Question

what is Pooling in chemistry

Answer 1

Pooling data, in the sense I mean here, is the aggregation of all students lab data on a particular experiment in one lab session. If ten pairs of students are completing an experiment, the pooled data would consist of a table of all individual pairs’ data, together with averaged data. In the low-tech version, this data would be tabulated and averaged on the white board, with students taking their own results as well as the class average results for analysis in their report. In the high-tech version, the same analysis is done, but the results are entered into a spreadsheet which is uploaded onto the VLE. This also allows a living graph to be drawn during the lab session as students enter their data. The approach of course requires that all students or a significant proportion are completing the same experiment at the same time, something that might be difficult in upper level undergraduate chemistry, but should be quite feasible in years 1 and 2.