Introduction
Chemistry is a beautiful subject that is too often sabotaged by poor pedagogy. As chemistry educators, we are bombarded with epithets like “I hated chemistry at school” or “I am scared of chemistry.” This comes as no surprise: the beauty of chemistry has been dulled by memorisation and tedious textbooks. Students emerge battle-scarred and thanking their lucky stars for a passing grade, but perfectly naïve of the way that chemistry underpins the world around us and is life itself. And with no superstar chemists like Einstein or Darwin in our everyday consciousness, it’s little wonder that this continues…
Or, at least, it did until the chemistry team at Massey University arrived on the scene. They have shared their excitement for chemistry to revitalise the teaching of the subject. They moved away from a traditional, rote learning approach to chemistry, to reformulate the discipline in terms of intuitive and fundamental concepts that can be universally applied. Every idea is rooted in something the students will have touched, smelt, or seen, to bring out the relevance of this subject.
Chemistry for Biological Systems is the fifth largest first-year course at Massey University with 370 students on campus plus 70 distance students. It delivers core chemistry principles to students who progress on to veterinary science, food technology, biosciences and the chemistry major itself. In addition to the changes in teaching philosophy, using small group environments in workshops and Laboratories has allowed students to practice core principles while creating a cohort vibe and enabling peer learning. Changing the assessment to specification grading to support achievement-based learning has improved satisfaction and engagement amongst learners, raised the number of passing grades, and retained students in greater numbers.
The teaching team
Chemistry for Biological Systems was developed and delivered by Vyacheslav Filichev, Gareth Rowlands, Shane Telfer, and Nessha Wise. Our teaching philosophy asserts that understanding molecules allows an enhanced appreciation of the physical world and its natural beauty. By providing a framework with which to understand chemistry, we have moved away from rote learning to using chemistry for problem solving. Working as a team has allowed us to use our different skillsets to strengthen our teaching to ensure that students have a positive experience.
The team covers all chemistry disciplines and various teaching approaches. As Course Coordinator for > 10 years, Gareth acted as the focal point for creating the new course. He is an organic chemist with 24 years teaching experience across two continents and loves science communication. If interested, please check www.makingmolecules.com. Vyacheslav works at the interface between chemistry and living systems, and, for 17 years has enriched chemistry teaching by bringing the laboratory into the lecture theatre. Nessha is a physical chemist and dedicated teacher. She has overseen Massey University’s foundation and bridging chemistry courses for 10 years and brings a student-centric focus to all we do. Shane is an inorganic chemist and one of Massey’s leading researchers. He has championed the practical skills involved in chemistry. By combining our diverse viewpoints, we have pre-emptively flagged problematic areas, highlighted misconceptions, and acted as a sounding board for each other’s ideas. As a group, we determined the content of the course and, more importantly, the general philosophy of the new course, allowing us to embed challenging material in the most appropriate learning environment (lecture, workshop, or laboratory). Our different backgrounds challenged preconceptions of the importance and difficulty of each topic, permitting us to identify new ways of covering old material. These interactions improved teaching practices in chemistry at all levels that would otherwise be hard to identify by self-reflection.
"Overall the teaching team is fantastic! ... I don't like chemistry really. But this team make the learning environment really awesome. They really help you understand."
Massey Online Survey Tool teaching survey 2023
and
"Amazing teaching team and sooo helpful and supportive. No complaints, just gratitude and appreciation!"
2024-Survey
Context
Globally, first year university chemistry is perceived as a challenging subject that is feared by students.1 Where does this reputation come from? Firstly, chemistry necessitates learning a new terminology before tackling the underlying concepts. Secondly, chemistry, unlike most subjects, requires students to think about unseen entities that behave according to what, at first glance, seems like an incomprehensible rulebook. Its reputation has not been helped by a curriculum that has remained unchanged for > 60 years and strongly emphasised memorisation over understanding. We routinely receive comments such as:
"Having little to no background in chemistry and being totally afraid of it I was nervous to say the least."
