Experience chemistry like never before with our next-generation learning platform, Aktiv Chemistry. Learn how the platform:
Want to experience it all first-hand? Book an interactive demo with us at ACS (seating is limited)!
Find us at Booth #1220 in the Expo Hall!
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Five Aktiv Chemistry (Chem101) faculty will be presenting their research throughout the week. Check out the details below, you won’t want to miss their sessions!
THURSDAY 08:25am – 08:45am USA / Canada – Pacific – March 24, 2022 | Room: Room 33C (San Diego Convention Center)
Beverly Meinzer, Presenter
Division: [CHED] Division of Chemical Education
Session Type: Oral – In-person
Teaching college level chemistry has often been more lecture-driven than student-centered. The latter has been considered unnecessary for adult learners. However, in community college courses with students age 18-50+, the very same pedagogical tactics that seem best for younger learners have generated measurable improvements in learning, retention, and enthusiasm for chemistry.
Beverly Meinzer, two-time winner of UACCB’s Student’s Choice Outstanding Educator Award, Passport State facilitator for Arkansas (national program supporting students in transferring from two-year to four-year schools), has gathered qualitative and quantitative data showing the impact of her philosophical shifts in teaching. These shifts include recognizing students’ needs for more affordable course materials, friendly connections with teachers, positive reinforcement for their efforts, and empathy for the challenges they face outside the classroom. Shifts also include an effort to motivate students to do the hard work required to meet rigorous standards through gamification, explicit connections to chemistry careers, and mobile-friendly educational technology that scaffolds student learning as they work through problems and questions. As Meinzer stepped down from the stage to walk among students (projecting from a tablet instead of the podium), her class came alive. Students took to the whiteboard in her stead, exploring complex problems with peers. As she made learning increasingly accessible through recorded class sessions and office hours in larger classrooms at various times of day/evening, she engaged the students who previously struggled to meet within the schedule. This session describes these and many more specific, practical, do-able approaches that evolve your teaching practices to meet students where they are, and raise the bar on achievement and joy.
MONDAY 02:25pm – 02:45pm USA / Canada – Pacific – March 21, 2022 | Room: Room 20BCD Theater 3 (San Diego Convention Center)
Melissa Kistler Langston, Presenter; Sheela Venkitachalam, Presenter (Delaware Valley U)
Division: [CHED] Division of Chemical Education
Session Type: Oral – In-person
Online learning platforms have been proven to enhance student knowledge and retention in chemistry. Over the past 5 years, the chemistry department of Delaware Valley University has implemented various online learning platforms in its General Chemistry I and II lecture courses. This presentation discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each trialed platform for our student population. Presently, the department uses Aktiv Chemistry (Chem101). Aktiv Chemistry (Chem101) has proven a reliable tool for online lecture instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to use in traditional face to face lectures. Two faculty members teaching General Chemistry I and II courses will share their varied implementation and insights on using Aktiv Chemistry (Chem101) in their lecture courses.
TUESDAY 08:00am – 10:55am USA / Canada – Pacific – March 22, 2022 | Room: Room 33C (San Diego Convention Center)
Daniel King, Organizer, Presider; Adelaide Clark, Presider
08:25am – 08:45am
For many students, chemistry is a compilation of abstract ideas with no connection to their other courses or the world around them. However, to chemists, chemistry is the central science, helps us to understand how the world works, and will have an important role in solving many, if not all, of the global challenges we face, e.g., UN sustainable development goals. In this symposium, abstracts are requested that illustrate how real-world context (e.g., health science, materials, climate change) can be used to engage students and help them learn chemistry content. Examples are encouraged for lecture and/or lab in courses at all levels (K-16) and for all audiences (majors, non-majors and informal education).
