Knowles Senior Fellow, Destinee Cooper, Published in The Science Teacher

Collaborative Modeling to Deepen Chemistry Learning

How can collaborative learning help students understand connections between molecular structure and observable properties in chemistry? Knowles Senior Fellow Destinee Cooper and Dr. Brooke Whitworth share four collaborative modeling tasks for high school chemistry in their new article in The Science Teacher: We’re all in this together: Collaborative modeling tasks for the chemistry classroom.

Article Abstract:
“This article describes four collaborative activities that we facilitate to engage high school chemistry students in the scientific practice of developing and using models in a chemical bonding unit. The activities presented incorporate both collaborative group work and kinesthetic methods to promote active student learning of chemical bonding concepts. These activities also support the development of essential skills such as teamwork and communication. We discuss how we have adapted these activities to be accessible for students and how these activities can also be used as a form of formative assessment within a larger unit on chemical bonding. We have found that these collaborative activities foster a more connected and joyful learning environment for us as educators and for the students in our classrooms.”