Bridging the Gap Between Lecture and Application in STEM Classes

Active Learning is a classroom approach in which students actively engage with subject material through practice problems, group activities, roleplay and more. Previous studies show that active learning works best when students engage in activities while already having a basis of lecture content. This study aimed to answer the question: to what extent should active learning be used in classrooms to achieve the desired cognitive response from students? Students were given lecture videos to watch prior to each class period. A hybrid classroom method was added to an existing general chemistry course where the first month of data collection included no lecture period, solely active learning, and the second month of data collection included practice problems integrated into a recap of the lecture material watched before class. Test scores were recorded per exam. Overall, students performed better on Exam 1 than Exam 2 but this is not an accurate representation of the research as the content per exam varies greatly in difficulty. Score release of previous semesters is under review for comparison with the current semester‘s scores to obtain an accurate representation of the effectiveness of the hybrid classroom.

Hi my name is Diva Habibi and I worked with Dr. Patrali Banerjee on a project titled Bridging the Gap Between Lecture and Application Within STEM Classes we worked within the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at George Mason University and we worked with a class titled General Chemistry for Engineers. Active Learning is an instructional approach which involves engaging students with course content by means of practice problems, case studies, discussions and more. Recently, active learning has been used as a sole means of teaching within the classroom in replacement of lecture periods. In order for active learning to be effective in its approach, it’s important that students have a basis of knowledge within the course content, and this leads to my question: to what extent should active learning replace lecture content within the classroom period?

To test this, a hybrid classroom is used where students were given both active learning periods and lecture periods. So within the first month of our study, the first exam window fell and we use only an active learning classroom. Students were given lecture videos to watch prior to the class meeting but within that classroom period, only active learning was employed. We used practice problems throughout the entire classroom. And doctor Banerjee would recap the practice problems with the students and went over them after they had completed it. Within the second month of our study fell the second exam window and we use the hybrid classroom, so Dr. Banerjee would do a recap of the lecture that was taught in the videos watched prior to the class period and throughout her recap she integrated practice problems for the students to solve and she would go through them with them.

We collected the test scores from Exam 1 and 2 but we’re waiting on IRB release for the test scores from previous semesters for the same class because we cannot compare test one and test two because especially for general chemistry, the exam difficulty and content differs between Exam 1 and Exam 2 by a large factor. We’re waiting for IRB release of previous year’s test scores and when we get that, we’re going to compare them to see which methods were effective and if our method of the hybrid classroom was more effective or less effective than a solely active learning classroom. I want to thank OSCAR and IRB and I want to thank George Mason University for their help in this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Banerjee for guiding me along this process. Thank you.