A new method of instructing developed by an ISU professor is finding success in chemistry labs.

Tom Greenbowe, professor of chemistry, said after teaching and giving exams he noticed students having a hard time seeing a connection between the lab work and the lectures.

Greenbowe said his research focuses on chemical education, so he decided to work on developing a new method for labs that would get away from having students verify what is in the book and help students learn key chemistry concepts.

Greenbowe presented his research at a symposium in Boston Feb. 14-19 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He said all the speakers at the symposium were presenting similar methods for teaching science that focused on active approaches to getting the students to learn the information.

He said the students have to form questions they want answered before the lab, then they can design or modify the lab to help find the answers.

“They have to learn to form a question that can be answered by some sort of experimentation,” Greenbowe said.

Brian Hand, professor of curriculum and instruction, has been working with Greenbowe to help develop this new method. Hand said the goal is to promote a greater understanding of the chemistry.

“It makes them more mentally aware of what decisions they make in terms of completing the labs and in terms of the chemistry they do,” Hand said.

They are currently assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of this new method. Greenbowe said students seem to spend less time on lab work outside of class because they complete it all in class. There also seems to be a better understanding of chemistry concepts, and the students are performing better on lab practical tasks and on lecture tests, he said.

Jennifer Olson, freshman in biology, said she likes the new approach and that it gives her a better understanding of lectures.

“It’s supposed to make us want to learn about what we’re doing and apply what we’re doing rather than doing it just to get it done,” Olson said.

Greenbowe said the next step for the approach is to see if it works at other universities.

He said he is working with two professors from the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. They are using approaches similar to his and he said the three of them have plans to use each other’s methods in their own labs.

If the teaching style is successful in the other institutions, Greenbowe said the plan is to develop a textbook that would be an “electronic tool” students would use as an interactive approach to chemistry.