Do high school chemistry students write effective laboratory reports?

CHED 170

Nahyr D. Rovira-Figueroa, nroviraf@purdue.edu, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Purdue University, 100 N. University St., Room 4108, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2098 and Mary B. Nakhleh, mnakhleh@purdue.edu, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084.
In the past, there have been many claims made about the value of laboratory work in high school chemistry courses. Educators have emphasized that laboratory work helps students engage in scientific reasoning, such as critically evaluating data, debating ideas, and supporting claims with evidence. We investigated how student's perceptions/attitudes, integrated laboratory/classroom instruction, and the type of laboratory activities/experiments affected high school chemistry students' ability to write effective laboratory reports. Data sources in this analysis included questionnaire, student and teacher interviews, and classroom observations. The questionnaire assessed the qualities of the classroom learning environment and explored student's perceptions/attitudes of the laboratory instruction. We conducted semi-structured interviews to probe student and teacher ideas about how the act of writing effective laboratory reports may have impacted their understanding of chemistry and their ability to write. This study helped us to understand how writing an effective laboratory report can help students learn chemistry. Results of this study will be presented.
 

General Posters
7:30 PM-9:30 PM, Sunday, March 25, 2007 Hyatt Regency Chicago -- Riverside Center, Poster

Division of Chemical Education

The 233rd ACS National Meeting, Chicago, IL, March 25-29, 2007