Students and teachers in chemistry are often confused by what is equal in equilibrium. Producing an interactive visual model should allow them a more concrete example to learn the concept. We are going to use StarLogo to model Le’ Chatelier’s concept of change in chemical equilibrium. Our model represents a change in concentration.

Our plan is to create a StarLogo simulation of a reversible reaction achieving equilibrium. The forward reaction will be a random interaction between two breeds of turtles. The reverse reaction will be represented using a probability of when it will decompose. We will also create sliders to dictate amounts of reactants and products. Create sliders to change equilibrium and show Le’ Chatelier’s effect.

Up to this time, we have developed a program with various options. Such options include temperate, concentration and time gauges. Our next steps are to make the program more visually appealing and run more experiments. We found we had to slow it down because there was a problem when we ran the program at full speed. A literature review search revealed that these concepts are indeed very difficult and that other efforts have been made to address the problem.

In terms of the lit research, the team had to first comprehend the concept themselves. We discovered the extensive documentation of the equilibrium principle and the challenges involved with explaining it. We hope our project sheds new light on the concept and its communication to students. To the research team’s knowledge there are no other agent-based models of this principle in existence.

The power point includes graphics, text and logos appropriate to the presentation. It begins with a title and team member slide, and continues with the model from questions to a general procedure for the program. We will add the literature review, results and bibliography as required for the final presentation. We will use the cite helper to organize the sources in research paper format.

We expect to get results that dispel misconceptions about the equilibrium concept and produce a program that clarifies equilibrium for students and teachers.

Azizoglu N., Alkan M., & Geban O. (2006). Undergraduate pre-service teachers' understandings and misconceptions of phase equilibrium. Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 83, issue 6, pp. 947-959.

Erickson, F. (1998). Qualitative methods for science education. In B.J. Fraser & K.G. Tobin (ed), International Handbook of Science Education (pp. 1155-1173). Dordrecth: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Hanson, R.M. (2003). Playing-card equilibrium. Journal of Chemical Education. vol.80, issue 11, pg. 1271.

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/equilibria/introduction.html#top

http://www.chm.davidson.edu/java/LeChatelier/LeChatelier.html