Building on Faculty Expertise.
College and university faculty are normally expected to
balance classroom instruction and scholarly activities.
Because expertise in the latter is more easily identified
or predicted, faculty are often selected on the basis of
their promise for disciplinary research. A teaching curriculum
that focuses on carrying out and interpreting experiments
merges these two activities that are sometimes seen to be
in opposition. Both students and faculty benefit since the
disciplinary strengths of the teacher-scholar are effectively
utilized.
Efficient Use of Instructional
Time.
In most
introductory chemistry courses students are required to
spend three to four hours per week in the laboratory. This
often exceeds the time spent in lecture and, unfortunately,
may even exceed the time spent on homework. In addition,
laboratory sections are generally smaller than lecture sections
and are better suited for interactive and collaborative
learning strategies. Consequently, the weekly laboratory
exercise represents a significant fraction of available
instructional time and, in many ways, the most student-friendly
environment available.
Accommodating Student
Diversity.
Introductory
Chemistry courses are widely recognized as either gateway
or gatekeeper courses. They serve as prerequisites or entry
ways into many scientific and health-related careers. Since
the discipline has a vertical structure, students not ready
for a traditional chemistry course when they enter college
may be permanently denied an oppportunity to study for these
careers.
Because
students come to college with varying high school backgrounds
the content of General Chemistry if more familiar to some
than to others. An important feature of the laboratory-based
inquiry approach is that many topics can be presented in
a frame of reference that makes them appear equally new
to all students. Even the topics most familiar to well-prepared
students such as the mole concept and limited reagent problems
are not immediately recognized when introduced in a laboratory
environment. First-year college students are rarely able
to relate facts and theories from an earlier high school
chemistry course to the phenomenological reality of the
laboratory. They do not tend to correctly predict the outcome
of an experiment nor are they easily able to relate empirical
obervations to previous knowledge. Consequently, a laboratory-driven
course of the type discussed in this chapter serves to level
the playing field for all students. The better prepared
students benefit by having a course that hold their interest
and challenges them intellectually. The poorly prepared
students experience the rewards and encouragement of contributing
on a more equal basis. And finally, the instructor can better
judge the level of his or her presentation since student
performance is more closely tied to the current course.
