Advancing Chemistry by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory (ACELL) is a project for improving the teaching of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

in the Laboratory.

History

The current ACELL project began as APCELL (Australian Physical Chemistry Enhanced Laboratory Learning) in the late 1990s. Initially funded by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

through its Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development (CUTSD) program, the aim of APCELL was to build a database of tested, educationally-sound undergraduate level experiments in physical chemistry. APCELL ran several workshops at which experiments were tested by staff and students from Australian universities. To be accepted to the APCELL database, an experiment had to be tested in a third-party laboratory (such as at a workshop), be judged to be educationally-sound, and to complete a peer review process. The educational analyses of experiments which completed this process were published in the Australian Journal of Education in Chemistry. Additional funding was received from the

Department of Education, Science and Training (Australia) The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) was a department of the Government of Australia. It was formed in 2007 and absorbed the former departments of Education, Science and Training, and Employment and ...

through its Higher Education Innovation Program (HEIP) to enable the project to be extended to all areas of chemistry, which is the reason for the name change from APCELL to ACELL. Whilst the ACELL project is run with the active support of its many contributors, the management team is spread across four universities:

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

, the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, and

Curtin University of Technology Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

Current programs

In February 2006 ACELL ran a workshop hosted by the University of Sydney. This was a 3-day workshop, attended by 33 staff delegates and 31 students from 27 universities around Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Delegates stayed in St. John's College on the university grounds. At this workshop staff and students reviewed 33 experiments submitted by the different participating universities. After completing the activities there were debrief sessions in the evening. All those who completed experiments also completed surveys on the experiment and the documentation behind it. Another (smaller) workshop was run in February 2007 as a satellite activity of the

Royal Australian Chemical Institute The Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) is both the qualifying body in Australia for professional chemists and a learned society promoting the science and practice of chemistry in all its branches. The RACI hosts conferences, seminars and ...

(RACI) joint Organic and Physical Chemistry Division Conference OPC07. This workshop will be hosted by the

References

External links

Australian Physical Chemistry Enhanced Laboratory Learning (APCELL)Advancing Chemistry by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory (ACELL)
{deadlink, date=March 2023
Organic and Physical Chemistry Conference 2007 (OPC07)
Science and technology in Australia Chemistry education Undergraduate education

History

Current programs

See also

References

External links