Exploring the phenomenon of 'change of phase' of pure substances using the Microcomputer-Based-Laboratory (MBL) system

Abstract

We examined how 1 st year students (10th grade) of Greek Senior High School could conceptualize the influence of the molecular weight of saturated fatty acids on the melting and the freezing point, during the 'change of phase' phenomenon using the Microcomputer-Based Laboratory (MBL) system. Students had to freeze a melted substance, observing at the same time the change of its temperature and trying to explain the temperature vs time curve. They used different saturated fatty acids in order to understand how the molecular weight of each organic acid affects the meltingfreezing point. Data about the students' conceptualizations was collected using three methods: videotape recordings, field notes and supplementary semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the students' responses to the same questions before and after the experiments showed statistically significant differences on their responses in every case. After the experiments there was a clear increase of correct responses concerning the freezing point of the saturated fatty acids, the relation of the freezing point to the molecular weight and the description of this relation.

A Comparison of Students’ Approaches to Inquiry, Conceptual Learning, and Attitudes in Simulation-Based and Microcomputer-Based Laboratories

“…Although many studies are dated, they have identified several advantageous features of MBLs and could contribute to our design of technology-integrated laboratories. First, a key feature of an MBL is real-time graphing (e.g., Brassell, 1987;Nicolaou et al, 2007;Pierri, Karatrantou, & Panagiotakopoulos, 2008). For example, Brassell (1987) identified real-time graphing as a distinguishing feature of MBLs.…”

Using animations in identifying general chemistry students' misconceptions and evaluating their knowledge transfer relating to particle position in physical changes

“…The particulate nature of matter can be used to describe the behavior of particles involved in physical changes, and various studies have reported on students' conceptions of melting (Prieto et al, 1989;Griffiths and Preston, 1992;Lee et al, 1993;Ebenezer and Gaskell, 1995;Ebenezer and Erickson, 1996;Valanides, 2000;Goodwin, 2002;Uzuntiryaki and Geban, 2005;Pierri et al, 2008;Çalik et al, 2010;Durmusand Bayraktar, 2010;Özmen, 2011;Smith and Nakhleh, 2011) and dissolving (Fensham and Fensham, 1987;Prieto et al, 1989;Haidar and Abraham, 1991;Longden et al, 1991;Lee et al, 1993;Ebenezer and Erickson, 1996;Blanco and Prieto, 1997;Ahtee and Varjola, 1998;Ebenezer, 2001;Pınarbas -i and Canpolat, 2003;She, 2004;Çalik, 2005, 2008Çalik and Ayas, 2005;Çalik et al, 2007a, 2007bSmith and Nakhleh, 2011;Sanger, 2012, 2013;Adadan, 2014) on the sub-microscopic level. Animations can be used by chemistry educators in order to help students visualize these types of processes involving particles occurring on the unseen sub-microscopic level (Özmen, 2011).…”

Effect of PDEODE Teaching Strategy on Turkish Students' Conceptual Understanding: Particulate Nature of Matter

“…In order to provide conceptual change related to the particulate nature of matter, the literature includes studies in which constructivist teaching approach (Demir, 2006), analogies (Tsai, 1999), conceptual change texts enriched with animations (Özmen 2011), computer simulations (Stern, Barnea & Shauli, 2008) and animations (Kelly, Phelps & Sanger, 2004;Chang, Quintana & Krajcik, 2010), microcomputer based laboratory (Pierri, Karatrantou & Panagiotakopoulos, 2008), computer software (Papageorgiou, Johnson & Fotiades, 2008), multi-representational instruction (Adadan, Irving & Trundle, 2009), POE methods with conceptual change texts (Akgün & Deryakulu, 2007) and model-based learning (Adadan, 2014) were used. In this study, PDEODE (predict-discuss-explain-observediscuss-explain) teaching strategy which is different from those mentioned above was used.…”