Abstract

Teaching the fundamentals of chemical kinetics on the college level is challenging to teachers and students alike due to its abstract nature of concepts and limited connection with real context applications. This study consisted of two phases starting with designing a chemistry education for the sustainable development-based learning environment of reaction kinetics, followed by a case study in which students' perceptions toward learning chemistry by solving a real environmental problem using digital resources, spreadsheets, and an active learning environment, were explored. First, we designed a Socio-Scientific Environmental Chemistry module centered on the sorption kinetic processes of herbicides in volcanic ash derived soils (VADS) and their potential to pollute groundwater. The objective of the learning module was to contribute to the development of sustainability skills, to promote learning of contextualized chemistry knowledge, and to develop scientific skills. This module employs spreadsheets as computational tools in chemistry to model real sorption kinetic data of herbicides in VADS. The learning module was designed for one section of two Analytical Chemistry courses and one Physical Chemistry course of an undergraduate chemistry teacher-training program. After the design phase, the learning module was implemented in each course, and students' perceptions were gathered using the focus group technique. The sample was of 22 students distributed into three focus groups. The data collected were analyzed and categorized through qualitative content analysis using the Technological Pedagogical Science Knowledge (TPASK) framework. On the basis of our findings, the students acquired contextualized chemistry knowledge and develop skills and knowledge related to using digital resources and spreadsheets in a scientific context. Besides, the preservice chemistry teachers' knowledge of pedagogy allowed them to develop some elements of their pedagogical science knowledge and TPASK. This case study shows that the problem-based learning approach offers great potential in supporting a learning environment suitable to working with spreadsheets to solve real-environment problems in chemistry education.