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Cultivating Conceptual Chemical Thinking: Can You Visualize It?

Cultivating Conceptual Chemical Thinking: Can You Visualize It?. Scott A. Sinex & Barbara A. Gage Department of Physical Sciences Prince George’s Community College. Presented at the Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical

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Cultivating Conceptual Chemical Thinking: Can You Visualize It?

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  1. Cultivating Conceptual Chemical Thinking: Can You Visualize It? Scott A. Sinex & Barbara A. Gage Department of Physical Sciences Prince George’s Community College Presented at the Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society held at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on 28-30 May 2002.

  2. Building A Conceptual Understanding Microscopic – the particulate nature of matter The atomic level (abstract) Symbolic – mathematical equation or chemical equation Macroscopic - observations or results of an experiment How we represent it The visible world or How we SEE it

  3. What we want students to do • Model data with algebra • Use graphical approach with simulations • Use science process • Understand concepts • Visualize at an atomic/molecular level Think critically!!

  4. Modified from Barry Adams, Apple Computer

  5. The following is a text of the emergency chemistry instruction system. This is only a test!

  6. Can you hit the bull's-eye? Three shooters with three arrows each to shoot. How do they compare? Both accurate and precise Precise but not accurate Neither accurate nor precise Can you define accuracy and precision based on the graphics above?

  7. How does the mass influence the vibration? H2 I2 MM = 2 g/mole MM = 254 g/mole 4111 cm-1 365 cm-1 The greater the mass - the lower the wavenumber Estimate the wavenumber for the HI stretch. 2919 cm-1

  8. Have you ever tried explaining the derivative to students? HCl + NaOH  NaCl + H2O The slope between each pair of data points. inflection point - changed from increasing to decreasing pH decreasing slope 7 increasing slope How is the slope changing? Volume of titrant (mL NaOH)

  9. How about intramolecular interactions? (Click on image to load movie- slow, big file) di-t-butyl peroxide Movie produced in Spartan ‘02 Discovering Intramolecular Interactions – html activity

  10. Can vibrations change the dipole of a molecule? (Click on image to load movie- slow, big file) CH2Cl2 Dipole moment Cl-C-Cl bond angle Movie produced in Spartan ‘02 Studying Vibrations in Molecules – html activity

  11. The tools of conceptual visualization • Animation in PowerPoint XP • Spartan ’02 computational chemistry software • Stella modeling and simulation software • Interactive Excel spreadsheets • Chime molecular rendering freeware • Netlogo simulation freeware • Flash animation software (future effort) Click on links above for information/download of software.

  12. Some more examples Interactive Excel: Weak Acid Behavior Beers Law Simulator (pdf activity using simulator) Netlogo gas particle motion Structure and Bonding – a series of Chime activities Stella model for crystal violet kinetics

  13. What are our outcomes? • Web-based interactive assignments – both in and out of class • More student involvement in class and lab – they are engaged! • More integration of mathematics • Can ask higher-order questions Let’s look at an example

  14. A higher-order thinking example: E = E’ – 0.0591 pH For the calibration of pH electrode: How does the measured voltage, E, vary with pH? How does the graph change if the glass membrane ages with time? What is influenced by a change in temperature? E ’ new E ’ E ’ is function of temperature too! E Slope = -0.0591 new slope pH

  15. This has been a test..... Department of Physical Sciences – downloadable resources at http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/psc Scott Sinex (sinexsa@pg.cc.md.us) http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/~ssinex see teaching and publications list Barb Gage (gageba@pg.cc.md.us) http://academic.pg.cc.md.us/~bgage see courses taught

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