The lack of confidence of the students is due to the length of time away from formal study, poor performance in exams in the past, limited maths ability and the perception chemistry as difficult. The experiments build upon other sessions, stimulate the senses, allow interaction across the group and allow the opportunity for real discovery. They also allow new concepts to be encountered at the appropriate pace. The students are given a few tasks, then present these to other students. This is all to engender that chemistry is fun and students are constantly involved.
New information is presented in manageable chunks.
Demonstrators are role models Post-lab sessions are run that start with what happened last week. The practicals are integral to the module The practicals are marked liberally in the first couple of weeks. This was a workshop looking at what is done in to improve the learning of students. From the questionnaire sent to UK and Irish Universities, John received 47 replies in which it was indicated that institutions use the following methods. Teaching sums and equations Getting relevant data and calibration required for experiment.