Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Chemistry

Committee Chair

Abby Parrill-Baker

Committee Member

Xiaohua Huang

Committee Member

Olayinka Mohorn-Mintah

Abstract

Use of manipulatives to explore concepts qualitatively and quantitatively was investigated in this study. Particle diagrams, enthalpy, VSEPR, and stoichiometry; four classes of students were divided into two groups constituting test group and control group. Control groups received traditional pedagogy (Lewis diagrams) while test groups used manipulatives. Shapiro-Wilks, class means, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U tests, and item-by-item analyses were employed to quantify performance. Particle diagram results suggested that using modeling improves student learning outcomes based on means and Mann-Whitney U-test p-value. Enthalpy results indicated a larger mean for the test group than the control group, but no statistical difference between score distributions. VSEPR results showed class means were only 0.02 different between test and control groups and no statistical difference between score distributions. Stoichiometry results suggested that students performed better using Lewis diagrams as means difference was relatively large favoring control and the Mann-Whitney U-test showed statistical difference between distributions.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

Notes

Open Access

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