Taking School Instrumentation One Step Forward: A Do-It-Yourself Type Spectrophotometer and a Jupyter Notebook That Enable Real Time Spectroscopy during School Lessons

Abstract

A major obstacle that teachers face when they begin their spectroscopy lessons is the lack of a spectrophotometer, mostly due to its relatively high cost. In the present study, the construction of a low-cost doit-yourself type of instrument is reported. Its construction, as a part of a problem-based scenario, would also help students to enhance their chemical literacy. Moreover, the creation of a Jupyter Notebook called "Spectrophotometry" is also described. With this tool, students and teachers, within a few clicks, will derive absorption and fluorescence spectra and do kinetics studies without any difficulty and the need for timeconsuming data postprocessing software. Finally, the views of a group of students on the construction and ease of use of our spectrophotometer are discussed in detail.

Open Educational Resources Described in the Journal of Chemical Education

“…For example, a Jupyter enabled ebook exploration of quantum chemistry has recently been described. 7 The next section of the collection Jupyter Notebooks, 10 and Arduino 11 resources are among this set of low-cost solutions for carrying out chemical observations. Among the contributing factors to instructor volition, noted earlier as a key component of OER adoption, are the affordances an individual accesses in deciding to embrace the use of OER.…”

“…The largest section of the collection reflects the importance of experimental observations in chemistry and collects 15 different articles that describe open-source instructional instrumentation. Raspberry Pi, Jupyter Notebooks, and Arduino resources are among this set of low-cost solutions for carrying out chemical observations.…”