While teaching in large lecture halls, it is challenging even for experienced teachers to hold their students’ attention for the entire class period. Owing to the large enrollment in STEM introductory courses, it is especially crucial to incorporate active-learning strategies that enhance student engagement. We have developed a kinesthetic student activity to demonstrate the dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium in a large classroom setting. The activity consists of two parts; the first employs a demonstration utilizing student volunteers participating in a reversible chemical reaction while the second part involves students working in small groups using objects to track the movement of “molecules” for different reversible reactions. The primary learning objectives of the activity are to (i) perform the movement of molecules during chemical equilibrium, (ii) explain the dynamic nature of equilibrium, and (iii) connect the concepts of rate constants and equilibrium constant. This activity has been implemented in a large classroom of 100+ students who were life science majors, with student feedback stating that the activity enhanced their understanding of chemical equilibrium. Pre-activity and post-activity quiz performance were an indicator that learning gains were observed. This report provides a comprehensive set of resources for chemistry faculty to use while implementing this activity in their classroom.

Primary Image: This activity has the potential to aid in addressing common misconceptions about the dynamic nature of chemical equilibrium. It also serves as a useful tool to create connections between chemical equilibrium and reaction kinetics.

Environmental pollution is a global threat that is especially prevalent in heavily industrialized and urbanized areas. Pollution can be found in many forms, such as natural and synthetic pollutants from natural and anthropogenic processes. These impact individual, population, and ecosystem health. Additionally, urbanization and industrialization create landscape heterogeneity, which alters socioecological dynamics within environments—often through intentional and systematic processes. For humans, the subjection to and impacts of both pollution and land distribution have disproportionate effects on members of low-income and marginalized communities. Environmental injustice occurs when systemic biases like racism and classism fuel inequalities and inequities among individuals and their communities. The current activity combines predictive graphing and group discussions to help reinforce basic principles of environmental pollution and the sociocultural underpinnings that increase risks of exposure and impacts, using real-life examples of environmental injustice such as the Flint Water Crisis and Cancer Alley Louisiana. Utilizing the “Mapping for Environmental Justice” website, students will predict the cumulative environmental injustice burden across the State of Virginia, resulting from imbalanced land distribution, and compare public health data to examine those to be considered “at risk” based on various demographic characteristics. Students will then think critically and discuss the decision-making behind societal pollution and land management, which influence the presence and intensity of environmental injustices.

Primary Image: Urban air pollution. Downloaded from Unsplash on December 10, 2023, by authors.