INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION IN TEACHING CHEMISTRY TO DEVELOP STUDENT’S PROBLEM SOLVING COMPETENCY Vu Minh Trang, Nguyen Tung Lam, Nguyen Thi Phuong (VNU University of Education ) Nguyen Thi Phuong (Diamond School Center) Abstract In the 21st century, most countries in the world tend to innovate and reform their education to be more modern, Vietnamese education is also shifting from a content oriented education to a capacity development oriented one The purpose is to educate people with ne[.]
Trang 1IN TEACHING CHEMISTRY
TO DEVELOP STUDENT’S PROBLEM-SOLVING COMPETENCY
Vu Minh Trang, Nguyen Tung Lam, Nguyen Thi Phuong
(VNU University of Education )
Nguyen Thi Phuong
(Diamond School Center)
Abstract: In the 21 st century, most countries in the world tend to innovate and reform their education to be more modern, Vietnamese education is also shifting from a content-oriented education to a capacity development-oriented one The purpose is to educate people with new knowledge, creativity, dynamism, and proactively solving problem in life The objectives of the article are: 1) An overview of the theoretical basis of the application of information technology (IT) in teaching Chemistry; problem-solving competency, 2) Developing criteria for assessing problem-solving competency, 3) Proposing principles and procedures for applying IT in teaching Chemistry, 4) Proposing solutions using some selected IT applications in teaching Chemistry through 03 teaching plans for chapter “Electrolysis”, Chemistry grade 11 to develop problem-solving competency for students Our study evaluated the possibility of these solutions on two experimental classes and two compared classes (173 students) in grade 11 of two high schools in Hung Yen and Hai Phong The results of pedagogical experiments show that the application of IT in teaching Chemistry has achieved the set goals and helped students not only improve their learning results but also build and develop problem-solving competency
Keywords: Problem-solving competency, information technology (IT), teaching Chemistry
1 INTRODUCTION
Entering into the 21st century, most countries in the world would want to innovate and reform their education in a more modern way As a result, ‘Vietnam’s education is also shifting from content-oriented education to the competence development-oriented education to equip people with new knowledge, creativity, dynamism, and the ability to flexibly adapt to the surrounding environment and proactively solve problems in life In the context that the fourth industrial revolution is happening rapidly worldwide and has a profound impact on many fields of society, the application of IT in education is inevitable because it brings many advantages in supporting management, teaching and learning
In the teaching process, teachers need to innovate their teaching methods from one-way imparting
of knowledge to promoting positivity, initiative, and the ability to creatively apply knowledge to solve practical problems In addition, teaching with the help of IT applications is one of the measures to help students not only absorb learning contents easily, conveniently, and effectively, but also help form and develop the ‘students’ ability to solve problems through the subject-learning process at high schools today Therefore, Chemistry as a scientific subject closely combining theory and experiment
is a subject closely connecting with other natural sciences as well as connecting knowledge with practice, contributing significantly to developing this ability of each student Therefore, the use of IT
Trang 2applications to help simulate abstract and challenging knowledge of Chemistry or chemical phenomena with complicated reactions and experiments that require a lot of time to establish a chemical reaction system to ensure safety, success, and easy observation of phenomena; or consolidation, review, test and evaluation of knowledge in the form of pre-programmed games, etc will interest and stimulate students
to participate in learning activities, thereby helping them improve their learning efficiency and develop necessary competencies
2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES, OBJECTS AND METHODS
- Research objectives: Build and design some teaching plans for the chapter of “Electrolysis” of
Chemistry 11 with the support of some IT applications in Chemistry to help students solve problems in learning and life, thereby developing their problem-solving competencies, contributing to improving the quality of teaching and learning Chemistry at high schools
- Research objects: Measures to organize and teach some lectures of the chapter of “Electrolysis”
based on using some IT applications in teaching Chemistry to develop the problem-solving competencies for high school students
- Research methods:
* Theoretical research method
Systematize and generalize the theoretical and practical documents related to the topic of applying
IT in teaching Chemistry on smart electronic devices, helping the development of competencies for students, especially the problem-solving competency in teaching Chemistry at high schools, the
knowledge and content related to the chapter of “Electrolysis”.
