Investigating students' success in solving and attitudes towards context-rich open-ended problems in chemistry

Much research has been carried out on how students solve algorithmic and structured problems in chemistry. This study is concerned with how students solve open-ended, ill-defined problems in chemistry. Over 200 undergraduate chemistry students solved a number of open-ended problem in groups and individually. The three cognitive variables of working memory, M capacity and field dependence-independence were measured. A pre and post activity attitudes questionnaire was administered. The results show that there is a difference between the cognitive variables required for success in traditional algorithmic problems and open-ended problems. The context-rich open-ended problems significantly shifted students' attitudes towards problem solving

Investigating the effects of Transforming Laboratory Learning

KEYWORDS: inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, industry engagement, undergraduate, chemistry Background At Monash University, a program called Transforming Laboratory Learning (TLL) is being undertaken over the next 3 years which seeks to alter the undergraduate chemistry practical experience to incorporate more inquiry-based learning and to increase the industrial context of the program. Aims The aim of this project is to monitor the effects of the above undertaking on the student cohort, as well as the teaching staff at Monash University. Design and methods In order to investigate the effect of TLL, surveys will be given to all undergraduate students, teaching associates, other teaching staff and academics at Monash University. This survey will be a combination of an in-house tested open question (to monitor the potentially shifting beliefs of laboratory aims) and a literature validated tool known as the Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI, which tests for student learning during a practical experience). Furthermore, focus groups (of students and teaching associates) as well as one-to-one interviews with academics will be undertaken to obtain a more in-depth measure of the effects of TLL. Results To date, preliminary data of one chemistry course has shown that students predominately (>70% response) believe the point of the laboratory exercises is to reinforce lecture material with only a small cohort

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations

The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) is an ontology that provides terms with precisely defined meanings to describe all aspects of how investigations in the biological and medical domains are conducted. OBI re-uses ontologies that provide a representation of biomedical knowledge from the Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) project and adds the ability to describe how this knowledge was derived. We here describe the state of OBI and several applications that are using it, such as adding semantic expressivity to existing databases, building data entry forms, and enabling interoperability between knowledge resources. OBI covers all phases of the investigation process, such as planning, execution and reporting. It represents information and material entities that participate in these processes, as well as roles and functions. Prior to OBI, it was not possible to use a single internally consistent resource that could be applied to multiple types of experiments for these applications. OBI has made this possible by creating terms for entities involved in biological and medical investigations and by importing parts of other biomedical ontologies such as GO, Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) and Phenotype Attribute and Trait Ontology (PATO) without altering their meaning. OBI is being used in a wide range of projects covering genomics, multi-omics, immunology, and catalogs of services. OBI has also spawned other ontologies (Information Artifact Ontology) and methods for importing parts of ontologies (Minimum information to reference an external ontology term (MIREOT)). The OBI project is an open cross-disciplinary collaborative effort, encompassing multiple research communities from around the globe. To date, OBI has created 2366 classes and 40 relations along with textual and formal definitions. The OBI Consortium maintains a web resource (http://obi-ontology.org) providing details on the people, policies, and issues being addressed in association with OBI. The current release of OBI is available at http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi.owl

Erratum: Corrigendum: Sequence and comparative analysis of the chicken genome provide unique perspectives on vertebrate evolution

International Chicken Genome Sequencing Consortium. The Original Article was published on 09 December 2004. Nature432, 695–716 (2004). In Table 5 of this Article, the last four values listed in the ‘Copy number’ column were incorrect. These should be: LTR elements, 30,000; DNA transposons, 20,000; simple repeats, 140,000; and satellites, 4,000. These errors do not affect any of the conclusions in our paper. Additional information. The online version of the original article can be found at 10.1038/nature0315

Chemistry in sport: context-based e-learning in chemistry

Abstract: This paper details the design and use of a learning resource for independent learning in chemistry. The course presents chemistry in the context of sport and draws upon a number of models of teaching and learning, including the Perry scheme of intellectual development, multiple intelligences (MI) theory, problem/context-based learning (P/CBL), mind mapping, case studies and web-based independent learning. The resource was produced as a website containing the context, content, and the tasks to be completed as part of the assessment. Hyperlinks to additional content and external web-pages were also included. The students ’ response to the learning resource was positive; they enjoyed the course, found the context interesting and the presentation helpful. The assessment marks compared well with those from other modules taken by the same students in the same academic year. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract., 2006, 7 (3), 195-202

A novel code system for revealing sources of students' difficulties with stoichiometry

A coding scheme is presented and used to evaluate solutions of seventeen students working on twenty five stoichiometry problems in a think-aloud protocol. The stoichiometry problems are evaluated as a series of sub-problems (e.g., empirical formulas, mass percent, or balancing chemical equations), and the coding scheme was used to categorize each sub-problem solution as successful, neutral, or unsuccessful, with more detailed codes comprising the neutral and unsuccessful categories, for a total of eight codes. A relatively high frequency of neutral results was found in which students simply did not realize when or how to approach a sub-problem. A lack of conceptual understanding of the mole concept appears to be closely related to students skipping crucial steps in stoichiometry problems, especially the sub-problems stoichiometric ratio and mole concept. Students' failures were also observed to be due to a lack of basic knowledge, such as the names of chemical compounds. The application of the new code system was shown to reveal difficulties that might have otherwise been missed by an analysis that focused on end results only. © The Royal Society of Chemistry

‘What do you think the aims of doing a practical chemistry course are?’ A comparison of the views of students and teaching staff across three universities

The aims of teaching laboratories is an important and ever-evolving topic of discussion amongst teaching staff at teaching institutions. It is often assumed that both teaching staff and students are implicitly aware of these aims, although this is rarely tested or measured. This assumption can lead to mismatched beliefs between students and teaching staff and, if not corrected for, could lead to negative learning gains for students and become a source of frustration for teaching staff. In order to measure and identify this gap in a manner that could be readily generalised to other institutions, a single open question – ‘What do you think the aims of doing a practical chemistry course are?’ – was distributed to students and teaching staff at two Australian universities and one UK university. Qualitative analysis of the responses revealed that students and teaching staff held relatively narrow views of teaching laboratories, particularly focusing on aims more in line with expository experiences (e.g. development of practical skills or enhances understanding of theory). Whilst some differences were noted between students at the three institutions, the large amount of similarities in their responses indicated a fairly common perception of laboratory aims. Of the three groups, academics actually held the narrowest view of teaching laboratories, typically neglecting the preparation of students for the workforce or the simple increase in laboratory experience the students could gain. This study highlights gaps between the perceptions of students and teaching staff with regards to laboratory aims alongside revealing that all three groups held relatively simplified views of teaching laboratories.</p