The Collaboration and Guided Inquiry in the Organic Chemistry Laboratory (CGIOChem) project at Miami University explored how laboratory activities can be redesigned to be more student-centered through the development and implementation of inquiry laboratory guides with explicitly designed collaboration. Twelve laboratory investigations were developed to incorporate student collaboration and inquiry. Versions of the materials were used by six professors, over 25 graduate assistants, and over 1300 students in three classes at Miami University Oxford: organic chemistry laboratory for chemistry and biochemistry majors, the organic chemistry laboratory for pre-professional and science students, and the organic chemistry course for education, engineering and health science students. The materials were also used at the two Miami regional campuses by an additional four instructors and over 120 students. 

The materials were written for teams of four students and began with an initial investigation where each student worked independently to collect data from different, related experiments and contribute results to their team. The individual work was followed by a team discussion where students looked for patterns in data collected by team members. Finally, the team was charged with solving an additional, related investigation. Completing the final investigation depended on understanding the concepts common to the individual investigations and the final one.

The challenge in writing the investigations was designing four different, related, introductory investigations that were equal in difficulty plus creating a final, related challenge. This task was easiest for the introductory laboratory skills of chromatography, extraction, melting points, and spectroscopy. Some of the CGIOChem investigations have been institutionalized in the self-published laboratory guides produced at Miami University for organic chemistry courses.

A research study was conducted to measure the impact of the collaborative materials. Laboratory sections of students using one common investigation (selected from the set of four collaborative investigations) were compared to sections using the set of four investigations. Student impact was assessed using a post laboratory questionnaire with five content questions and seven attitude and affective learning questions.

In the laboratory investigation of hydrocarbon structure with a model kit and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance data, voluntary responses from 93 students resulted in a content score of 77% for students using one common investigation compared to 87% for students using the collaborative materials. The collaborative score was not only higher overall, the score was higher on each question. With a voluntary questionnaire, insufficient data was collected from later laboratories. To increase responses, the post lab questionnaire was made a portion of students’ grade. (Taking the quiz was required; agreeing to use the results in the research was voluntary.) With the questionnaire as part of the grade, performance on content questions was more variable. Still, each set of five questions showed greater or equal student performance with collaborative materials compared to common materials.

Student Performance Comparison: Collaborative Versus Common Materials