Innovative approaches to enhance student learning in chemistry laboratories: An independent study conducted in three distinct parts on solvatochromism, virtual reality and python programing applications

This dissertation is a three-component exploration into educational strategies aimed at enhancing student engagement and learning in chemistry courses. The first chapter proposes that we can significantly enhance students' understanding of complex phenomena such as solute-solvent interactions and solvatochromism. Utilizing the theoretical results and engaging in detailed experiments, students are anticipated to observe changes in the UV-Vis spectrum, vibrations frequency from FTIR and bond length of the carbonyl group (C=O) due to varying solvent polarities for Betanine 30 (B30) and Michler's Ketone (MK). The second chapter of this dissertation delves into the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) as an innovative approach to improve learning outcomes in chemistry lab experiments. In the process, we assess VR's effectiveness as a learning tool compared to traditional 2D video and conventional teaching methods to enhance comprehension of the titration process, increased confidence in burette reading, and improved accuracy in ascertaining the concentration of an unknown HCl solution. Chapter three of this dissertation focuses on coding programming to undergraduate students in physical chemistry classes. We believe that Python will help students understand programming better and use it for data analysis and visualization. We hope to see students get a deeper understanding of complex chemistry concepts, build their confidence, and answer difficult questions, like those about the Schrödinger equation. Ultimately, we believe that if students perform better on ACS exam questions, it shows that our teaching methods are effective in helping students understand complicated chemical concepts.

Author

• Shahryari, Elaheh

Identifier

hdl:10057/27422

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:soar.wichita.edu:10057/27422