Author(s): Robert Whitley
Mentor(s): Emily Heider
Institution UVU
Most foundational STEM courses that college students take rely heavily on exam assessments meant to test a student’s knowledge of conceptual and computation topics. This has led to some students adopting poor learning habits in preparation for exams, including rote memorization, "plug and chug" reliance, or random guessing. Something commonly noticed with those who adopt these poor habits is the lack of connection between the conceptual and computational. A student comes across a computational practice or exam problem and feels they do not know how to start without a large hint or cue. Due to this, a common lament from students in these courses is that computational problems tend to present greater difficulty relative to conceptual problems, take longer, and don't resemble examples done in class. This project aimed to use a System-Oriented Concept Map Extension (SOCME) learning intervention to help show students the complex web of connections contained in the computational problems of an Introductory General Chemistry Course. The project introduced a new assignment type for students throughout the Fall 2024 Chem 1210 Online Section taught by Dr. Heider. This assignment type was directly compared to and replaced about half of the discussion-based learning interventions Dr. Heider has used in past online sections of the class. The assignment involved four parts based around students using a concept map to guide complex computation problems. The parts included: a demonstration video, an example concept map, a list of complex question prompts to choose from, and a call to discuss and assess their peer’s work. Student's performance on select quiz and exam questions was compared to 5 previous semesters. Related computational questions saw a statistically significant increase in the percent of students successfully answering them. An exam average score was also statistically improved. These results reveal a promising future for this new learning intervention template.