Interlocking Toy Building Blocks as Modules for Undergraduate Introductory and General Chemistry Classroom Teaching

Abstract

Interlocking toy building blocks (e.g., Lego) as chemistry teaching modules are presented. Interlocking building blocks were assembled on a baseplate to depict chemistry concepts of Lewis structures, chemical bonding, conjugate acid–base pairs, types of chemical reactions, irregularity in ionization energy trends, and the decay of a radioactive isotope. The modules were presented to visualize these chemical concepts in undergraduate introductory and general chemistry classrooms. Modules were presented on a document camera in an online mode of delivery.

LEGO Biochemistry: Fatty Acid Beta-Oxidation Made Visual

“…10 In view of its diverse array of possibilities, it has been widely utilized as teaching aids to illustrate basic chemical concepts (e.g. the periodic table of elements 11 and its trends, 12 density, 13 Octet rule, 14 Lewis structures 15 ), chemical structures of larger polymers (e.g. polypropylene with different tacticity, 16 polydimethylsiloxane 17 ), chemical reaction (catalysis, 16 hydrogenation of alkenes 18 ) and even in the constructions of handmade instruments (e.g.…”

GC Insights: The crystal structures behind mineral properties – a case study of using TotBlocks in an undergraduate optical mineralogy lab

“…Current teaching strategies for visualizing crystal structures include physical manipulatives, e.g., ball-and-stick models, paper polyhedral models, and pre-fabricated hexagonal templates (Rodenbough et al, 2015;Wood et al, 2017;He et al, 1990aHe et al, , b, 1994Hollocher, 1997;, and virtual manipulatives, e.g., visualization software (Moyer et al, 2002;Extremera et al, 2020). Three-dimensionally printed physical manipulatives can illustrate unit cells in crystallography (Rodenbough et al, 2015), complex structures like DNA (Jittivadhna et al, 2010;Howell et al, 2019), and other chemical principles (Witzel, 2002;Kaliakin et al, 2015;Melaku et al, 2016;Smiar and Mendez, 2016;Geyer, 2017;Lesuer, 2019;Horikoshi, 2020;Melaku and Dabke, 2021).…”

Interlocking Toy Building Blocks as Teaching Modules for an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry-Based Course for Allied Health Majors

“…20 Studies indicate that interlocking building blocks are effective in demonstrating various chemistry topics taught in high school and undergraduate curricula. For example, interlocking blocks were used to present nanostructures, 21 periodic properties, 22 Lewis structures, 23 and the periodic table. 24 These studies include discovery-based learning of nanostructures, hands-on modules for sighted and visually impaired introductory chemistry students, and an outreach event for construction of an annotated periodic table.…”