* Practical research method
Survey, investigate the current situation, and make observation through assessment tools that are the questionaires to investigate the current situation of using IT applications in teaching Chemistry and developing the problem-solving competency for students in teaching Chemistry for 16 Chemistry teachers and 668 students in grade 11 of An Thi High School, Hung Yen Province, and Thuy Son High School, Hai Phong City
* Experimental method of pedagogy
Evaluating the effectiveness of IT application in teaching Chemistry in the chapter of “Electrolysis”-
Chemistry 11 in order to develop the problem-solving competency for students
Select the control class and the experiment class in the academic section A, with the same teacher, the same number of students and the same learning capacity Teach students in the control class in accordance with the traditional lesson plan, and teach students in the experiment class in accordance with the lesson plan using IT in the direction of developing the problem-solving competency
Survey the experimental results qualitatively through questionnaires for teachers and students of the experiment class, and quantitatively through the assessment form according to teachers’ criteria combined with students’ self-assessment form on the development of the problem-solving competency of students The 15-minute test and 45-minute test after conducting 03 lectures have also been implemented
in the control class and the experiment class based on the 10-score scale
Trang 3* Mathematical method of statistics
Quantitatively process the results of investigation and pedagogical experiment through the mathematical methods of statistics, and apply pedagogical science to analyze data, evaluate the reliability and validity of the data collected from the form of assessment of problem-solving competency according
to teachers’ criteria, and the students’ self-assessment form, along with scores obtained from 15-minute test and 45-minute test
3 RESEARCH RESULTS
3.1 Application of information technology (IT) in teaching Chemistry
According to the ‘Government’s resolution No 49/CP, the concept of IT is clearly defined as follows:
“is a collection of scientific methods, modern technical means and tools, mainly telecommunications and computer engineering, to organize, exploit and effectively use affluent and potential information resources
in all activities of human and society”
Application is the written program or pre-programmed software to run on many different platforms
such as computer, phone or web
From the definition of IT and application, we can define IT application as the use of IT in activities
within the fields of socio-economic affairs, foreign affairs, national defense, security and other activities
to improve productivity, quality and effectiveness of these activities
Therefore, the application of IT in teaching is the use of IT application software to simulate experiments in the teaching process to equip learners with the knowledge, skills, techniques, outlook on life, and problem-solving methods [2]
Introducing some IT applications to support Chemistry teaching
Firstly, CHEMIST – Virtual Chem Lab
Introduction of the application: This is the perfect virtual laboratory with 17 essential instruments,
more than 200 inorganic reagents and more than 60 organic chemicals that can meet the academic requirements of study programs at all levels
Advantages and disadvantages:
+ Avoid risks such as fire and explosion when reacting When there
are reactions that we do not know how it will happen, the software will
practice first and show the results; then we can practice with actual
chemicals
+ Have realistic simulations, full chemicals and lab instruments
+ Perform experiments easily by clicking, dragging and dropping
+ Helps with deeper learning: calculate all chemical data in the
experiment in real-time
+ No internet connection is required after installation
+ High cost, and when choosing organic matters, users continue to pay fees
Trang 4Figure 1 Instructions for installing and using the CHEMIST – Virtual Chem
Secondly, PhET Simulations
Introduction of the application: PhET provides simulation experiments for fun science in science
subjects (such as Chemistry, Physics, Biology, etc ), simulation experiments on the PhET application have been tested and evaluated to ensure educational effectiveness
Advantages and disadvantages:
+ Fun simulations based on interactive research for use in STEM
education
+ Simulate what is invisible to the eye by using graphics and visual
controls such as click and drag, slider and radio button
+ Provide measuring instruments: ruler, stopwatch, voltmeter and
thermometer
+ It is free on the PhET website and easy to use and include in the
classroom
+ No internet connection is required after installation is complete
+ The number of experiments
is limited and not abundant + There are a few experiments that still have errors
Figure 2 Instructions for installing and using the PhET Simulations
Trang 5Thirdly, Virtual Lab - Open Classroom
Introduction of the application: The application website has Virtual Labs of lively interactive
