Teaching Kinetics through Differential Equations Constructed with a Berkeley Madonna Flow Chart Model

Franklin M. Chen

Volume 9, Issue 1 (May 2018), pp. 2–12

https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/9/1/1

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BibTeX
@article{jocse-9-1-1,
  author={Franklin M. Chen},
  title={Teaching Kinetics through Differential Equations Constructed with a Berkeley Madonna Flow Chart Model},
  journal={The Journal of Computational Science Education},
  year=2018,
  month=may,
  volume=9,
  issue=1,
  pages={2--12},
  doi={https://doi.org/10.22369/issn.2153-4136/9/1/1}
}
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The alias feature of the Berkeley Madonna platform allows this author to create a chemical kinetics project manual for students to create flow charts with rate equations consistent with their learning from physical chemistry textbooks. The platform used in this way becomes versatile and powerful that allow students to explore any chemical kinetics problems from simple (e.g. 1st or 2nd order kinetics) to complex (e.g. stratosphere ozone depletion, the Lotka-Volterra mechanism) bypassing complicate syntax that are required by most of the powerful mathematical programs. This kinetics manual has been successfully implemented in UW-Green Bay in the fall semester of 2017 with the students' success rate greater than 80%.