Valence: An App for
Teaching Chemical Bonding
Lisa B. Lewis and Alex M. Clark
July 16, 2014
Students and mobile devices
in CHEM 121
Mobile devices to change education?
*A different vision of the way people will access
information, learn, amuse themselves and create
material with others is emerging.
*(Apps are) ubiquitous, powerful, and strongly
structured, and Gardner and Davis argue that they’re
changing the way we think. “Young people growing up
in our time are not only immersed in apps,” they write,
“they’ve come to think of the world as an ensemble of
apps, to see their lives as a string of ordered apps,…”
- Howard Gardner
The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/ & The Future of Apps and Web,
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Apps-and-Web.aspx & Is There an App for That? By K. Xue, Harvard Magazine Nov.Dec. 2013.
Mobile devices to change education?
--Just-in-time information-62% of the entire adult population have used
their cell/smartphone within the last 30 days
to:
*find information to settle an argument,
*solve an unexpected problem,
*get up-to-the-minute traffic information,
*decide on a restaurant, etc.
Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Just-in-time.aspxt
Mobile devices to change education?
http://www.cellphonebeat.com/5reasons-sleep-cellphone.html
How smartphones make people feel
This,
not this...
KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/
great-lecture-what-was-it-aboutagain/2004222.article#
Our vision for mobile apps...
* Provide immediate access
* Fun (exciting)
* Sense of accomplishment
(productive)
* Social (connected)
* Playful (to encourage curiosity)
http://www.tecca.com/columns/h
ow-to-deal-with-your-partnersgadget-obsession/
Our design principles...
* Learning goal centric
* Provide some background
* Test understanding
* Games, play & sharing
Native iOS app - Valence
* Tactile - move electrons to make
bonds
* Visual - color coding provides
contextual clues
*Audio – music plays with success
*Fun
Native iOS app - Valence
*Limited narrative
* Individual lessons
*Increasing complexity
* Reflection questions
Native
iOSiOS
appapp
- Valence
Native
- Valence
*Five lessons (levels):
main group hydrides
multiple bonds
small molecules
polyatomic ions
exceptions to octet rule
* Can make mistakes
* Individual study or in class
Native iOS app - Valence
* Future:
Additional lessons
Chemical intelligence
Built-in analytics
Game Center
Assessment of webapps
* AcidBase: Understand
concept of acid/base
strength; Be able to
recognize strong acids
and bases
* Shakespeare Sonnets:
To understand the poems
meanings and how rhyme
and meter impact
meaning.
Assessment results for AcidBase
* Students with access to AcidBase mastered recognition of strong
acids sooner than those who were not given ready access to the app.
% Correct in
Listing the
Strong Acids,
Spring 2012
CHEM 121, section A
(had use of AcidBase
webapp)
Perfect
CHEM 121, section B
(did not have access to
AcidBase webapp)
Recognition Perfect
Recognition
Surprise Quiz 1
41%
(7 of 17)
59%
(10 of 17)
25%
(6 of 24)
29%
(7 of 24)
Surprise Quiz 2
67%
(12 of 18)
83%
(15 of 18)
48%
(11 of 23)
65%
(15 of 23)
Surprise Quiz 3
81%
(13 of 16)
88%
(14 of 16)
76%
(19 of 25)
92%
(23 of 25)
Time on task, as reported by the students
Time CHEM 121 Students Spent Using AcidBase
Spring 2012
0 minutes
22.7% (5 of 22)
< 5 minutes
13.6% (3 of 22)
5-10 minutes
27.3% (6 of 22)
10-15 minutes
22.7% (5 of 22)
15-30 minutes
13.6% (3 of 22)
> 30 minutes
0% (0 of 22)
Using AcidBase in the classroom...
*Pre-test.
*Brief lecture on
acid/base
definitions.
*Students use
AcidBase app in
class.
*Post-test.
Avg. pre-test score = 6.7/12; Avg. post-test score = 9.6/12
Initial Assessment for Valence
* My 10 year old daughter,
no chemistry experience,
plays with Valence for fun!
* Completed reflection
questions for first two levels.
* Successfully pointed to
where the lone pair is
located on the 3-D model of
NH3 & wrote the correct 2-D
representations for SiH4 and
H2Se.
Challenges & future efforts
* Device diversity
Valence only for iPad, iPhone and iTouch
Browsers read and render webapp code in different
ways.
* Assessment
* Refine, update design
Why consider using these devices in the
classroom?
4th Grade Science Fair Project
To begin their experiment, they
needed magnets, nails,
paperclips, a compass, a
hammer ....
...and TWO iPods (stopwatch,
camera, Google)!
These devices coming soon...
KPCB Internet Trends Report, Meeker and Wu, May 2013.
Acknowledgements
* Ian MacInnes, Professor & Chair of English, Rachel B. and Emma
Stapley, ‘16
*Guy Cox, Director, Ferguson Center for Technology-Aided Teaching
& Learning
*Albion College Institutional Review Board & Chemistry and English
students and faculty
*Albion College Hewlett-Mellon Faculty Development Fund
*Great Lakes Colleges Association as part of its New Directions
Initiative, made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation
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MOLECULAR MATERIALS INFORMATICS
Chemistry Apps
Mobile Molecular
DataSheet (MMDS)
Green Solvents
Living Molecules
MolSync
SAR Table
MolPrime+
Lab Solvents Approved Drugs Reaction101
TB Mobile
ChemSpider
MolPrime
Yield101
Open Drug
SPRESImobile Discovery Teams
Contact information
Lisa B. Lewis
Department of Chemistry
Albion College
Albion, MI 49224
Alex Clark
President
Molecular Materials Informatics
Montreal, Canada
email:
lblewis@albion.edu
phone: (517) 629-0252
email: aclark.xyz@gmail.com