science subjects, which meet the access needs of millions of students and help them directly do experiments on the application Open Classroom focuses on the practical element and application of the learned knowledge in practice to ensure learning with practice PhET Interactive Simulations provides the experiments and images used by Virtual Lab
Advantages and disadvantages:
+ Allow students to interact, perform experiments, and simulate
visually and vividly Thereby, students are interested in learning, grasp
the lesson contents easily and discover new knowledge
+ No accidents
+ Visually simulate experiments to help students understand their
nature
+ Help students think creatively, take the initiative in learning and
develop skills in accordance with the requirements in life
+ Experiments are limited, not abundant Experiments are only available for some chapters + Need Internet connection and access to the website: openclassroom.edu.vn
Figure 3 Instructions for installing and using the Virtual Lab - Open Classroom
3.2 Problem-solving competency
Currently, there are many different definitions of Problem Solving Competency However, in this report, the following definition is used: Problem Solving Competency is a general competency, expressing
an individual’s ability to discover and recognize cognitive dissonance in learning and life problems and situations, then find ways to solve problems effectively and overcome challenges with a positive spirit, thereby acquire new knowledge and skills, demonstrate the ability of cooperation and thinking in solving and choosing optimal solutions [9,10]
Trang 63.3 The role of development of the problem-solving competency in teaching Chemistry
Training and development of the problem-solving competency for students are important in teaching Chemistry:
- Help students go deep into the core knowledge, link theory and practice, have skills to observe, collect and process information, form the scientific and practical research methods through designing the experiments on electronic devices, always be active and proactive in solving problems in learning as well as in life; therefore, create excitement and motivation to study Chemistry for students
- Through self-studying and applying knowledge of Chemistry to explain phenomena in the real life, hypothesizing and doing research to solve problems, students are educated to be aware of and responsible for themselves, their family, school and society Therefore, teachers can evaluate students’ cognitive and thinking ability, thereby facilitating the classification of students more accurately, contributing to innovating teaching methods and assessing students’ learning results, thereby meeting the requirements of educational reform in the current time [5]
3.4 Principles and procedures for applying IT applications in teaching Chemistry to develop the problem-solving competency for students
* Principles
IT applications, if used correctly, will greatly increase the pedagogical effectiveness of teaching content and methods Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the following principles:
+ Principle 1: Use at the right time: For example, use IT applications at the time of need, at the time
when students want Therefore, teachers need to have a reasonable use plan to improve the effectiveness
of each application
+ Principle 2: Use in the right place: Find a place to introduce and present IT applications to the
lesson in a reasonable way, help students use a lot of skills, operations on the application, many senses
to absorb lesson contents evenly in all positions in the class
+ Principle 3: Use the right intensity to attract students to new and attractive things, and help
students maintain more attention to the lecture
+ Principle 4: When selecting and using IT applications, teachers must carefully study their content
and applicability synchronously and systematically, diversify forms, and use them from the point of view of active student-centered teaching
+ Principle 5: Organize group learning activities for students to learn together and do experiments
on the application such as preparing new lessons, reporting, exchanging lesson content in class [3, 7]
* The procedure of applying IT applications in teaching Chemistry
Trang 7Diagram 1: The procedure of applying IT applications in teaching Chemistry
3.5 Solutions to apply some IT applications in teaching Chemistry through the teaching plans for the chapter of “Electrolysis”, Chemistry 11 to develop problem-solving competency for students
In the chapter “Electrolysis”, some IT applications such as Chemist – Virtual Chemlab, PHET Simulations, Virtual lab – Open Classroom can be applied to the lessons to simulate experiments Solutions to use the applications in each specific lesson:
LESSON 1: ELECTROLYSIS
* Use 02 IT applications: PhET Simulations and Virtual lab - Open classroom
Scenario 1: Testing the conductivity of water, acid, base, salt, sugar to form the concept of
electrolytes
- Step 1: Teacher raises the problem: Why are there solutions that conduct electricity, and solutions that
do not conduct electricity? Which solutions conduct electricity? Which solutions do not conduct electricity?
