Abstract:

Laboratorio-RPG-Docente is a virtual environment in which Chemistry and Optics degrees are present in the shape of different teaching-laboratory practices. This tool was born as derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, intending to partially fight the impossibility of face-to-face laboratory practices. However, upon further developments, it was observed that such a tool was very well received both by students and by lab instructors, given the possibility of trying at home some of the practical aspects of the lab. In this way, the prior preparation of the practice, or the ulterior reviewing was favoured. However, up until this point, instrumental practices (procedures involving analytical devices and instruments) were lacking in this environment.

In the present contribution, the introduction of a new instrumental analysis practice in the virtual environment is presented. More specifically, the spectrophotometric analysis of detergent anionic surfactants by their reaction with methylene blue using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy has been incorporated. In this practice, these surfactants are reacted with the blue compound, forming an ionic pair that is subsequently measured through colorimetry. The students are suggested to follow a simulated protocol in which they need to weight, dissolve, and measure the different solutions and calibrations. Upon the analysis of the solutions in the instruments, the videogame presents the students the different numeric values as analytical intensities: in this case, absorbances. Additionally, a video demonstrating the different steps to follow during the practice is available.

Next, the students are supposed to carry out the adequate calculations in order to obtain a final concentration value, which they insert back into the videogame. According to this result, the interface gives feedback, indicating whether the result is correct or not. By the means of this approximation, laboratory instructors are provided with a new tool which helps students to practice one of the most important steps in teaching laboratories: data acquisition and interpretation.

Acknowledgements:
The authors thank the “Vicerectorat de Formació Permanent, Transformació Docent i Ocupació” of the University of Valencia for the project UV-SFPIE_PIEC-2736788

Keywords:

Analytical Chemistry, videogame, Game-Based Learning, Chemistry, Laboratorio-RPG-Docente.