connected) * Playful (to encourage curiosity) http://www.tecca.com/columns/how-to-deal-with-your-partners-gadget-obsession/
Our design principles... * Learning goal centric * Provide some background * Test understanding * Games, play & sharing
Native iOS app - Valence • * Tactile - move electrons to make bonds • * Visual - color coding provides contextual clues • *Audio – music plays with success • *Fun
Native iOS app - Valence • *Limited narrative • * Individual lessons • *Increasing complexity • * Reflection questions
Native iOS app - Valence Native iOS app - Valence *Five lessons (levels): main group hydrides multiple bonds small molecules polyatomic ions exceptions to octet rule * Can make mistakes * Individual study or in class
Native iOS app - Valence • * Future: • Additional lessons • Chemical intelligence • Built-in analytics • Game Center
Assessment of webapps • * AcidBase: Understand concept of acid/base strength; Be able to recognize strong acids • and bases • * Shakespeare Sonnets: To understand the poems meanings and how rhyme and meter impact meaning.
Assessment results for AcidBase * Students with access to AcidBase mastered recognition of strong acids sooner than those who were not given ready access to the app.
Using AcidBase in the classroom... *Pre-test. *Brief lecture on acid/base definitions. *Students use AcidBase app in class. *Post-test. Avg. pre-test score = 6.7/12; Avg. post-test score = 9.6/12
Initial Assessment for Valence • * My 10 year old daughter, no chemistry experience, plays with Valence for fun! • * Completed reflection questions for first two levels. • * Successfully pointed to where the lone pair is located on the 3-D model of NH3& wrote the correct 2-D representations for SiH4and H2Se.
Challenges & future efforts * Device diversity Valence only for iPad, iPhone and iTouch Browsers read and render webapp code in different ways. * Assessment* Refine, update design
Why consider using these devices in the classroom? 4th Grade Science Fair Project To begin their experiment, they needed magnets, nails, paperclips, a compass, a hammer .... ...and TWO iPods (stopwatch, camera, Google)!
These devices coming soon... KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.
* Ian MacInnes, Professor & Chair of English, Rachel B. and Emma Stapley, ‘16 *Guy Cox, Director, Ferguson Center for Technology-Aided Teaching & Learning *Albion College Institutional Review Board & Chemistry and English students and faculty *Albion College Hewlett-Mellon Faculty Development Fund *Great Lakes Colleges Association as part of its New Directions Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Acknowledgements
11 Chemistry Apps Mobile Molecular DataSheet (MMDS) MolPrime MolSync SAR Table MolPrime+ Green Solvents Yield101 Lab Solvents Approved Drugs Reaction101 Open Drug Discovery Teams Living Molecules SPRESImobile TB Mobile ChemSpider
Contact information Lisa B. LewisDepartment of ChemistryAlbion CollegeAlbion, MI 49224email: lblewis@albion.eduphone: (517) 629-0252 Alex ClarkPresidentMolecular Materials InformaticsMontreal, Canadaemail: aclark.xyz@gmail.com