- Step 2: Teacher creates a problematic situation: Let students experiment to test the conductivity
of water, acid, base, salt, sugar using two software: PhET Simulations and Virtual Lab - Open Classroom, and ask students to observe the phenomenon From there, comment on the existence of electric current and explain physical and chemical phenomena
Figure 4 Illustration for using PhET Simulations application for Lesson 1- Electrolysis
From there, raise the question: why are there solutions or substances that conduct electricity, and
solutions or substances that do not conduct electricity?
Trang 8- Step 3: Problem-solving: Teacher asks to repeat the concept of electric current and asks students
to observe the dissolution and conduction process of solutions when experimenting Then, ask students
to state the mechanism of the electrolysis process
Give hypotheses:
+ State the existence of electric current according to the knowledge of Physics and Chemistry, and state the mechanism of electrolysis process:
Knowledge of Physics: Electric current is the directional movements of charged particles, usually
electrons
Knowledge of Chemistry: The solutions of acids, bases and salts dissolved in water dissociate into
ions, and because the ions exist in the solutions, they can conduct electricity
+ Mechanism: When acids, bases, and salts dissolve in water, they dissociate into positive and
negative ions Due to the interaction between polar water molecules and ions combined with the constant chaotic movement of water molecules, the ions of acids, bases, and salts gradually separate from each other, which leads to the dissociation of molecules into ions
- Step 4: Conclusion of the problem, and application in different situations: Students conclude
on the concept of electrolytes and electrolysis: “The substances that, when dissolved in water, form
conductive solutions are called electrolytes” and “Electrolysis is the process of dissociating substances
in water into ions”.
Teacher expands the problem: Can the concept of electrolytes be stated that “”The substances
whose solutions conduct electricity are electrolytes””? Explain?
Student: Give an answer
Scenario 2: Classify strong electrolytes and weak electrolytes Then introduce the concept of
strong electrolytes and weak electrolytes.
+ Use PhET Simulations application to classify strong electrolytes, weak electrolytes:
- Step 1: Teacher raises the problem: Do different substances have different levels of electrolysis?
If yes, how are they classified?
- Step 2: Teacher creates the problematic situation: Let students do experiments using PhET
Simulations software
Figure 5 Illustration for using PhET Simulations application for Lesson 1- Electrolysis
The teacher asks students to observe the brightness of 2 bulbs with the solutions of strong acids, strong bases, and weak acids, weak bases Why is there such a difference in the brightness of the two bulbs? (based on the number of ions dissociated)
Trang 9- Step 3: Students Solve the problem
Give hypotheses:
+ (1): When strong acids and strong bases dissolve in water, they will produce more ions than weak acids and weak bases; therefore, they conduct electricity better, so the bulbs are brighter
+ (2): Strong acids, strong bases are electrolyzed more strongly than weak acids and weak bases; therefore, they conduct electricity better, so the bulbs are brighter
Implement the plan and solve the problem:
- Step 4: Conclusion of the problem, and application in different situations: Conclude the concept of
weak electrolytes and strong electrolytes and how to write dissociation equations with weak electrolytes and strong electrolytes Ask students to give more examples of strong and weak electrolytes; Write dissociation equations for these electrolytes
Thus, to form the concept of electrolytes, electrolysis, and classification of electrolytes, teacher uses PhET Simulations and Virtual Lab - Open Classroom to conduct experiments on the conductivity
of different solutions of substances in order to create contradictions in the perception of students, then combine with specific teaching activities, instruct students to solve problems from which to draw conclusions and acquire new knowledge Therefore, through these research activities, students show the signs of the problem-solving competency
LESSON 2: ACIDS, BASES AND SALTS
* Use the application: CHEMIST – Virtual Chem Lab to prove that Al(OH)3 and Zn(OH)2 compounds are amphoteric hydroxides From there, form the concept of amphoteric hydroxide
Scenario 1: Prove that Al(OH) 3 and Zn(OH) 2 compounds are amphoteric hydroxides
- Step 1: Teacher raises the problem: as we have learned, a base is a compound that has one or more
OH groups attached to a metal and it is soluble in acids and does not react with bases So the compound Al(OH)3 is a hydroxide with 3 OH groups, is it soluble in NaOH solution or not?
