how do you make p-chem more fun and interesting to undergrad..?

[Quantum Buckyball]

My professor wanted me to get undergrads to participate in Q&A more often during recitation by making PowerPoint slides interesting and interactive.

 

I was like, "puhleaze..."

[alkylholic]

Use applications of the concepts as examples. 

 

Or resort to giving out free beer before the powerpoints. 

 

What part of pchem is this - thermo/kinetics or quantum?  

[fancyfeast]

Maybe you could start by seeing where the course structure leaves knowledge gaps for the students? Like with my pchem courses a lot of the times I just did not know how to study and what kind of questions would be asked and I never really felt that way with a course before or after. A lot of my classmates felt the same way, but we didn't know how to voice this without coming off like we wanted to know what exactly would be on the exam.

 

Not saying that this will be the issue with pchem across the board, but maybe find a way to get your students to be comfortable enough to directly or indirectly reveal where the course is lacking for the majority of the students. Maybe it's the lack of visible applications, practice problems, or concepts. 

 

When I'm tutoring a student who doesn't even know where to begin to ask questions, I go through the concepts covered and make them answer questions about them. "What is entropy? What does the term in this equation mean?" (Doesn't have to be that basic). I think as long as you don't give them answers or maybe even call on them individually (had a high school teacher do this and even though the majority of the kids were air heads, it was a really great teaching style), a discussion culture should arise. 

 

Or if you figure out that lack of questions to test understanding is the issue, working on problems in small groups can be fun. You could also use clickers if your university has them  

 

Just throwing ideas out while taking a break from my lab report. I don't know if this was helpful or really obvious. I'm only an undergrad so my experience with teaching more than a few students at a time is non-existent haha. 

[Chemcki]

This question is equivocal to asking how to make math more attractive to undergrads.... Many ppl I knew chose ochem or analytical classes cuz they just prefer less calculus and a higher GPA.

 

As a matter of fact, hardcore pchem is less attractive to undergrads also because they could not see much direct use of it in industries. 

Edited February 10, 2014 by Chemcki

[Quantum Buckyball]

Use applications of the concepts as examples. 

 

Or resort to giving out free beer before the powerpoints. 

 

What part of pchem is this - thermo/kinetics or quantum?  

 

quantum right now.....and thermo/kinetics in March

[Quantum Buckyball]

Maybe you could start by seeing where the course structure leaves knowledge gaps for the students? Like with my pchem courses a lot of the times I just did not know how to study and what kind of questions would be asked and I never really felt that way with a course before or after. A lot of my classmates felt the same way, but we didn't know how to voice this without coming off like we wanted to know what exactly would be on the exam.

 

Not saying that this will be the issue with pchem across the board, but maybe find a way to get your students to be comfortable enough to directly or indirectly reveal where the course is lacking for the majority of the students. Maybe it's the lack of visible applications, practice problems, or concepts. 

 

When I'm tutoring a student who doesn't even know where to begin to ask questions, I go through the concepts covered and make them answer questions about them. "What is entropy? What does the term in this equation mean?" (Doesn't have to be that basic). I think as long as you don't give them answers or maybe even call on them individually (had a high school teacher do this and even though the majority of the kids were air heads, it was a really great teaching style), a discussion culture should arise. 

 

Or if you figure out that lack of questions to test understanding is the issue, working on problems in small groups can be fun. You could also use clickers if your university has them

 

Just throwing ideas out while taking a break from my lab report. I don't know if this was helpful or really obvious. I'm only an undergrad so my experience with teaching more than a few students at a time is non-existent haha. 

 

I took the algebra based pchem when I was in undergrad, and now I have to teach the calculus based pchem, i was like oh hell no

[St Andrews Lynx]

I don't think that making the slides more "interesting" will necessarily solve that problem. 

 

Actually, my radical suggestion is to do away with a PowerPoint - everybody's eyes glaze over when confronted with one of them - and write out stuff on the board. That way you can ask "What variable goes in [blank in equation]?" or "Can anybody tell me 1 equation associated with the classical light experiments?".

[DropTheBase]

I don't think that making the slides more "interesting" will necessarily solve that problem. 

 

Actually, my radical suggestion is to do away with a PowerPoint - everybody's eyes glaze over when confronted with one of them - and write out stuff on the board. That way you can ask "What variable goes in [blank in equation]?" or "Can anybody tell me 1 equation associated with the classical light experiments?".

 

This x100000.

 

Using a PowerPoint is the most atrocious way to learn quantum. Quantum mechanics does not make any physical sense, so students have to see how the math translates into reality especially for strange concepts (i.e. the difference between superposition and statistical mixing). Derive things on the board and make sure the students are still with you once in a while.

 

Use PowerPoint for thermo, since thermo is boring no matter what you do.

[Quantum Buckyball]

Thank you for the feedback. I think it would be very difficult for me to write out (derive) every step on a blackboard...Odio las matemáticas

[St Andrews Lynx]

Thank you for the feedback. I think it would be very difficult for me to write out (derive) every step on a blackboard...

Think of how muscular your arms will be at the end of the semester, though!

[Cookie]

A lot of intro quantum can be explained and demonstrated clearly with Mathematica (orbitals, harmonic oscillators calculations...). Prepare a notebook and show your students the input and output. Working out the integrals and such are super easy in Mathematica, using classroom assistant palette. 

[Faraday]

A little late to the party but we looked at a lot of computer models and such in my class, and while I wouldn't really consider any part of Pchem particuarilly interesing it was at least nice to see the connection between all of the math into something a little more concrete.

 

Most students are not there to learn because they like accumulating knowledge, they are always wondering how something might be useful. If I ever teach organic chemistry I would have a weekly "drug of the week" and we'd talk about the functional groups we have learned in the molecule and how they are important. I remember how my organic professor had a fascinating bulletin board outside of her office showing structures of over a dozen progressively more powerful painkillers, and you could see the patterns in the functional groups as you went down the line. That's the kind of thing that helps a lot of people become interested in chemistry.

Edited February 21, 2014 by Faraday