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Abstract
Active learning pedagogies have been shown to increase student success and improve student attitudes. Specifically, the flipped classroom approach pushes course content outside of the classroom, allowing for focus on student-student interactions as opposed to traditional lecture, while also reducing cognitive load while in the classroom. Although much research has been done on the benefits of active environments, there is little evidence concerning specific activities in these settings, particularly in undergraduate preparatory chemistry. To probe how flipping specific activities can impact student learning and attitudes, this study assessed students in a preparatory chemistry course, preceding general chemistry I, while constructing explanations in individual and group settings, utilizing the claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) framework. Students completed three CER explanations activities over the course of a semester, both individually and as small groups. During the first iteration of this study, students completed each CER activity while in class; for the second iteration, students completed the individual portion of the activity outside of class and exchanged ideas in small groups during class. Results indicate an improvement in attitudes dependent upon the semester of enrollment in the course, and that by shifting the process of individual CER explanation construction outside of the classroom, more in-class time is available for student-student interactions, leading to greater student engagement, greater chemistry content understanding, and overall better explanations of natural scientific phenomena.