DESIGN, IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF A CASE-BASED LEARNING ACTIVITY FOR THE STUDY OF THERMODYNAMICS, KINETICS AND CHEMICAL EQUILIBRIUM

Students often show a lack of motivation towards those subjects that are non-strictly related to the area of knowledge of their degree. Here, we present a teaching approach that aims to increase the motivation of the students in a Chemistry course (Thermodynamics, Kinetics and Chemical Equilibrium) included in several Science degrees such as Biology or Physics. This approach consists on the design of a framework problem, its implementation and evaluation of the results. In the design of the framework problem, a general structure of a problem was established in order to cover the main contents to be addressed in the course. The framework problem was developed in collaboration with teachers of the disciplines the project is intended to. For a suitable implementation of the project, a proper temporal sequence has been fixed to allow the student to work independently, to encourage reflection, to interconnect concepts and to promote an active role. Each student team (3-4 people) has solved the problem by means of deliverables distributed during the project ongoing time. Students have obtained feedback via a standardised rubric and have had tutorial sessions at their disposal to solve the doubts related to the project. Finally, the impact of the project on students' marks will be evaluated as well as their level of satisfaction.