|Current trends in chemical education emphasize an increased role for active student participation in their learning. Challenge problems provide one way to promote the active learning process required for development of problem solving skills and conceptual understanding.
Challenge problems can be used to encourage:
- Development of related or linked knowledge among several concepts, ideas, and/or problems.
- Reinforcement of knowledge by explaining to others.
- Identification of what students do or do not know.
- Recognition that a variety of problem solving techniques are often available.
- Understanding that some problem solving techniques may be more efficient than others.
This site provides examples of challenge problems, ideas to help write challenge problems, and a discussion about how to use challenge problems to maximize learning.The following links (and those to the right) provide the details.