An interactive virtual laboratory addressing student difficulty in differentiating between chemical reaction kinetics and equilibrium

The Reaction Rate vs Equilibrium Interactive Virtual Laboratory (IVL) has been developed to address a common student misconception in analyzing and designing chemical reactors—the difference between reaction kinetics and reaction equilibrium. The IVL allows students to make meaning of the difference between reaction rate and equilibrium by exploring their dependence on temperature. The design is to create a cognitive conflict between their observations of how reaction rate and equilibrium depend on temperature. In the IVL, students are guided through a set of 20 frames where they are asked to respond to questions that ask them to predict, observe, or reflect on phenomena related to the specific concept while manipulating the molecular simulations. The Reaction Rate vs Equilibrium IVL is embedded within the Concept Warehouse (available at http://cw.edudiv.org/ ) and the instructors can access student responses to the questions as well as an automatic grading system can be used for student assessment. In this study, the IVL was implemented in a junior‐level chemical engineering thermodynamics studio class. Data sources included responses from 82 consenting students during their work with the virtual laboratory and a survey completed the day after. We examined student responses to the summative conceptual question pair near the end of the IVL to determine whether students understood the main concept. We found that 57.1% clearly understood the concept. In addition, students indicated that they found group work beneficial when using the IVLs and appreciated the visual and dynamic representation of molecular phenomena.