Faculty Reflection: Dave Finster

Wittenberg University
Course(s): I taught a series of modules in our second-semester general chemistry course. (This course is populated by students intending to major in science.)
Module Used: Climate of Change

A Success Story in Programmatic Change

I taught a series of modules about (the science of) climate change. The exercises were a combination of InTeGrate materials and other materials that I had developed on my own for a separate course about climate change. Since I was unable to allocate class time to this project, I cancelled some "regular" lab sessions and substituted the climate modules. I have some reservations about this strategy, but since the modules are data-rich and have the students analyzing data, it can be considered a "dry lab." By doing this, I was able to allocate about nine hours (3x3) to the project. This time allocation would be completely impossible in the "classroom" portion of this course due to the need to cover standard chemistry topics in the second semester of general chemistry.

Incorporating InTeGrate Materials

As noted above, I used a mixture of InTeGrate modules and my own exercises. Since this is/was a chemistry course, I felt compelled to use modules that heavily leaned towards the physical science of climate change. The InTeGrate modules are heavily focused towards the "earth science" perspective of climate change and I could not justify using (all of) them in my course. (I think that most chemistry faculty would not be comfortable in trying to do what I did - unless they have some specific background in climate change. Other topics are possible, of course.)

Adaptations

I did adapt a few of the InTeGrate modules so that they fit into my course more appropriately. In one instance it was clear that the InTeGrate module was designed for non-science students and I was able to delete about half of the exercise since my science majors already had some plotting and math skills that the module otherwise sought to explore and develop.

(As an aside, I would strongly suggest that the InTeGrate project work with non-earth-science faculty to develop modules for science-majors courses.)

Outcomes and Evidence

My list of learning goals was clear at the outset and I administered some exam questions related to these learning goals. I also used the Yale "six Americas" assessment as a pre- and post-assessment. My exam results showed that the students learned some "content" about climate change. The Yale survey showed some modest increase in awareness and concern about climate change. (A few of the most resistant students showed no change. This is, perhaps, expected since studies show that "information deficit" is not the primary factor in some climate "attitudes." Still, in a science class full of science majors this was a little disappointing. Feedback about the project at large was generally positive.