Project: Preparing for Chemistry Practical Examination
Background
Who:
The project is intended for Senior High School teachers preparing students to take Volumetric and Quanlitative tests in Chemistry at the end of their study at that level.
What:
Selected Senior high Schools in Ghana offer elective chemistry for students pursuing science. These are examined at the end of their studies at that level by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), in Volumetric and Qualitative Analysis, and their performance determines which programme they are offered at the tertiary institutions they and in extension the professions they can later choose in life.
Why:
The performance of students over the years in their final examination has been appalling. According to the Chief Examiners reports of WAEC (1997,1998,2000, 2001 – 2006), even though student showed very good understanding of question on volumetric and qualitative analysis and usually presented their results in the required formats, they still have numerous problems with their practical work. These reports observed that, students over the years in answering questions on volumetric analysis, they usually:
· Wrote wrong units for their titre values. Such wrong units included units in cm-3 and grams.
· Some altered their titre values several times showing lack of confidence in themselves or even making examiners suspect that they received help.
· Other candidates did not know what consistent titres are and hence averaged all three or four titres.
Then for qualitative analysis, candidates
· Have difficulty to distinguish between chalky and gelatinous precipitates
· They have problems describing the activities tested which showed that they were not exposed to those activities in the classroom.
On the hind side, students daily complain about the lack of practical activities in their schools, whiles teachers complain of loaded school syllabus, lack of relevant teaching and learning materials, and in a few cases lack of relevant knowledge in some of the practical related skills they are expected to assist students to acquire.
Most worrying however is that, beyond the poor student’s performance in the WAEC Examinations, employers of science products from the Senior High Schools now have a lot of reservations about student’s practical abilities. This instruction is therefore designed to help teachers at the Senior High School level access easy and straight to the point instructions that can be used to help their student’s master practical skills in chemistry.
Project statement:
Use a combination of media (Video, audio, posters etc), computers and the internet to train and help students acquire relevant skills in volumetric and qualitative analysis in chemistry.
Problem Identification
Science, and Chemistry major student for that matter, at the Senior High School level in Ghana performs quite poorly in their WAEC exams. The few who are able to do well are not able to apply the knowledge acquired after school for lack of understanding and the relevant skills that should go with the concepts learnt.
A critical look at the problem reveals that, a few teachers who train these students in chemistry in some cases are themselves ‘deficient’ in the subject area. The many others who may be ok with the subject knowledge content do not in most cases have the laboratory and or materials to teach with. This situation has and is creating a generation of ‘illiterate chemistry graduates’ for Ghana – a situation that need to be tackle now.
Target Audience
Teachers of Chemistry at the Senior High School level in Ghana. These form an important bridge; that links the upcoming chemists to industry in this country.
Identified Need/ Benefit
Students at the Senior High School level need appropriate practical skills to enable them pass their examinations on volumetric and qualitative analysis in chemistry. The lack of equipped laboratories, adequate and well trained teachers of chemistry, and the overloaded school syllabi and calendar means, many students will come out of school inadequately prepared with these skills. By using different media, computers and the Internet in instruction, teachers should be better equipped to train their students faster, easier, and with the right kind of skills, knowledge and concepts.
With the introduction of the new educational reforms, computers are to play a central role in instruction. This design hopefully will come up with a chemistry software, the very first in the Ghanaian context, for chemistry teachers to use in their lessons
Bye-InThis instruction could be used beyond the intended purpose by teachers and other educationists for in-service training. Students could also be able to use this instruction on their own for the purposes of revision. Then schools that lack qualified chemistry teachers can use the video, posters, audio recordings and sometimes Webqu
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