Design of Computer Simulation Exercises on Polarity and Intermolecular Attractive Forces

Computer simulations as learning tools in chemistry enable student centered pedagogies, with requirements for adequate instructional support. The provision of support to scaffold and increase learning can be accomplished through assignments that instruct and challenge students toward productive uses of a simulation. In this design research study, assignments for simulation exercises in chemistry were developed in collaboration with teachers and used in a classroom experiment with a switching replications design. Multiple choice tests and classroom observations were complemented by student interviews about their learning experience. Statistical analyses reveal similar learning gains in the treatment and control groups. Results from interviews show that students value the opportunity to explore simulations by themselves but also emphasize the importance of prior and concurrent explanations. Students acknowledge the roles of questions, instructions, tables, and other prompts in learning from the assignment. They also express that productive interaction with simulations to extract relevant information was promoted by drawings and verbal expressions, whereby students discerned mechanisms and conditions of phenomena modeled in the simulations. The findings suggest rationales for strategic combinations of elements from both conditions and features to consider in the design and adaptation of assignment manuals for simulation exercises.