Research Question

Will inquiry-based laboratory exercises increase first-year chemistry students' experimental design skills?

Rationale

In terms of mimicking real-world applications of chemistry and biochemistry, few experiences can top the teaching laboratory. In this setting, theory learned in class is put to practice, and the creative process of experimentation in pursuit of meaningful results is made tangible. However, the General Chemistry Lab exercises at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) have involved students tackling preassigned questions with predetermined answers. Furthermore, the experimental approach to uncovering these answers was pre-prescribed and overly-simplified. As a result, students often do not develop important science process skills, such as designing experiments with appropriate controls, learning how to choose the appropriate instrument or data analysis approach to answer a question, or developing new protocols based on known procedures. To address these issues, the General Chemistry Lab curriculum at UMD was revised by transforming existing “cookbook style” exercises into more open-ended experiences that allowed students to design their own experimental protocols.

Hypothesis

We hypothesize that incorporation of more open-ended exercises into the first-year laboratory curriculum will improve student’s experimental design skills, as measured by a novel instrument and the Experimental Design Ability Test.

Approach