Improving Student Motivation and Perception of Chemistry’s Relevance by Learning about Semiconductors in a General Chemistry Course for Engineering Students

Abstract

Chemistry is often perceived as unpopular and irrelevant by engineering students, leading to a lack of motivation to learn and a potential for course failure. Moreover, the instructional content of the course is frequently questioned by engineering faculty. To address these challenges, this study aimed to develop updated instructional materials that would increase student motivation and help students recognize the relevance of chemistry. The study integrated an innovative short course on semiconductors into a general chemistry course for engineering students, guided by Stuckey's relevance model. The effectiveness of the course was evaluated through student surveys and academic performance. Both quantitative and qualitative results demonstrated that the selected topics in the course successfully sparked student interest and were perceived as relevant by students in terms of individual, societal, and vocational perspectives. The post-test results revealed that over 60% of students achieved full marks on most questions, indicating the success in achieving the intended course objectives. This review presents the course design details, including the course content, learning objectives, learning outcomes, and student achievement evaluations. The incorporation of core chemical principles into real-life application examples in emerging technologies proved to be a promising approach for updating instructional content and exploring the interdisciplinary connections between chemistry and engineering.