Infographics to explain scientific concepts in Tyler Meldrum’s Chemistry 341 course

In a Nutshell

Chemistry Professor Tyler Meldrum teaches Chemistry 341, Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences, one of the last courses that students pursuing a chemistry or biochemistry minor will take. Students learn how principles in physical chemistry can be developed for and applied to examples from the biological sciences. Instead of a final exam, students create an infographic explaining a biophysical technique to synthesize what they have learned, both in the class and through their chemistry education overall.

Course Description

In this course, students learn apply the principles of physical chemistry directly to biological systems. The course covers topics like thermodynamics, nucleic acids and proteins, and spectroscopy. With approximately 15 to 20 students, the course acts as a capstone for their chemistry education with lots of discussion, literature, and teaching of technique. Although primarily taught as a lecture, students are encouraged to participate, especially when discussing assigned articles in biophysical literature. Similar to a typical chemistry course, Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences includes two midterms and regular homework; different than most chemistry courses, in place of a final exam, students create an infographic related to a technique, topic, or process that relates in some way to the course material.

Course and Assignment Objectives

After completing this course and its assignments, students should be able to:

Achieve quantitative competency in physical chemistry
Understand how physical chemistry and analytical methods apply to biological problems
Distill their chemical knowledge into a visual representation that engages and educates the audience
Recognize how to adapt explanations of chemistry – biochemistry in particular – based on the specific audience

Assignments

The infographic final project was worth 20 percent of the total course grade, with an additional five percent for feedback to other students. A homework assignment due several weeks before the infographic draft’s due date encouraged students to think about what makes a good infographic and to find possible issues with the rubric created by the class.

Homework 5

Determine the audience of two different infographics provided in the assignement
Grade the infographics using the class rubric

Final infographic project (25%)

Feedback (5%)
Submit constructive feedback to other students based on their drafts of infographics
Infographic (20%)
Create an infographic to demonstrate an understanding of biophysical phenomena visually
Choose from a variety of programs such as PowerPoint or Microsoft Sway to make the infographic

Lessons Learned

Things that worked well:

Collectively designing the rubric for grading, with Meldrum focusing on the quality of the content and the students deciding to incorporate rubric categories for layout, images, and creativity
Asking students to consider a specific audience for their infographic and to write a one-page paper spelling out their audience to help grade the quality of the infographic’s explanation

Things to think about improving for next time:

Maybe will not leave the format of the infographic as open next time

Major Takeaway:

In previous iterations of the class, Meldrum had heard from students who had forgotten the course material weeks or months after. He assigned the project as a way to help students remember at least one topic covered in the course by giving them ownership of a project laid out over a month and a half. When given an assignment with few restrictions, students created infographics that expressed creativity, an understanding of their chosen audience, and knowledge of a variety of topics related to chemistry. Professor Meldrum enjoyed grading the projects and felt that he had gained a different understanding of students’ comprehension of the material, which also helped with assigning their final grades.

Try it Yourself / Tools Used

Read

These books about visual (and non-visual) scientific communication:
A sample infographic about gas laws
A sample infographic about interpreting infrared spectra

Visit

The Reeder Media Center in Swem Library has computers — including laptops available to rent — with the Adobe Creative Suite
Tutorials on Lynda.com via Swem Library to learn how to use the Adobe Creative Suite, including Adobe Illustrator.

Shared Resources

Below are resources developed by Dr. Meldrum for his course. If these are useful to you, he would be glad to hear how you’re using them or incorporating them into your own teaching.

Fall 2017 Syllabus

Homework Assignment

Grading Rubric

Sample Assignment

About Tyler Meldrum

Professor Meldrum's areas of specialization include Physical chemistry, NMR methodologies, portable instrumentation and cultural heritage. His research focuses on understanding material properties and chemical processes in cultural heritage applications such as curing of paint, effects of coatings on porous materials, conservation treatments as well as non-destructive profiling of objects of cultural heritage for characterization and preservation.

Report abuse