Abstract:

Mastering acid base equilibrium concept is essential in any area of knowledge related with Nature, and most importantly, if they are close to human beings. The role of University educators is relevant to broaden students’ minds and is also the key factor to make them more concerned about our environment.

Once the students come to the University, they have already learned the essentials of the acid-base equilibriums in high school as well as the evolution of those concepts with time. However, within this background, some prejudices about this topic are stuck on their minds and can obscure their further learning process. To overcome these inconveniences, the authors aim to present herein a ground-breaking approach to acid base equilibriums in degrees of Science.

The experience was carried out with students from the degree in Biomedicine as well as students from the degree in Pharmacy. Medical students frequently have difficulty in interpreting acid-base data and this continues when students are involved in the safe management of patients requiring monitoring of their acid-base status.[1]

The approach described herein may also be of great interest to be applied in students of the degree in Primary Education; as they will be the teachers of future generations; consequently, seeding on them the interest in Science could lead to a friendlier move toward scientist issues in young scholars.
Any instructor wants their students to reach the highest skills in learning, to think and analyze with a critical attitude, in order to get involved in their own learning process.[2] This is the ultimate authors’ goal. As stated,[3] when fun and learning come together, the best results are achieved. Therefore, the first goal was to trigger the interest of students on the topic.

This was attempted by means of surprise and expectation. Thus, an initial set of questions with unexpected and tricky answers were proposed to help the instructors to catch students’ attention. Next, the headway of the proposed topic in class was focused on displaying the tools to undergo a profound reflection on the subject to resolve the previously raised questions, and hence, to lead to master the topic instead of getting a superficial knowledge on it.
More details about the activities carried out as well as the associated results and findings will be disclosed at the conference.

References:
[1] Hooper, J.; Marshall, W. J.; Miller, A. L. Log-Jam in Acid-Base Education and Investigation: Why Make It so Difficult? Ann. Clin. Biochem. 1998, 35 ( Pt 1), 85–93.
[2] Alcudia, A.; Ferris, C.; Violante de Paz, M. Capecitabine: A Classroom Project for the Study of General Principles in Organic Synthesis. Chem. Educ. 2010, 15, 479–483.
[3] Zardetto-Smith, A. M.; Mu, K.; Phelps, C. L.; Houtz, L. E.; Royeen, C. B. Brains Rule! Fun = Learning = Neuroscience Literacy. Neuroscientist 2002, 8 (5), 396–404.

Keywords:

Acid-Base equilibriums, Enhancing learning, Lifelong learning, Transferable skills, University experiences.