Unsolicited email 2022
"I used to think chemistry was terrifying and was so hard …"
2021-Survey
All of this is exacerbated by chemistry being seen as a ‘gatekeeper’ course for numerous study options at Massey, including sciences, food technology, animal, agricultural and veterinary sciences. The course must service students with diverse backgrounds, different abilities, and contrasting motivations; most students see chemistry as an obstacle to their dream job rather than a subject to be appreciated. Pass rates and almost daily examples of the public misunderstanding of chemistry reinforce shortcomings in chemical education.2 Many of today’s challenges have their solution in chemistry; understanding chemistry will lead to solutions in climate change, will help supply better ways of growing crops in worsening conditions, and will create drugs that improve health and wellbeing of the population. This was a major motivator for the course overhaul.
By 2017, it had become clear that the old course was no longer fit for purpose. We had to lower the ‘pass/fail’ boundary from 50% to 46.5% to prevent a large portion of the cohort from failing but 30% of the Manawatū cohort and 58% of the distance cohort still failed (based on the number of passes versus enrolled students). This was despite the fact that the majority of students taking the course had the recommended prior learning of National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 3 chemistry. It was time for a new course. Over the next two years, we revised the content, prepared a new study guide, and developed lectures, workshops and laboratories. In 2020 we delivered the fresh course. In 2023 we introduced specification grading to further support achievement-based student learning.
Although developed prior to the current national tertiary education strategy priorities, our approach identified similar goals. It was clear that our students needed to have a sense of belonging and ownership. This is provided in our workshops which create a more inclusive environment than in other large courses. The specification grading gives ownership of the process as students choose their own level of achievement. This mirrors Objective 1: Learners at the centre. The revised curriculum focuses on problem solving to give students sound scientific skills regardless of initial background (Objective 2: Barrier-free access), but also highlights the fun at the heart of chemistry. Our team approach in developing the new curriculum serves as an example of improving each other’s teaching and leadership skills (Objective 3: Quality teaching and leadership). Connections with stakeholders both in the university and externally ensure that the knowledge and skills are suitable for both further learning and/or future employment (Objective 4: Future of learning and work). Lastly, chemical literacy is key to addressing both local and global challenges, and our new course will further enhance the profile of tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand (Objective 5: World-class inclusive public education).
Teaching approach
In a student-centred approach, we need to ensure that every student is given the tools to succeed, regardless of prior chemistry experience. This is essential as we strive to make science more accessible to all providing them with the science literacy they will need to face the challenges of tomorrow. To achieve this goal, we introduced a new framework with scaffolded chemical concepts to everyday phenomenon and problem-solving skills that invite any student with minimal chemistry knowledge to start their academic journey. This starting point builds resilience against changes in high school curriculum and allow further development of the course to reflect societal and economic changes in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The redesign started by reflecting on how chemistry had been taught for the previous 25+ years. A visualisation of the redesign is given in Fig. 1. On the left of the diagram are the factors that we couldn’t change, either because they were out of our control (bottom left) or because we felt that these already offered a good student experience. On the right, we identified the bad, what we could remove from the course to improve it and the good, what we wanted to introduce to improve the student experience.
The redesign took the focus away from chemistry as a list of facts to be learnt. Instead, we developed core skills experienced by students in multiple ways. We built these skills into a narrative that connects molecules to the world around us. Small group learning, in the form of dedicated workshops and laboratories, was aligned with the lecture content and examples provided in classes (stories, chemical demonstrations) gave students an enhanced “feel” for chemistry while equipping them with the molecular principles needed in subsequent studies.
Details of the changes
Course content 2
Since 1959, chemistry education has focused on the reactions of functional groups;3 acids do this, alcohols do that. This has led to generations of students memorising lists of reactions without much understanding. Our approach, summarised in Fig. 2, is different and centred on using electrostatic interactions (“opposites attract”) to understand and predict molecular behaviour – the principle appreciated by organic chemists but undervalued so far in chemistry teaching.4 Starting from electron distribution within molecules, students build a framework that they apply to explain everything from physical properties, such as boiling points and solubility, all the way up to the reactions of complex biomolecules (fats, DNA and proteins). Chemistry is no longer an exercise in rote learning unrelated chemical knowledge, but all concepts are derived from a common starting point.
