Guided inquiry-based learning forces students to invest in problem solving. The general chemistry laboratory is a perfect medium to introduce guided-inquiry learning. It encourages students to engage in experimental design, to formulate independent hypothesis, and discover the world around them as a problem solver. We have introduced a guided-inquiry laboratory practical into our undergraduate general chemistry laboratory course for science majors. Our practical begins with a storyline of a crime. This crime has one victim and three suspects, all of which are found with unknown white powders. Students are asked to identify the most likely guilty party as well as characterize the unknown white powders using techniques and skills learned in the laboratory. Experimental procedures include solubility analysis, density determination, observing a melting point, and measuring conductivity. Based on experimental data, students are able to compare the samples to determine the guilty party as well as to compare their data to known values to help conclude the identity of the unknown pure white powder.
Yousefzadeh et al. (Thu,) studied this question.