Development and Evaluation of a Standards-Based Approach to Instruction in General Chemistry

Abstract

Operation CHEM1251 is an on-going project designed to implement a Standards-based approach to instruction in the general chemistry curriculum at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The project is a collaborative effort between the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Middle Grades, Secondary, and K-12 Education. Implementation of such an approach has shown an increase in both student performance and attitude toward chemistry. A Standards-based approach to instruction includes, but is not limited to, block scheduling the entire enrollment of one lecture class into the same laboratory sections and learning experiences structured in a learning cycle format. Analysis of the data gathered during this project indicates that this is the first time in five years that any day-time first semester general chemistry course section scored significantly higher than other concurrent sections on both departmental exams and the American Chemical Society's Nationally Standardized End of Semester Exam.