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A Poster Session in Organic Chemistry That Markedly Enhanced Student Learning

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P. A. Huddle

Department of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, P O Wits 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa

J. Chem. Educ., 2000, 77 (9), p 1154

DOI: 10.1021/ed077p1154

Publication Date (Web): September 1, 2000

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

Chemistry courses worldwide have experienced dwindling student numbers and decreasing success rates in recent years. This has led to many proposals on ways to get students actively involved in their courses. At the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, our ChemII course has suffered a similar fate and the introduction of cooperative small group tutorials to get students actively involved in the learning process has met with limited success. Further innovations were introduced into the Organic II module, but students' perception of the module remained negative and their commitment to it has dwindled over the years. In the first semester of 1998 the ChemII class at Wits performed particularly poorly and only 23% of the students passed. In an attempt to improve this situation in the second semester, a poster presentation session was introduced into the Organic II module. The choice of topic for the poster was found to be crucial to the success of the innovation, which resulted in students' increased enthusiasm for, commitment to, and understanding of organic chemistry. Relative to the previous year, the class average for the Organic II module increased by 10% and the pass rate by 30% while the class average and pass rates in the other three ChemII modules (inorganic, analytical and physical) dropped by comparable amounts. This improvement in performance in the Organic II module is credited to the poster presentations shifting most students from a "futile learning cycle" into a "productive" one.

Keywords (Audience):

High School / Introductory Chemistry

Keywords (Domain):

Organic Chemistry

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Testing / Assessment

Keywords (Subject):

Learning Theories

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This article has been cited by 2 ACS Journal articles (2 most recent appear below).

The Role of Structure of the Discipline in Improving Student Understanding: The Case of Organic Chemistry
Gail Green and Marissa Rollnick
Journal of Chemical Education2006 83 (9), 1376
- The Role of Structure of the Discipline in Improving Student Understanding: The Case of Organic Chemistry
  Gail Green and Marissa Rollnick
  Journal of Chemical Education2006 83 (9), 1376
  This article arose from interesting observations during a larger study where the focus was on the interface between two years of university chemistry. Locating the interface was not as straightforward as anticipated owing to differences in innate ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links
Peer-Evaluated Poster Sessions: An Alternative Method to Grading General Chemistry Laboratory Work
Todd Wimpfheimer
Journal of Chemical Education2004 81 (12), 1775
- Peer-Evaluated Poster Sessions: An Alternative Method to Grading General Chemistry Laboratory Work
  Todd Wimpfheimer
  Journal of Chemical Education2004 81 (12), 1775
  The use of peer-evaluated poster sessions for evaluating laboratory work is discussed. Students in the general chemistry course present their lab results during weekly poster sessions at the beginning of the lab period. Each poster is graded by the ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links