CLASS (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey)

CLASS-Chemistry

(Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey)

Please read the following consent document before proceeding with the survey below.
Pressing submit at the end of this survey signals your consent.

INFORMED CONSENT DOCUMENT
Informed Consent Form for The "PhET" (Physics Education Technology) Project You are invited to participate in a research project to improve the learning and appreciation of science with the use of technology. This project is conducted under the direction of Dr. Carl Wieman, Distinguished Professor of Physics, JILA Box 440, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309 (303/492-7746). Other investigators include Other investigators include Dr. Noah Finkelstein, Dr. Michael Dubson (303-492-4938), Dr. Steven Pollock (303-492-2495), Dr. Kathy Perkins (303-492-4367), Dr. Sarah McKagan (303-492-7815) , Dr. Linda Koch (303-492-7815), Dr. Jennifer Knight, Wendy Adams (303-735-0627), Noah Podolefsky, Patrick Kohl, Chris Keller, Kara Gray, Danielle Harlow (303-492-4331), Aaron Svoboda, Elias Quinn, Jack Barbera, Mindy Gratny, Sarah Kennedy, Fran�oise Benay, Laurie Langdon, Andrea Bair, Jia Shi, Jennifer Stempien, Lisa Mayhew, Dylan Ward, Michelle Smith, Mariel Desroche, and others of the Physics, Chemistry, and Biology Departments at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Campus Box 390, Boulder, Colorado, 80309. You are invited to participate in a research project to improve the learning and appreciation of science with the use of technology. This project is conducted under the direction of Dr. Carl Wieman, Distinguished Professor of Physics, JILA Box 440, University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309 (303-492-4367). Other investigators include Dr. Noah Finkelstein, Dr. Michael Dubson (303-492-4938), Dr. Steven Pollock (303-492-2495), Dr. Kathy Perkins (303-492-6714), Dr. Sarah McKagan (303-492-7815) , Dr. Linda Koch (303-492-7815), Dr. Jennifer Knight, Wendy Adams (303-735-0627), Noah Podolefsky, Kara Gray, Jack Barbera, Mindy Gratny, Sarah Kennedy, Fran�oise Benay, Laurie Langdon, Andrea Bair, Jia Shi, Jennifer Stempien, Lisa Mayhew, Dylan Ward, Michelle Smith, Mariel Desroche, Katherine Semsar, Leilani Authors, Thomas Pentecost, Angela Jardine and others of the Physics, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Biology Departments at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Campus Box 390, Boulder, Colorado, 80309. The purpose of this project is to investigate the relationship between students' beliefs about science and their success in science courses as part of evaluating the use of PhET (interactive JAVA simulations) learning tools and other presentations of science materials in science courses. You are being asked to respond to a survey with a background questionnaire. You can complete the survey on the web at your convenience. The survey will take about 10 minutes of your time. The background questionnaire will take approximately 2 minutes. You might be asked to complete this survey again, at the end of term. Your individual privacy will be maintained in all published and written data resulting from this study. You will be asked to include your name and background information about your research, teaching, and institution. Identifying information (name, institution) will only be used to combine the survey answers and coursework data and will be deleted prior to any subsequent analysis. No one except the researchers will have access to your identity. The researchers will score your survey and record these scores in an excel spreadsheet. Any written or printed out materials with identifiable information will be stored in a locked filing cabinet. The excel spreadsheet will be stored on password protected computers. At the end of the project the materials will be stored for a period of 3 years and then destroyed. No individual identifiers will be used in any published or publicly presented work. Participation is entirely voluntary. You have the right to withdraw your consent or discontinue participation at any time. You have the right to refuse to answer any question(s) for any reason. The risks to you are minimal since your individual responses to this survey will be kept confidential. A possible benefit to you is the opportunity to review your conceptual understanding of Quantum Mechanics. Other benefits to you are indirect and uncertain, as information from this research and evaluation will contribute to the ongoing changes being made to the PhET simulations and to changes in science instruction in general. If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research subject, any concerns regarding this project, or any dissatisfaction with any aspect of this study you may report them, confidentially if you wish, to the Executive Secretary, Human Research Committee, University of Colorado, Graduate School, Campus Box 26, Regent 308, Boulder, Colorado 80309 or by telephone to (303) 492-7401. Copies of the University of Colorado Assurance of Compliance to the federal government regarding human subject research are available upon request from the graduate school at the address listed above. In addition, research personnel will be happy to answer any questions you may have about this evaluation. Your agreement to participate is indicated by completing and submitting this survey. Your signature is not required on any document.

IMPORTANT: SURVEY TEMPORARILY NOT WORKING, PLEASE DO NOT FILL OUT, but do download the pdf!

Chemistry Faculty

Please enter your name (Last, First):

Please choose your current position:
Please enter your department/university:

We would appreciate it if you could also take the survey for us. This would be immensely helpful to us in that it would enrich our expert response data base. After taking the survey you may return here to retrieve the survey in a PDF format.

