Crystals for the classroom

An innovative, Web-based, undergraduate teaching-learning module

George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education Symposium in honor of Nicholas J. Turro

Ron Rusay1, Natalia Zaitseva2, Ellena Kutner1

1) Diablo Valley College / 2) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Crystals for the ClassroomBridging undergraduate STEM education and the frontiers of research

http://crystals.llnl.gov

• A modular collection of teaching-learning tools for undergraduate chemistry courses that can be adapted to teach various Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) topics and concepts

• Chemistry lessons are embedded in the story of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) http://crystals.llnl.gov/nif-kdp-frameset.html

• Learning activities were developed relative to the context of the research and science behind NIF.

Crystals for the Classroomhttp://crystals.llnl.gov

• Web based, distributed freely • Activities provide a diverse collection that support a wide variety of

learning and teaching styles: http://ep.llnl.gov/msds/Chem120/learning.html• Fundamentally aimed at a student seeing-hearing-doing

Crystals for the Classroomhttp://crystals.llnl.gov

Instructor - StudentActivities, Exercises & Resources

http://crystals.llnl.govSeeing:• Background Reading• Powerpoint Presentations• Visualizations: Time lapsed Growth

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Seeing:• Powerpoint Presentations• Visualizations: Time lapsed Growth• Simulations: Fusion - Fission

Instructor - StudentActivities, Exercises & Resources

http://crystals.llnl.gov

• Seeing - Hearing - Doing• Powerpoint Presentations• Visualizations: Time lapsed Growth• Simulations: Fusion - Fission• Hearing: President Truman’s Announcement of the Atom Bomb• Numerical and Graphical Problems• Student Worksheets• Glossary• Debate on Nuclear Energy• Writing Exercises• Interpreting Research Data• Experimentation• Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) Workshops

Instructor - StudentActivities, Exercises & Resources

http://crystals.llnl.gov

Acknowledgements