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School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and JILA, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States
S Supporting Information
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electronegativity higher]OK. [moves Atom A electronegativity slider higher and lower] Oh, it switches
[direction of bond dipole arrow]. Cause thatd be
more [Atom As electronegativity] and thatd be less
[Atom Bs electronegativity]. [selects Partial Charges,
then moves Atom A electronegativity to minimum and Atom
B electronegativity to maximum]
1:18 S1: Makes sense, all right.
1:19 S2: Yeah.
S1 quickly began interacting with the sim, exploring the atom
electronegativity feature and dipole representation. This pattern
of interaction is typical of students we have observed with sims
in interviews and classrooms.1216 The sims are designed so
that starting interactions are obvious and intuitive, and result in
immediate, productive feedback for sense making. The choice
of interactive features focuses attention on concepts, and the
intuitive design ensures students quickly understand how to
interact with the sim. In this example, the generic two-atom
molecule and the electronegativity sliders were inviting and
intuitive, like colorful, real-world controls. The students
immediately began interacting with this sim feature and making
sense of the bond dipole representation.
These students then discussed the relationships between the
electronegativity sliders and the periodic table, and explored the
bond character feature. Next, they moved to the Three Atoms
tab, where they grappled with the molecular dipole arrow
representation.
3:14 [Selects Three Atoms tab.]
3:16 S1: [rotates molecule] Oh, wow. [moves Atom C
electronegativity f rom less to middle, pauses, then moves
to more]
3:21 S1: OK.
3:29 S1: So what is this [molecular dipole arrow] pointing to?
Im trying to think how this works here. [moves Atom C
electronegativity f rom more to less] More, less[moves
Atom B electronegativity f rom the middle to less then to
more, then back to the middle, moves Atom C electronegativity from more to the middle, pauses, then to less,
selects Partial Charges, then Bond Dipole]
4:05 S1: OK. So those are just like when we were lookin at
the two [Two Atoms tab].
4:14 S2: Yeah.
4:16 S1: So its [bond dipole] always gonna be pointing
toward the negative. And then what does this [molecular
dipole] signify?
4:25 S2: The dipole. I guess thatsI dont know.
4:30 S1: I dont know how to explain that.
4:32 S2: Maybe the sum of the two bond dipoles.
4:34 S1: Uh huh.
The sequencing of the tabs provided scaolding to support
these students eorts to make sense of the challenging concept
of molecule polarity; their experience with bond polarity in the
Two Atoms tab allowed them to progress toward understanding the molecular dipole.
The sim provided a range of opportunities for conceptually
rich, student-centered activities and discussions. Within this
classroom, the teacher leveraged the implicit scaolding within
the sim to allow students to discover and make sense of key
relationships and representations. After 10 min of open play,
the students were primed to engage in and contribute to
discussions around these topicsfacilitated by the teacher and
a guided-inquiry activity (see In-Class Student Use section, and
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Figure 4. Example clicker question for use with Beers Law Lab
simulation. Image by PhET Interactive Simulations and used with
permission.
In this style of sim use, the teacher (or teaching assistant) asks
students to bring their laptops to class (or recitation) to engage
in an in-class activity with a sim.13 For tips on successful sim
use with student laptops, see Supporting Information. For the
example activity described below (included in the Supporting
Information), students are in groups with shared computers,
and use the Molecule Polarity sim while working through a
guided-inquiry activity facilitated by the teacher. The activity
has a modular, four-part structure, allowing the exibility to
choose a stopping point and ask students to nish outside of
class.
Part I of the activity includes a prompt for students to
explore the Molecule Polarity sim for 5 minutes. This open
exploration time with the sim allows students to nd all sim
features and to begin asking and answering their own
conceptual questionsas in the student transcript example
above.
Part II of the activity focuses attention on exploration of the
representations in the Two Atoms tab. Students are asked to
explain the ways to change the polarity of the generic two atom
molecule, cueing students to nd that dif ferences in atom
electronegativity aect bond polarity. Through the use of a
Concept Table (shown in Figure 5, Concept Table 1), students
are cued to connect the various representations in the sim (e.g.,
bond dipole arrow and partial charge symbols) with their
understanding of molecule polarity. The teacher could facilitate
a class discussion around group responses to the Concept
Table, and highlight or expand on student ideas.
Part III of the activity focuses attention on exploring the
Three Atoms tab, with questions that guide students inquiry
to include a second factor aecting polaritythe spatial
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UPCOMING RESOURCES
The PhET Interactive Simulations project continues to develop
new interactive sims for chemistry while shifting its sim
development to HTML5, a Web browser technology that is
compatible with tablets. We are also currently developing a
Teach with PhET Web site, to accompany the existing PhET
Web site. This new Web site will contain detailed professional
development materials and resources for teaching with PhET
sims, including video tutorials, guidelines and tips for sim use
across a range of implementation styles, examples of authentic
classroom use, and expanded sim specic teacher guides with
video introductions to individual sims.
CONCLUSION
A principal goal of the PhET Interactive Simulations project is
to transform the educational environments of both teachers and
students. PhET sims are research-based tools for teaching
chemistry that support the development of process skills,
content learning, and aective goals, in a way that is free, easily
accessible, and exible. In this article, we introduced the PhET
project, highlighted two sims for chemistry, and described a
range of approaches for integrating PhET sims into classrooms
and courses. We hope the examples, guidance, and links
provided here will encourage chemistry teachers new to sims to
consider ways of implementing PhET sims in their courses, and
inspire experienced sim users to continue nding and sharing
eective and creative ways of using the sims. Additional
supporting materials for sims, including activities submitted by
users, are available at our Web site.5
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail: Emily.Moore@colorado.edu.
Notes
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the PhET team for their contributions and
dedication. We also thank participating teachers and students
for their contributions to these eorts. This work was
supported by the National Science Foundation (DUE-
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REFERENCES
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