Developing Students' Scientific Reasoning Abilities with an Inquiry-Based Learning Methodology: Applying FTIR Spectroscopy to the Study of Thermodynamic Equilibria in Hydrogen-Bonded Species

摘要

Laboratory experiences are a key and integral part of the chemistry degree that are intended to provide the students the necessary training for laboratory work and improve their scientific reasoning/research abilities and their understanding of the uncertainty in experimental measurements. Despite the unquestionable capacity of hands-on laboratory experiences to achieve these objectives, there is a general concern that, on many occasions, students are still somewhat immature in their ability to think things through, even in the latter courses. Keeping in mind that scientific reasoning is innate in humans, the reason why even science students may lack this ability near the end of their academic undergraduate trajectory may lay in the way that many of these courses are designed, i.e., mainly as follow-up recipes of chemical processes that, in the best of cases, will ensure that the participants seek information and reflect on the theoretical aspects related to the experiments carried out. In this work we present an inquiry-based learning approach (IBL) where students are expected to use FTIR spectroscopy and apply thermodynamic concepts to study the equilibrium of formation of H-bonded dimers of benzoic acid in solvents of different polarity.