New! Sign up for our free email newsletter.
Science News
from research organizations

Kitchen Chemistry Provides Distance Learners With Quality Laboratory Experiences

Date:
September 22, 2006
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
The laboratory sciences have not experienced the same progression as other disciplines in the online education boom as educators think labs belong in a traditional setting. Instructors will present evidence at the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society that alternative methods, such as kitchen chemistry, simulations and virtual experiments, are effective.
Share:
FULL STORY

Taking a college course online -- also called distance learning -- is now the norm for many students needing a more convenient and affordable way to earn college credits. The trend has not yet caught on for most science courses that require laboratory sessions, however, as many educators think it's unrealistic to teach the lab experience outside of the classroom.

Several chemistry professors tried to change that perception at the 232nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. Educators cited their successes with kitchen chemistry, lab simulations and virtual experiments, and provide suggestions on incorporating distance learning in the science curriculum during a symposium, Sept. 14, entitled "Distance Learning and the Chemistry Laboratory."

"Students have, by and large, done really well," says James Reeves, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, whose students conduct experiments in their own kitchens as part of their distance learning course. Reeves and Doris Kimbrough, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado at Denver, created several kitchen chemistry experiments for distance learners, which mimic traditional lab experiments but replace potentially dangerous chemicals with such common household items as baking soda and vinegar.

"You get lots of people whose knee-jerk reaction is: 'you have be in a lab to learn chemistry,'" says Reeves. "But my reaction is: everybody's in the kitchen and if you give [students] the right tools -- the same tools they use to carry out cooking dinner -- they can make real measurements, and that's really what a lab is for."

Reeves' online courses use the same sequence of topics outlined in standard chemistry textbooks, but his approach to first-year, general chemistry courses is conceptual. "It's not as important that [students] can make precise measurements in the kitchen," he says. "What's important is that they see the phenomenon; that they measure the phenomenon; that they work out what the measurement means in terms of the chemistry involved; and that they can actually compare it to the real world."

Reeves' research shows that distance learners who were given lab exams on qualitative analysis, paper chromatography and density, performed better than traditional students in all areas, which he will describe during the symposium.


Story Source:

Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Kitchen Chemistry Provides Distance Learners With Quality Laboratory Experiences." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 September 2006. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060915203126.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2006, September 22). Kitchen Chemistry Provides Distance Learners With Quality Laboratory Experiences. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 16, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060915203126.htm
American Chemical Society. "Kitchen Chemistry Provides Distance Learners With Quality Laboratory Experiences." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060915203126.htm (accessed October 16, 2024).

Explore More

from ScienceDaily

RELATED STORIES