We all know what’s better 🤣🤣🤣😍

What Makes a Good Reaction? An Introduction to Green Chemistry in an Undergraduate Practical Grounded within the real-world context of sustainability and green chemistry, herein, we present a practical that compares three starkly different methods for the oxidation of benzoin to benzil. To promote student engagement, the different reaction protocols are assessed critically. This decision-making process includes asking the student to consider the success of the reactions by evaluating multiple factors, including yield; purity; experimental conditions; and environmental impact assessed against the 12 principles of green chemistry, as well as using spectroscopy to confirm the reaction product. By doing this, students discover the importance of decision-making while developing evidence-based justification skills. Structured discussion sessions embedded throughout the laboratory session provide opportunities for students to proactively critically evaluate the three different reaction conditions and reagents which result in the same chemical transformation. By integrating their quantitative and qualitative data, students evaluate which of the methods they consider to be the “best oxidation method”, as well as discovering what makes a “good” reaction.

Nice way to end the week. Our latest publication is out @craigdcampbell.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Glad you all had fun!!

Introducing Group-Based Experimental Design to UK First-Year Undergraduates: An Investigation of Solvent Polarity Motivated by low student engagement in a traditional expository solvatochromism first-year undergraduate practical, and preuniversity student misconceptions around solvation, we have developed an acce...

How can group work and experimental design better engage 1st year undergraduates in analytical chemistry labs? Our approach is out now in the J.Chem. Ed! #ChemEd #Oracy pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@jamiewilmore.bsky.social @charlottehancox.bsky.social @craigdcampbell.bsky.social

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

How can group work and experimental design better engage 1st year undergraduates in analytical chemistry labs? Our approach is out now in the Journal of Chemical Education! #ChemEd #Oracy
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac…

@jamiewilmore.bsky.social @craigday.bsky.social @charlotte-hancox.bsky.social

Development of three Higher Education professional learning networks in response to COVID-19: a case study The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic brought in-person teaching to an abrupt halt in March 2020 posing the problem of how to continue to deliver undergraduate courses remotely. This paper presents a ...

@craigdcampbell.bsky.social and I have a new paper out that’s only taken about 4 years to get there! Thanks to all the co authors for their valuable input into making this the paper it is! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I don’t believe there is anything you do where you are just a “small” part 🤣

Amazing news and well deserved for the whole team!

Well we can celebrate then together 🤣😂🤪

Good you like my thinking 😍. Lots of others are similar minded @charlotte-hancox.bsky.social @s-ladwa.bsky.social @flammableflower.bsky.social @drlinneasoler.bsky.social @perrysc.bsky.social

Absolutely! It’s very en vogue at secondary schools at the minute. We’ve been doing in the lab since pre 2000.

Great question. @theotanner.bsky.social @jamewilmore.bsky.social @craigdcampbell.bsky.social any ideas? I’d guess the main thought would be the clever use of conversations to support learning in the lab?

Sadly, sounds about right. Hope you are both ok….

@annajkirkham.bsky.social @annabertram.bsky.social

…. I’d be interested to hear from other lab people what they are doing. We are gold LEAF so we must be doing ok ish…@cate-cx.bsky.social @patrickthomson.bsky.social @flammableflower.bsky.social @theotanner.bsky.social @jamewilmore.bsky.social @charlottehancox.bsky.social @craigdcampbell.bsky.social

Now this is an interesting question…. No idea is the short answer. We are certainly doing all the can to reduce everything in our lab. We’ve talked about using coloured water to practice air sensitive conditions etc but as some point students donned to learn to handle dangerous chemicals…

But does this not remove the link between lab and theory of not roughly at same time?

…. These skills are noticeably absent from Covid graduates. The lab is such a unique learning environment that blogs like yours just totally ignore and your take plays beautifully into the hands of bean counters sadly.

I never said it should be 50%. However I just can’t believe people think less than 20% is too much when at the end of the day, most research wouldn’t happen without lab skills (however you define this). As I said in reply to @tinaoverton.bsky.social so many other things happen in lab….

I always said you were a wise person @tina

And that’s before you talk about the staff/student interacts, the peer to peer learning, the list just goes on! Online work during COVID taught us all how import these interactions are so it’s disappointing to see posts claiming good labs dilute learning!

See I would come at this the other way though. How many people have to do final year projects (RSC requirement). How do you do anything meaningful without lab skills? Is 1/5 th of the course being labs really too much? I think it’s not enough!!!

I appreciate the shout out here 😍

Developing a skills-based practical chemistry programme: an integrated, spiral curriculum approach Teaching practical laboratory skills is a key component of preparing undergraduate students for future careers in chemistry and elsewhere. In this paper, we present our new strategy to teach practical...

You should definitely check out some of our papers, especially our stuff on spiral curriculum.

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Revisiting skills is important to embed but it’s got to be “different” each time you return.

I feel I should also give a huge shout out to lab staff across the uk and beyond. @annajkirkham.bsky.social @annabertram.bsky.social @perrysc.bsky.social @drlinneasoler.bsky.social @flammableflower.bsky.social @cpchem.bsky.social all do an amazing job too! There are many more out there!!!

But in most places it’s already shrunk by 25%! What theory course has done that so far?

You are a wise man Dr Campbell!!

Good lab staff make such a huge difference. Sadly they are hard to find. I’m so lucky to work with an amazing team @jamewilmore.bsky.social @theotanner.bsky.social @charlotte-hancox.bsky.social et a who are so good that their job! They make such a difference for the students.

I read somewhere that a bad GTA can ruin an excellent lab. Your experience has probably sadly just proved this… @craigdcampbell.bsky.social @jamewilmore.bsky.social anything to add?

You have never once suggested that student have less options etc. it’s always swipe at the labs. 300hrs is roughly 50days over 3 years so average of 17 days a year….