Valence: An App for Teaching Chemical Bonding

Lisa B. Lewis and Alex M. Clark July 16, 2014

Students and mobile devices

in CHEM 121

*A different vision of the way people will access information, learn, amuse themselves and create material with others is emerging.

*(Apps are) ubiquitous, powerful, and strongly structured, and Gardner and Davis argue that they’re changing the way we think. “Young people growing up in our time are not only immersed in apps,” they write, “they’ve come to think of the world as an ensemble of apps, to see their lives as a string of ordered apps,…”

- Howard Gardner

Mobile devices to change education?

The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/ & The Future of Apps and Web, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web.aspx & Is There an App for That? By K. Xue, Harvard Magazine Nov.-Dec. 2013.

--Just-in-time information--

62% of the entire adult population have used their cell/smartphone within the last 30 days to:

*find information to settle an argument,

*solve an unexpected problem,*get up-to-the-minute traffic

information,*decide on a restaurant, etc.

Mobile devices to change education?

Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Just-in-time.aspxt

http://www.cellphonebeat.com/5-reasons-sleep-cellphone.html

Mobile devices to change education?

How smartphones make people feel

KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.

This,

not this... http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/great-lecture-what-was-it-about-again/2004222.article#

Our vision for mobile apps...

http://www.tecca.com/columns/how-to-deal-with-your-partners-gadget-obsession/

* Provide immediate access

* Fun (exciting)

* Sense of accomplishment (productive)

* Social (connected)

* Playful (to encourage curiosity)

Our design principles...

* Learning goal centric

* Provide some background

* Test understanding

* Games, play & sharing

Native iOS app - Valence

* Tactile - move electrons to make bonds

* Visual - color coding provides contextual clues

*Audio – music plays with success

*Fun

Native iOS app - Valence

*Limited narrative

* Individual lessons

*Increasing complexity

* Reflection questions

Native iOS app - ValenceNative iOS app - Valence

*Five lessons (levels): main group hydridesmultiple bondssmall moleculespolyatomic ions exceptions to octet rule

* Can make mistakes

* Individual study or in class

Native iOS app - Valence

* Future:

Additional lessons

Chemical intelligence

Built-in analytics Game Center

Assessment of webapps

* AcidBase: Understand concept of acid/base strength; Be able to recognize strong acids and bases

* Shakespeare Sonnets: To understand the poems meanings and how rhyme and meter impact meaning.

% Correct in Listing the Strong Acids, Spring 2012

CHEM 121, section A(had use of AcidBase

webapp)

Perfect Recognition

CHEM 121, section B(did not have access to

AcidBase webapp)

Perfect Recognition

Surprise Quiz 141%

(7 of 17)59%

(10 of 17)25%

(6 of 24)29%

(7 of 24)

Surprise Quiz 267%

(12 of 18)83%

(15 of 18)48%

(11 of 23)65%

(15 of 23)

Surprise Quiz 381%

(13 of 16)88%

(14 of 16)76%

(19 of 25)92%

(23 of 25)

Assessment results for AcidBase* Students with access to AcidBase mastered recognition of strong acids sooner than those who were not given ready access to the app.

Time on task, as reported by the students

Time CHEM 121 Students Spent Using AcidBaseSpring 2012

0 minutes 22.7% (5 of 22)

< 5 minutes 13.6% (3 of 22)

5-10 minutes 27.3% (6 of 22)

10-15 minutes 22.7% (5 of 22)

15-30 minutes 13.6% (3 of 22)

> 30 minutes 0% (0 of 22)

Using AcidBase in the classroom...

*Pre-test.

*Brief lecture on acid/base definitions.

*Students use AcidBase app in class.

*Post-test.Avg. pre-test score = 6.7/12; Avg. post-test score = 9.6/12

Initial Assessment for Valence* My 10 year old daughter, no chemistry experience, plays with Valence for fun!

* Completed reflection questions for first two levels.

* Successfully pointed to where the lone pair is located on the 3-D model of NH3 & wrote the correct 2-D representations for SiH4 and H2Se.

* Device diversity

Valence only for iPad, iPhone and iTouch

Browsers read and render webapp code in different ways.

* Assessment

* Refine, update design

Challenges & future efforts

Why consider using these devices in the classroom?

4th Grade Science Fair Project

To begin their experiment, they needed magnets, nails, paperclips, a compass, a hammer .... ...and TWO iPods (stopwatch, camera, Google)!

These devices coming soon...

KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.

Acknowledgements* Ian MacInnes, Professor & Chair of English, Rachel B. and Emma Stapley, ‘16

*Guy Cox, Director, Ferguson Center for Technology-Aided Teaching & Learning

*Albion College Institutional Review Board & Chemistry and English students and faculty

*Albion College Hewlett-Mellon Faculty Development Fund

*Great Lakes Colleges Association as part of its New Directions Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

MOLECULAR MATERIALS INFORMATICS 22

Chemistry Apps11

Mobile MolecularDataSheet (MMDS)

MolSync SAR Table MolPrime+ MolPrime

Green Solvents Lab SolventsApproved DrugsReaction101 Yield101

Living Molecules TB Mobile ChemSpider SPRESImobileOpen Drug

Discovery Teams

Lisa B. LewisDepartment of ChemistryAlbion CollegeAlbion, MI 49224

email: lblewis@albion.eduphone: (517) 629-0252

Contact information

Alex ClarkPresidentMolecular Materials InformaticsMontreal, Canada

email: aclark.xyz@gmail.com