ConfChem Conference on Interactive Visualizations for Chemistry Teaching and Learning: Using an Interactive Simulation To Support Development of Expert Practices for Balancing Chemical Equations

An in-class guided-inquiry activity utilizing feedback from a PhET interactive simulation offers an opportunity to foster student learning via an inquiry-based approach. Here, student groups in a preparatory chemistry course leveraged representations in the Balancing Chemical Equations simulation to define and develop successful practices for nonredox equation balancing without explicit instruction. This communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the 2015 Spring ConfChem: Interactive Visualizations for Chemistry Teaching and Learning ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online conference held from May 8 to June 4, 2015. Discussions therein highlighted the importance Of recognizing student challenges, broader disciplinary context, and a diversity of problem-solving approaches in the learning and teaching of chemical equation balancing.