Development and Use of Kitchen Chemistry Home Practical Activities during Unanticipated Campus Closures

• Madeleine Schultz ^[1] ; Damien L. Callahan ^[1] ; Anna Miltiadous ^[1]
  1. [1] Deakin University

     Deakin University

     Australia

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 97, Nº 9, 2020, págs. 2678-2684
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The closure of campuses in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that scheduled practical activities for introductory chemistry students could not take place. The first practical class started prior to shutdown, and 21.5% of the students undertook the face-to-face offering. The remainder completed an online offering consisting of the same worksheet with videos of each of the tasks, which relate to ions in solution: conductivity and precipitation. A Kruskal–Wallis rank sum test comparison of the marks for the first practical showed that online students had, on average, a 0.9/10 drop in their mark compared to the face-to-face cohort. We concluded that a significant proportion of students found the transition to online learning difficult with the technology we provided. Rather than add another online learning activity, we chose to develop simple activities that students could complete at home, along with worksheets linking their observations to the theory taught in class. The first kitchen chemistry activity included experimental measurement (timing water boiling), solubility (mixing water with salt, sugar or oil), heat capacity (heating salt, sugar, butter and water), combustion calculations for gas heating, and colligative properties (timing ice melting with and without added salt). The second kitchen chemistry activity involved adding a constant amount of sodium bicarbonate to differing amounts of vinegar to explore stoichiometry; relating this to gas law calculations, and an extraction of red cabbage or other colored food to investigate the pH of household items. The aims of the kitchen chemistry experiments were to develop student observation skills, emphasize the importance of measurement and significant figures and provide some simple hands-on and relevant activities that could be done safely at home. The proportion of students who submitted online chemistry practicals was the same as typically attends face-to-face practicals (90%). Preliminary evaluation through anonymous student comments and staff reflections suggests that this was a valuable exercise: most students were able to learn in this replacement hands-on environment, receiving mean scores of 7.5/10 or higher. We conclude that relevant, engaging kitchen chemistry activities are useful for foundation level chemistry students.