Instead of teaching each reaction in isolation, we emphasise the similarities between each reaction by using flow of electrons and simple curly arrows (↷), then demonstrate the generality of these concepts to the fundamental transformations of biomolecules, something the students can visualise. We show that the same underlying concepts answer how food chemists trigger milk coagulation in the production of cheese, how synthetic chemists can make polymers, like nylon, how biological systems form proteins, and how animals break them back down again during digestion. Each of these process uses completely different reactants. In classic textbooks they would be taught as different reactions, with students memorising each process. We show that this core concept can be used to understand the chemistry of everyday compounds and predict the chemistry behind new examples.
Pleasingly, during our redesign, other groups3, 4 have identified the same shortcomings in undergraduate chemistry courses, and we find ourselves at the forefront of a trend moving away from traditional memorisation of functional group chemistry to a more mechanistic model. But we have gone further by tying the chemistry to a cohesive narrative that demonstrates the biological relevance of these principles, showing how they underpin biological processes, thus enriching the learning experience and equipping students with skills and knowledge for their future studies at Massey University and beyond.
A good textbook is a powerful source of information that supports students’ learning. However, even modern undergraduate chemistry textbooks perpetuate the traditional approach to learning by structuring content by functional groups (e.g. alcohols, carboxylic acids, amines). This led to us preparing our own textbook (Fig. 3), with the same production values as published texts, and providing it to the students for free. It comprises 623 pages with > 200 newly created images, worked examples, and practice questions/answers.
"THANK YOU to the author of the Study Guide / Textbook!! It is a GODSEND for chemistry!! I've taken Chemistry in highschool and went through it for 2 years NOT understanding a SINGLE THING. I'd read A-Level textbooks over and over and just NOT get it. I was super worried about taking this chemistry course but you and the textbook have made it SO SO Enjoyable :) So thank you for writing this guide in HUMAN LANGUAGE for people to understand. It's really opened my eyes to seriously appreciating the world of Chemistry, and how truly beautiful it is!"
2021-Survey
and
"I really liked the Chemistry textbook that we had available, majority of my studying was based out of this, it was extremely helpful."
2024-Survey
Workshops and practical laboratories
To support student learning, we aligned workshops and laboratories with the content provided in lectures and our textbook as summarised in Fig. 4.
A key strategy to aid learners, overcome their fear of chemistry and master the content is to make them feel part of a cohort, allowing the students to work together in small groups, and to better interact with the academic staff. Our class comprises over 400 students over multiple campuses, so this necessitated a nuanced approach. Alternating workshops and laboratories was key, with students attending a laboratory one week, and a workshop the next. This allowed students to assemble into cohorts within the larger class.
In the laboratory session, students work through experiments both individually and in groups, growing their practical skills - an essential component of any science. An innovative approach has been the introduction of pre-lab questions, which are linked to the assessment, i.e. the graded post-lab questions can only be submitted if a threshold was met in the pre-lab quiz. This better prepares the students and enables them to forge connections between the classroom and the practical realisation of chemistry.
Tutorials in the old course were delivered to the whole class in a single sitting (> 200 students). The learning experience was inadequate and often intimidating. In the new workshops, 25-30 students work alongside staff, and this encourages small groups to form (4-6 students) that participate in peer learning. Through a series of graduated questions (basic, standard, and extended), students tackle the theoretical aspects of chemistry, embedding concepts and developing problem solving skills. The success of the workshops and laboratories is reflected by the course results and much feedback.
"Workshops and labs really helped. Both the practical application and having to work out problems with assistance really solidified my learning."
2023-Survey
"The workshops! they were able to help confirm all of the things we had been learning as well as being able to check things off with someone. It was a super cool environment where i was able to ask question without feeling judged."
2022-Survey
Specification grading
We have long been cognisant that traditional exams, combined with marking to a grading curve, are problematic in terms of inclusion, student persistence and the overall progression of learners, reinforcing the fear of chemistry.5
Specification grading is a learner-focused approach and aligns grades with specific Learning Outcomes (LOs).6 Most students are familiar with specification grading from NCEA. Our course content is divided into three month-long units, with each assessed separately. We have split the unit tests into two sections that allow us to determine which concepts each student had mastered.
