Variety in Chemistry Education

Variety in Chemistry Education is an annual conference supported by the RSC, through its Tertiary Education Group, that provides a forum for exchanging teaching practices and ideas about the learning and teaching of degree level chemistry. There are also areas relevant to pre-degree level teaching, with the best ideas being readily transferable to different levels of chemistry teaching.

Students need to develop an understanding of chemical principles and the ability to apply their knowledge in unfamiliar situations. Increasing the variety of teaching methods can help students to achieve this. There have been many interesting developments in ways of teaching and Variety in Chemistry Education offers an opportunity for those involved to discuss new approaches and improvements in their teaching.

Teachers within higher education whether members or not are welcome at the meeting, and encouraged to present a poster, demonstration, workshop or oral presentation.

This years meeting was held at Keele University, an abstract of the conference follows.

Thursday 31st August to Friday 1st September 2006
Keele University

Paul Yates, Chair, RSC Tertiary Education Group welcomed delegates to the conference and introduced this years Nyholm Lecture ‘A Scientific Approach to Teaching Chemistry’ given by Norman Reid, University of Glasgow.

Then a series for oral presentations were given by various delegates, on different issues and problems within the Chemistry HE curriculum.

 ‘Feedback as a Catalyst for Change Within Chemistry Teaching’
Dr. Simon Bedford, University of Bath

‘Kissing Frogs: Isn’t It Time That Students Started Taking More Responsibility For Their Own Learning?’
Dr. Bill Byers, University of Ulster

‘Open-ended Problem Solving and the Influence of Cognitive Factors on Student Success’
Nick Potter and Tina Overton, University of Hull

Then a parallel series of workshops were held where delegates had a choice of which activity based session they attended:

‘Solving Fuzzy Problems’
Tina Overton and Nick Potter, University of Hull

‘Chemistry and Dyslexia: Developing Strategies for Students with Learning Differences’
Julia Dickinson, Manchester Metropolitan University

The afternoon session concluded with RSC Chemical Education Research Group Lecture ‘Problem Solving, Practical Work and Assessment’ given by Stuart Bennett, The Open University.

The RSC Tertiary Education Group AGM was then held for members, with an interesting and full agenda that included the new location of next years VCE conference, bursaries and financial statements, in addition to funding and publishing a pilot project on the current state of the chemical education literature.

The day then ended with a Wine Reception followed by the Conference Dinner held this year in the splendid surroundings of Keele Hall.

The second day started with a series of Oral Presentations:

‘Development of a Forensic Science Module to Assist Adult Returners to Physical Science Study’
Ciaran Ewins, University of Paisley

‘An Introductory Chemistry Course in Further Education’
Nancy I El-Farargy,  University of Glasgow 

‘Design of a Catalyst for Air Protection’
Anna Białas and Iwona Maciejowska, Jagiellonian University, Poland

‘Development Of A ‘Student Friendly’ Web-Based Teaching Resource For Organometallic Chemistry’
Philip King and Tina Overton, University of Hull

‘Use of Short Flash Video Clips in Chemistry Education’
Graham Currell, University of the West of England 

‘Re-branding of the Physical Sciences Internet Gateway’
John Blunden-Ellis, University of Manchester

‘Using Knovel to Research and Process Text and Data’
Anne O’Riordan, Knovel, New York

Then a parallel series of workshops were held where delegates had a choice of which activity based session they attended:

‘It’s Like This……: Exploring Analogy in Teaching Science’
Kevin Byron, University of Hull

‘Developing Games to Teach Chemistry’
Philip King, University of Hull

The day ended with a discussion session on  ‘What Could the RSC Do for Higher Education?’

The following contributions were given:

• Jo Tunney and Gemma Tobiason, RSC Education Dept
• Pat Bailey, Strand Coordinator, Chemistry for our Future
• Stuart Bennett, President, RSC Education Division     

Followed by discussion session.