Analogy between Consecutive Reaction Kinetics and the Spread of COVID-19 as a Student-Centered Learning Approach

The reaction rate and rate law are chemical kinetics concepts that undergraduate students have difficulty understanding and applying in real life. A further challenge is the overall reaction rate of consecutive reactions. Herein we present a creative teaching practice using the analogy-based approach to exploit the similarities between the chemical kinetics of consecutive reactions involved in ethanol oxidation and the model employed to describe the COVID-19 outbreak. Students conducted the mathematical modeling using open online software. Fitting the epidemic data from four different countries during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to the SIR model and comparing the results with the model of ethanol oxidation brought students insight into the effects of kinetic parameters and triggered a discussion on conceptual kinetic fundamentals. This teaching approach sets up an environment where students can build knowledge that accounts for their pandemic experience, fostering mathematical and computational skills along with data analysis and interpretation that promotes a deeper understanding of the phenomena implicated in the kinetics of consecutive reactions. Mathematical modeling activities are here to stay and will continue gaining relevance in undergraduate kinetics courses, even without the lockdown, therefore the development of these kinds of learning strategies is of high significance worldwide.