The first section determines if a student passes the assessment (achieves a C grade) by mastering essential LOs needed for subsequent courses. The second section requires students to show an ability to use the core material in more advanced problem-solving LOs to achieve an A (excellence) or B (merit) grade. In this approach, each student can determine their own goals and level of study. Students who only need to pass can choose to attempt the first section only. If a course requires more chemical knowledge, the student can choose to complete section two. It also facilitates the ability of students to learn from their mistakes with minimal penalty. Should students fail to achieve a pass in one of the three Unit Tests, they can sit a supplementary test for that material.
Splitting the assessments in three tests and minimising the pressure has allowed more students to enjoy the course and this has been noticeable in course feedback.
"I absolutely love the way the course was structured ... It is very reasonable that there are three “big” exams worth 25% each, and that if you fail you can have a second try to achieve a C. In my opinion this is the ideal partitioning of assessment of student learning and understanding of concepts."
2023-Survey
and
"I found the course structure to be conducive to our success as the exams were broken down by units and helped us really assimilate each unit concept we needed for later parts of the course."
2024-Survey
Distance course
"We developed a distance course to blend with the on-campus delivery. For this, the course textbook is supplemented by short video recordings explaining the key concepts. We use shorter, more focused pre-recorded videos in place of lecture capture as there is evidence that these are more beneficial.7 The workshops have been replaced by Zoom tutorials to present an opportunity for students to interact with staff."
"The short lecture-style videos were greatly preferred over some of my other courses which had either lecture recordings or very lengthy pre-recorded lectures."
2023-Survey
The biggest challenge has been replacing the laboratory experience. This was achieved by using a combination of lab simulations on an outsourced platform called Labster (Fig. 5) and video recordings of our own laboratories. The interactive nature of the Labster simulations engages students and presents a satisfactory alternative.
"The virtual simulations that worked like a game were really good as they opened my eyes slightly to what chemistry looks like in a lab."
2022-Survey
Impact of changes in the first year chemistry curriculum
It took two years to create Chemistry for Biological Systems, and the new course was first offered in 2020. This was not ideal due to the disruption of the covid pandemic resulting in a hybrid course, combining face-to-face teaching with online sessions. But the development of the distance course meant we could offer a positive learning experience.
Overall, these changes have led to increased student satisfaction with the course.
"I have to admit, this course has exceeded my expectations by a mile. It's seriously well-structured, actually the best one this semester in my book. And let me tell you, you, Vyacheslav, and Nessha are freaking awesome teachers."
Unsolicited email to Gareth Rowlands, 2023 (post-pandemic)
While the 2020 results were excellent, we embarked on a process of continual reflection and improvement. Last year, for example, saw the introduction of specification grading for the Unit Tests, and the results are encouraging.
In 2023 and 2024, high pass rates meant that, for the first time in 10 years, we did not lower the qualifying mark in the formal assessments (Unit Tests). A flow-on effect was the increased enrollments in the second semester 1st-year chemistry course, Chemistry and the Physical World. In 2019, the last year of the old course, there were just 40 students; in 2023 there were 74 students. Our re-design triggered changes in the 2nd and 3rd year organic chemistry courses, which are now based on the teaching philosophy of the 1st year offering.
More students are completing and passing the course, a change in learners' perception of chemistry has taken place, and the broad relevance of chemistry is shining through:
"I have to admit that chemistry hasn't been my strongest subject however, I have thoroughly enjoyed your course and have learned just enough to want to know more."(Unsolicited email 2023)
and
"I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and your teaching. In high school I was always just missing out on good marks in Chemistry as I never really could quite understand all of the concepts. However, your way of teaching really made a huge difference in how I learnt."
Unsolicited email 2023
Leadership, partnership & collaboration
The first-year semester one experience is directly related to student retention in any university. A quote from Gupta and Hartwell8 states:
"For example, in case of STEM majors that require a basic understanding of chemistry, the prerequisite chemistry courses become a barrier. The curriculum and instruction in these prerequisite chemistry courses are not aligned with the knowledge and skills that students seek for pursuing various careers (pharmacy, premedicine and allied health sciences)."
