Grounding chemistry instruction using visualizations in local and community-based environmental dilemmas appeals to students by eliciting and building on students’ personally relevant ideas.2,7 local dilemmas, such as the distribution of pollutants, give students opportunities to reflect on existing and new ideas from conceptual, ethical, and political perspectives.
Two recent reviews of the literature, however, find that typical instructional approaches to environmental dilemmas such as climate change are poten- tially fragmentary and unsystematic, and largely ineffective in impacting stu- dents’ attitudes and environmental stewardship, and thus further work on environmental dilemmas is needed.14,15
Including teachers in the research and design process is essential for con- necting visualizations and constructivist pedagogy to address environmental dilemmas in chemistry. research-practice partnerships (rpps) are long- term, systematic efforts to improve pre-college science curriculum through research.16 rpps include science teachers along with other stakeholders such as science curriculum coordinators, students, researchers, computer scien- tists, and professional chemists.17
rpps jointly develop chemistry visualizations and embed them in con- structivist pedagogy to illustrate environmental dilemmas. Using web-based, open-source resources ensures that materials are free and customizable.
This approach enables rpps around the globe to modify the visualizations and surrounding curriculum to meet the needs of their learners. often this
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involves refining visualizations built by experts to align with students’ prior knowledge and interests. We provide several examples.
18.3.1 Chemical Reactions and Alternative Fuels
The WIse Chemical reactions unit, for example, was built by an rpp of local teachers, education researchers, technologists, and scientists (25–30 partic- ipants each summer). In the unit, students explore visualizations to learn about the atomic properties of molecules, chemical reactions, formation of synthetic fuels, and the impact of fuels on global temperature. students model chemical reactions themselves, contrasting combustion of hydrogen versus a hydrocarbon to gain insight into the reactants and products in gas- oline use.18 To enable students to explore the impact of varied fuel-types on climate, the rpp jointly designed an interactive model where students can vary the use of different fuel sources to power cars in a city, and analyze the impact on Co2 emissions, global temperature, and cost over 100 years (Figure 18.2). The joint design of the model leverages each partner’s expertise. part- ners discussed, for instance: What are the most promising alternative fuel sources today that 8th graders could investigate? What calculation can you use to compare the Co2 emissions of varied fuel types? What variables need
Figure 18.2 Visualization of Co2 emissions by fuel types.
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to be considered (e.g., how far does one gallon of fuel move the car)? What is the efficiency with which each fuel is converted from chemical energy to the kinetic energy of the car? how much choice should we offer students in experimentation?
students use evidence from the alternative fuels model, as well as climate visualizations in the unit, to write a letter to explain to a policymaker how gasoline combustion works, why using gasoline contributes to increases in global temperature, and how the policymaker can address this problem with alternative fuels or a combination of fuel types. middle- and high-school chemistry teachers in the rpp further customized the unit to appeal to their students. each customized a template letter within the unit to address a dif- ferent policymaker who they thought was most relevant to their students (e.g., local congressperson, Ceo of a well-known car manufacturer). each teacher also incorporated additional data into the unit for students to ana- lyze because it was relevant to their selected policymaker (e.g., the percent of each type of fuel used in their city for the local congressperson). some teach- ers also modified the level of scaffolding within the letter template to help students integrate multiple data points from the visualization into their writ- ten argument. The customizations supported students to use their chemistry knowledge and evidence from the visualization to articulate the impacts of gasoline combustion on climate and propose a solution.
The following are two excerpts from 8th grade student letters written at the end of the unit:
Student A: “Energy is being released from combustion of gasoline. When gaso- line is combusted with oxygen it releases carbon dioxide and water. From this reaction large amounts of energy are released, making it possible for you to work your car. The problem with gasoline fueled cars are that they disrupt the Earth’s energy balance by producing too much carbon dioxide into the atmo- sphere for the earth to handle. A good alternative is driving petroleum (octane) fueled cars. Others might propose that we use natural gas. To convince the oth- ers in the city you need to tell them this. Using octane fuel less affects our tem- perature than using natural gas fuel by 1.7 degrees.”
Student B: “...In a gasoline chemical reaction, H2O (water) and CO2 (carbon dioxide) are released into the atmosphere. This happens because when you burn gasoline the atoms rearrange themselves from octane and oxygen to water and carbon dioxide. So, when you burn/use gasoline, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Because of how much we drive gasoline-fueled cars it disrupts our Earth’s energy balance. Burn- ing gasoline produces lots of CO2 into the atmosphere that the Earth doesn’t have enough stuff to keep Earth’s energy balanced. A good alternative to using gasoline would be wind. Using wind instead of gasoline would cut down the amount of CO2 that is produced into the atmosphere. The only problem with using wind-powered cars is that it costs more. But wind is the best solution so far, I believe.”
