Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-31-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Chemical Education

Abstract

Numerous options exist to assess student performance using standardized, multiple-choice exams at the course and department levels. This paper describes the development and implementation of an alternative department-level assessment for graduating chemistry majors. The assessment detailed here evaluates students’ ability to transfer chemical knowledge from their classes to a real life application, namely the review of a scientific paper. Working in groups of three with full access to reference materials, students review a paper intentionally doctored by the faculty to contain a variety of errors. Student groups identify and correct mistakes in a paper with content spanning numerous chemistry subdisciplines. To motivate student effort, a prize is awarded to the group submitting the most thorough review. The data collected from the “pHunger Games” will inform curricular reform and innovation throughout the department.

Keywords

General Public, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Curriculum, Testing/Assessment, Student-Centered Learning, Applications of Chemistry

Volume

93

Issue

12

First Page

2058

Last Page

2062

DOI

0.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00179

Rights

“This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Chemical Education, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work, see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00179

Comments

Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.

Included in

Chemistry Commons

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