As the first step of my journey with extend.ecampusOntario I am tasked with identifying a concept that is often misunderstood in my discipline and then creating an analogy that can make the concept make sense to the students.
In analytical chemistry students are often asked to create solutions which are a certain concentration of a particular element (example 100 ppm zinc).
To do this, they cannot use just pure zinc, they have to use an ionic compound that will dissolve in water to give the desired amount of zinc (such as zinc sulfate). Students will typically forget to factor the sulfur into their calculations and as a result make a solution with the incorrect calculation.
The analogy would be needing to have 30 long-sleeves in your suitcase. If you have dress shirts available and you know there are two long sleeves per shirt you need 15 shirts to give you the correct “concentration” of sleeves in your suitcase.
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