Introduction

Here are a number of statements that may or may not describe your beliefs about learning chemistry. You are asked to rate each statement by selecting a number between 1 and 5 where the numbers mean the following:

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree

Choose one of the above five choices that best expresses your feeling about the statement. If you don't understand a statement, leave it blank. If you have no strong opinion, choose 3.

Survey (8-10 minutes)

A significant problem in learning chemistry is being able to memorize all the information I need to know.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
											not answered

Optional Comment:

To understand a chemical reaction, I think about the interactions between atoms and molecules.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
When I am solving a chemistry problem, I try to decide what would be a reasonable value for the answer.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I think about the chemistry I experience in everyday life.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
It is useful for me to do lots and lots of problems when learning chemistry.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
After I study a topic in chemistry and feel that I understand it, I have difficulty solving problems on the same topic.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Knowledge in chemistry consists of many disconnected topics.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
As chemists learn more, most chemistry ideas we use today are likely to be proven wrong.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
When I solve a chemistry problem, I locate an equation that uses the variables given in the problem and plug in the values.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I find that reading the text in detail is a good way for me to learn chemistry.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I think about how the atoms are arranged in a molecule to help my understanding of its behavior in chemical reactions.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
If I have not memorized the chemical behavior needed to answer a question on an exam, there's nothing much I can do (legally!) to figure out the behavior.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I am not satisfied until I understand why something works the way it does.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I cannot learn chemistry if the teacher does not explain things well in class.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I do not expect equations to help my understanding of the ideas in chemistry; they are just for doing calculations.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I study chemistry to learn knowledge that will be useful in my life outside of school.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I can usually make sense of how two chemicals react with one another.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
If I get stuck on a chemistry problem on my first try, I usually try to figure out a different way that works.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Nearly everyone is capable of understanding chemistry if they work at it.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Understanding chemistry basically means being able to recall something you've read or been shown.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Why chemicals react the way they do does not usually make sense to me; I just memorize what happens.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
To understand chemistry I discuss it with friends and other students.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I do not spend more than five minutes stuck on a chemistry problem before giving up or seeking help from someone else.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
If I don't remember a particular equation needed to solve a problem on an exam, there's nothing much I can do (legally!) to come up with it.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
If I want to apply a method used for solving one chemistry problem to another problem, the problems must involve very similar situations.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
In doing a chemistry problem, if my calculation gives a result very different from what I'd expect, I'd trust the calculation rather than going back through the problem.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
In chemistry, it is important for me to make sense out of formulas before I can use them correctly.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I enjoy solving chemistry problems.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
When I see a chemical formula, I try to picture how the atoms are arranged and connected.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
In chemistry, mathematical formulas express meaningful relationships among measurable quantities.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
We use this statement to discard the survey of people who are not reading the questions. Please select agree (not strongly agree) for this question.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
It is important for the government to approve new scientific ideas before they can be widely accepted.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
The arrangement of the atoms in a molecule determines its behavior in chemical reactions.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Learning chemistry changes my ideas about how the world works.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
To learn chemistry, I only need to memorize how to solve sample problems.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Reasoning skills used to understand chemistry can be helpful to me in my everyday life.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
In learning chemistry, I usually memorize reactions rather than make sense of the underlying physical concepts.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
Spending a lot of time understanding where mathematical formulas come from is a waste of time.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I find carefully analyzing only a few problems in detail is a good way for me to learn chemistry.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
I can usually figure out a way to solve chemistry problems.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
The subject of chemistry has little relation to what I experience in the real world.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:
There are times I solve a chemistry problem more than one way to help my understanding.

Strongly Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly Agree

not answered
Optional Comment:

To understand chemistry, I sometimes think about my personal experiences and relate them to the topic being analyzed.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

Thinking about a molecule's three-dimensional structure is important for learning chemistry.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

It is possible to explain chemistry ideas without mathematical formulas.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

When I solve a chemistry problem, I explicitly think about which chemistry ideas apply to the problem.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

If I get stuck on a chemistry problem, there is no chance I'll figure it out on my own.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

Spending a lot of time understanding why chemicals behave and react the way they do is a waste of time.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

When studying chemistry, I relate the important information to what I already know rather than just memorizing it the way it is presented.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

When I'm solving chemistry problems, I often don't really understand what I am doing.

Strongly Disagree	1	2	3	4	5	Strongly Agree
										not answered

Optional Comment:

Faculty Background Information (1-2 minutes)

What is your gender?
What class/classes do you most often teach?
What class/classes are you currently teaching?
How long have you been teaching?
Do you attend chemical education talks/symposia? No Yes: if yes, how often?
Are you involed in chemical education research? No Yes: if yes, how?

We thank you for taking the time to fill out this survey. Your participation is really helpful because knowing more about faculty beliefs about chemistry helps improve our research practices.

FACULTY PLEASE SUBMIT OR SURVEY WILL NOT BE SAVED!

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