With our new approach to teaching chemistry, we addressed the student’s fear of the subject, allowing a large student cohort, with diverse foundation knowledge, to embark on an academic journey while elevating students’ chemical literacy to the level required by our stakeholders. The delivery of the new course was supported by implementation of the small group teaching through reinforcement of chemical principles in workshops/laboratories. This was found to be beneficial for students as it gave them a chance to interact with academic/teaching staff and a chance to address gaps in their knowledge. An unforeseen advantage has been the development of a sense of belonging. Students who feel part of a group are more likely to continue their studies.9
The success of our workshops and specification grading has attracted the interest of colleagues within the College of Science, and we are all involved in disseminating best practice through formal channels, such as the College of Science Teaching and Learning Committee and our School’s seminar series, as well as informal discussions with colleagues over coffee. Various elements of our approach have already been taken up by several Science and Sustainability courses at Massey University.
In summary, the teaching team are successfully pioneering new approaches to teaching at Massey University, which has been recognised by Massey University VC teaching excellence award for 2023 (Fig. 6).
Sustainability
As with any redesign, there is a high initial workload cost, but over time it becomes more sustainable. Iterative improvements each year see more of the ‘low stakes’ assessment being moved online to speed up feedback to students so that they can identify and address areas of concern earlier. It also allows the same assessments to be used for both the internal and distance courses. This process has been facilitated by the introduction of specification grading, which allows the pass/fail competency section of the Unit Tests to be automated. Similarly, the workshop quizzes and the pre-lab questions are now all delivered through Massey's online learning platform. This year all the post-lab assessments were also provided online. This process has freed up staff time, allowing greater focus on the delivery of workshops/laboratories, and giving students more opportunity to interact with teaching staff.
Summary
So, have we produced an Einstein or Darwin to enter our collective consciousness? Only time will tell, but what we can be sure about is that we’re teaching chemistry in a better way - relevant, engaging, and vital to delivering better student outcomes and fundamental concepts that will stay with them in whichever direction they pursue. To sign off with some words straight from the horses’ mouths:
"I did the old version of this course last year and in my opinion, the way it was done this year was infinitely better and I saw a huge improvement of my grades compared to last year. I think the way this course is now is great."
2020-Survey
"This course changed my whole outlook on chemistry and i think it is the best course for anybody starting out university. I used to think chemistry was terrifying and was so hard. The way it’s taught at massey is something else!! Thank you so much teaching team."
2021-Survey
"I came into this course thinking it would be my worse as back when I went to school 12 years ago chemistry was my most difficult subject and least enjoyed, so I was nervous......only for it to turn out to be my favourite!...amazing what a good layout and good teachers can go for a student. 10/10"
2024-Survey
References
- Elbulok-Charcape, M.; McCallen, L.; Horowitz, G.; Rabin, L. A. Research in Science Education 2021, 51 (2), 469-491.
- Cooper, M.; Klymkowsky, M. Journal of Chemical Education 2013, 90 (9), 1116-1122.
- Cooper, M. M.; Stowe, R. L.; Crandell, O. M.; Klymkowsky, M. W. Journal of Chemical Education 2019, 96 (9), 1858-1872.
- Smith, D. K. Journal of Chemical Education 2023, 100 (3), 1164-1178.
- Bowen, R. S.; Cooper, M. M. Journal of Chemical Education 2022, 99 (1), 185-194.
- Arnaud, C. H. C&EN Global Enterprise 2021, 99 (15), 26-30. McKnelly, K. J.; Howitz, W. J.; Thane, T. A.; Link, R. D. Journal of Chemical Education 2023, 100 (9), 3179-3193.
- Guo, P. J.; Kim, J.; Rubin, R. How video production affects student engagement: an empirical study of MOOC videos. In: Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning @ scale conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2014.
- Gupta, T.; Hartwell, S. K. Enhancing Student Retention in General and Organic Chemistry: An Introduction. In From General to Organic Chemistry: Courses and Curricula to Enhance Student Retention, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 1341; American Chemical Society, 2019; pp 1-12.
- Fink, A.; Frey, R. F.; Solomon, E. D. Chemistry Education Research and Practice 2020, 21 (4), 1042-1062.
