Leveraging the Analytical Chemistry Primary Literature for Authentic, Integrated Content Knowledge and Process Skill Development

Students develop process skills through repeated practice of data interpretation, problem solving, and critical thinking. The primary literature provides a rich source of data and application problems to engage students in this practice within the context of chemistry content knowledge. However, most existing classroom activities based on the literature involve reading full articles. To offer students more frequent practice, we suggest that instructors prepare assignments based on data excerpted from articles. Herein, we demonstrate the pedagogical goals, design strategy, and implementation of such assignments, using over 40 examples from our own analytical chemistry courses. These examples are provided for direct use or as models in the Supporting Information.

Automated summary

Students develop process skills through repeated practice of data interpretation, problem solving, and critical thinking. Assignments based on data excerpted from articles provide more frequent practice opportunities for students.