- Step 2: Teacher creates a problematic situation: Teacher asks students to perform the experiment
using the CHEMIST - Virtual Chem Lab application: Take two large beakers to experiment, put 3.9
grams of Al(OH)3 in each beaker, and add 8 grams of solid NaOH and water in the first beaker to make the solution, add the excess HCl solution in the second beaker The teacher asks students to perform experiments on the application and observe the experimental phenomenon
Students comment on the phenomenon: Al(OH)3 dissolves in both test beakers Then, the teacher asks students to raise questions to find out the problem: Al(OH)3 is a base, how can it be soluble
in NaOH?
- Step 3: Solve the problem
- Give hypotheses:
+ (1) Al(OH)3 shows basicity when reacting with HCl and shows acidity when reacting with NaOH That is, Al(OH)3 has 2 types of dissociation depending on the condition
+ (2) NaOH solution has water, H2O has , so it has the acidity to dissolve Al(OH)3
- Implement a plan and solve the hypothesis:
Trang 10+ (1) Do experiment on the application: Take two large beakers to experiment, put 3.9 grams
of Al(OH)3 in each beaker, and add 8 grams of solid NaOH and water in the first beaker to make the solution, add the excess HCl solution in the second beaker It is found that Al(OH)3 is soluble in both test beakers It is proved that Al(OH)3 reacts with both NaOH and HCl
+ (2) Al(OH)3 is insoluble in water, so this hypothesis is rejected
- Step 4: Conclusion of the problem, and application in different situations: Al(OH)3 is an amphoteric hydroxide The teacher asks students to tell the concept of amphoteric hydroxide Then, the teacher concludes and gives more examples of common amphoteric hydroxides: Zn(OH)2, Al(OH)3, Sn(OH)2, Pb(OH)2 These compounds are sparingly soluble in water and have weak basicity and acidity
Apply the situation: Use the application: CHEMIST - Virtual Chem Lab to do the same experiment
with Zn(OH)2 to prove it is amphoteric hydroxide
Figure 6 Illustration for using the CHEMIST – Virtual Chem Lab application to prove that Al(OH)3 is amphoteric hydroxide
Thus, to form the concept of amphoteric substances, teacher creates a problematic situation:
“Can Al(OH)3 react with NaOH?”, and uses CHEMIST - Virtual Chem Lab to assist students in solving problems by observing the phenomenon that occurs when experimenting with the reaction between Al(OH)3 + HCl and Al(OH)3 + NaOH on the this software In addition, combining with the organization of specific teaching activities, teacher will help students show the signs of the problem-solving competency
LESSON 3: ELECTROLYSIS OF WATER PH ACID-BASE INDICATOR
+ Use IT applications: PhET Simulations and Virtual lab – Open Classroom
Scenario 1: prove that water is a weak electrolyte
- Step 1: Teacher states the problem: in the previous lesson, we have concluded that substances that
conduct electricity such as acids, bases, salts and water are classified as non-electrolytes
- Step 2: Teacher raises a problem: let students do experiments on the electrolysis of water on the
PhET Simulations application Ask students to identify the dissociation ability of water through the number
of ions in the solution after electrolysis Thereby, conclude whether water is a strong or weak electrolyte