Chemistry is rather abstract and can be difficult to latch on to and warp one’s head around, conceptually. I benefited from a brilliant instructor when I started out because he frequently did demonstrations (or his lab assistant did them) that kept us engaged or entertained or attentive or … I try to do something similar by incorporating analogies and real world, practical, everyday examples of the concepts we are discussing. I really enjoy doing this with gases because there are so many practical examples that most people don’t think or know about. Late this week, when talking about Kinetic Molecular Theory and Effusion and Diffusion of gases, we were rich with examples including skunks, perfume, leak analysis and natural gas, Heineken, and the Manhattan Project and isotope enrichment.
I noticed that several students (those over-achievers that inhabit the first or second row of the lecture hall) starting to look bored and complaining to each other that we were taking too long on this topic, which they apparently already knew well enough through memorized formulas, and wishing that we would please move on which we eventually did. After class, other students (from somewhere in the back of the lecture hall) came up and indicated that the examples really helped and that the lecture material was finally starting to stick and make sense.
Balance.