Wednesday, March 23, 2022 from 8:30 AM – 8:50 AM, Room 33B/Virtual
SESSION: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Chemistry Education
Arezue Boroujerdi, Presenter; Brandon Yarbrough
Division: [CHED] Division of Chemical Education
General Chemistry is a gateway course that can deepen a student’s interest in science, or prevent them from pursuing STEM-related careers. By adjusting our teaching methods and curricular choices to fully engage students and scaffold their learning, we can expand students’ access rather than ‘weed them out.’
Most colleges today find their general chemistry courses enroll students with a wide skill variance. This challenge is significant at Claflin University. We are located in a region of South Carolina known for its inadequate public education funding. We enroll a student population, (90% African-American, 39% first-generation), often underprepared for college level learning. At the same time, our honors college attracts students with strong chemistry skills.
Our most impactful strategy is a ‘repetitive learning model’ that can be adjusted based on student mastery. We apply this to develop and reinforce good study practices. The Chemistry department has relied on online learning platforms to facilitate these activities. However, cost has been a limiting factor in the success of our students. Recently, we adopted an online learning platform for homework and quizzes that costs a fraction of other resources. The Aktiv Chemistry (Chem101) platform guides students in setting up dimensional analysis problems, drawing Lewis Structures, and writing nomenclature, and other supports. Since many students are visual learners, this guidance helps students repeat the presentation of their work in different components of the course: written homework and assessments. The low cost, coupled with the mobile functionality, has made an online chemistry learning platform accessible to 100% of our students: they have embraced this user-friendly resource and their grades have improved.
Learn about the development of Aktiv Chemistry and the AktivGrid for Organic Chemistry courses straight from our founder.
MONDAY 9:40am – 10:00am USA / Canada – Pacific – March 28, 2022 | Room: Room 20BCD Theater 3
Justin Weinberg, Presenter
Session Type: Oral – In-person
Using digital learning and assessment tools to supplement course instruction has become prevalent in many undergraduate chemistry courses. However, a specific roadblock has existed for Organic Chemistry courses, which lies in the choice of the chemical structure drawing tool implemented in these digital learning products. Existing commercial drawing tools have plagued Organic Chemistry students and instructors for years with steep learning curves and an abundance of grading inaccuracies. Given the fundamental nature of drawing to any Organic Chemistry course, this can often be a make-or-break situation — causing many faculty to give up on technology altogether in preference of traditional paper exercises.
Chem101 is a web and mobile app-based platform that enables instructors to integrate chemistry-specific active learning exercises into lectures, homework, quizzes, or exams for first-year and Organic Chemistry courses. This presentation discusses the design, development, and implementation of the AktivGrid — a new, patent-pending drawing system in Chem101 that was created specifically to help students learn in Organic Chemistry courses and tackle some of the existing flaws in traditional drawing tools.
The AktivGrid was designed with three main goals: 1) to create an intuitive molecule drawing experience for students; 2) to support the wide breadth of learning activities in a full-year Organic Chemistry course that range from nomenclature, synthesis, mechanisms or “arrow drawing,” resonance, and spectroscopy; and 3) to deliver students rich, pedagogically-intelligent feedback that helps them learn directly from their mistakes as they answer different learning exercises. This presentation will provide an in-depth discussion into the implementation of AktivGrid’s adaptive, hexagonal grid design and how it was created to quickly introduce functional groups and support any molecular geometry. It will also discuss AktivGrid’s feedback engine, which parses individual properties of molecules (parent chain length, functional groups, regiochemistry, chirality, bond types, etc.) to generate a snapshot of student misconceptions. Finally, specific examples and live demonstrations will be presented, and early feedback from pilot use cases will be shared.
Professors from over 600 colleges and universities pick Aktiv Chemistry to rev up engagement and improve learning outcomes.
One of our Learning Specialists will give you a tour of the Aktiv Chemistry learning platforms and provide a free instructor playground account with access to the content library.
One of our Learning Specialists will give you a tour of the Aktiv Chemistry or Aktiv Mathematics learning platforms and provide a free instructor playground account with access to the content library.
