Reinventing the Chemistry Class: Between Narratives, Artificial Intelligence, and collaboration

Abstract

This article analyzes a pedagogical innovation in undergraduate Chemistry teaching, implemented in a non-scientific career at a university in the Buenos Aires suburban area. The proposal integrates transformations in teaching strategies, student assessment, and academic support through a situated, collaborative, and technology-mediated approach. Within this framework, the potential of generative artificial intelligence as a metatechnology is explored. Specifically it is incorporated through two chatbots with complementary roles that interact with student groups, while providing immediate feedback and fostering critical thinking. Such an interaction is embedded within a gamified immersive narrative focused on solving a police case, which serves as a trigger for collaborative research and the appropriation of disciplinary content. Along with other tools—such as a learning roadmap, conceptual outlines, and mind maps—conditions are created for a more horizontal and emotionally meaningful teaching. The results demonstrate transformations in the way students construct knowledge, in relation to the approach to error, in the teacher's role, and in the overall perception of the course. The experience is presented as transferable to other university subjects that aim to create more inclusive, challenging, and situated teaching conditions.