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18.3.2 Guiding Drawing of Chemical Reactions for Alternative Fuels
one rpp using the alternative fuels unit collaborated with a computer sci- entist to design an activity where students draw the arrangement of atoms before and after methane and ethane combustion reactions. The rpp explored designing automated, personalized guidance on the drawings.4 The rpp designed and tested automated guidance based on the KI framework, determining what type of guidance would help each student move one step further. providing immediate, automated guidance on each student’s work frees teachers to respond to individual students. This approach aligns with prior research demonstrating that using multiple representations of chemi- cal reactions and providing students ways to visualize the particles involved in the reactions can build chemistry understanding.18
The automated guidance was designed based on an analysis of 98 student-generated drawings. It helps students build on ideas about conserva- tion of matter, reactants, and products (see Figure 18.3). each hint, assigned as soon as the drawing was completed, recognized a promising student idea (e.g., conservation), posed a question targeting a challenge (e.g., how many molecules in the products) to elicit their ideas, directed students to a relevant resource in the unit, and encouraged the student to revise their drawing.
results showed that the automated guidance (aG) was as effective as teacher guidance (TG) in supporting students to revise and improve their drawings (effect sizes: d = 0.33 (n = 155; aG) and d = 0.39 (n = 108; TG)).4 students generally appreciated the automated guidance. however, a few
Figure 18.3 Visualization of the automated guidance step.
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mentioned that they could often get the teacher to tell them the right answer while the guidance made them figure out the solution.
Using automated guidance can ensure that each student receives personal- ized guidance on their understanding of chemistry concepts such as chemi- cal reactions in environmental dilemmas. advances in learning analytics are creating new opportunities to auto-guide student-generated work in chemis- try. These advances include algorithms to diagnose students’ logged choices in virtual experimentation and natural language processing models to assess student-written explanations.
18.3.3 Promoting Collaboration During Virtual Experimentation
students benefit from working collaboratively to explore dynamic chemis- try visualizations. In a series of studies, an rpp combined the constructivist activity structure of collaboration with dynamic versus static visualizations for chemical reactions in photosynthesis and cellular respiration.6 They focused on ways to support students as they distinguish among ideas. both the static and dynamic visualizations provided prompts to help students distinguish key concepts and evaluate their ideas. The findings indicated that collabora- tors who explored the dynamic visualization formed significantly more accu- rate and integrated explanations of the energy and matter transformations in photosynthesis and cell respiration than the static visualization group.
Drawing on analysis of classroom video data, the authors concluded that the dynamic visualizations were more effective than the static representations in helping students distinguish ideas about chemical reactions in photosynthe- sis and cellular respiration.
18.3.4 Designing Assessments that Make Student Ideas Visible for Teachers
To help teachers guide students as they explore visualizations, rpps create embedded assessments that reveal the heterogeneity of student ideas about environmental dilemmas. These assessments can help teachers diagnose student challenges and identify student ideas for use as starting points in a class discussion.19 For example, when studying chemical reactions, Zhang and linn asked students to draw four distinct steps in the process.18 They found that some students drew only two steps, expecting reactants to imme- diately turn into products; other students expected all the molecules to break into atoms and then reform. When embedded assessments reveal these views, teachers can plan a class discussion that guides students to analyze evidence and sort out their different views.
In another example, students studied a two-week project-based unit on desalination with a drought context.20 In this KI-aligned unit, that was used within a California high-school, students’ ideas about the California
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drought, water accessibility, and associated concepts were elicited. students explored chemical concepts related to desalination through visualizations of heat transfer involving solar radiation and a visualization illustrating how evaporation impacts the concentration of a saltwater solution (Figure 18.4).
students also had an opportunity to construct and test a desalination model in order to test their conceptual ideas for the unit. embedded assessments across different stages of the unit asked students to explain heat transfer from the sun, solubility of salt in water, and molarity connected to evapora- tion. The teacher in this study commented that the ability to review and com- ment on embedded assessments within the unit supported her in providing better and more accurate guidance to students.20
In summary, rpps are combining visualizations with KI constructivist ped- agogy to address environmental dilemmas and welcome students in chemis- try.17 activity sequences developed by rpps take advantage of collaboration, drawings with personalized guidance, and assessments that make student ideas visible. These sequences follow the KI pattern, helping teachers to sup- port students to connect scientific ideas to everyday life. such opportunities can raise social justice issues around environmental dilemmas.