• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.318-327
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of small-scale chemistry(SSC) laboratory activities implemented in high school chemistry II classes on the students' inquiry process skills and science-related attitudes. For this study, 112 students in the 12th grade were chosen and divided into an experimental and a control group. Seven SSC lab programs that can replace the traditional experiments in chemistry II textbooks were selected and administered to the experimental group while the traditional textbook experiments were administered to the control group. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the enhancement of inquiry process skills between the two groups while no significant difference was found in science-related attitudes. Further analysis showed that the difference in the inquiry process skills came from the basic inquiry process skills. The experimental group students thought that the SSC experiments have many advantages compared to the traditional experiments, e.g., individual work, learning lab and theory in parallel, short experiment time, safety, environmental aspects, etc. These results suggest that the SSC lab programs are valuable in high school chemistry classes and developing and distributing various SSC lab programs is needed to replace the traditional experiments in the current textbooks.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.291-305
• /
• 2010

The aim of this study was to survey the perceptions of the elementary school teachers on the smallscale chemistry(SSC) following its training session. The teachers participating in the survey were 266 teachers in the Gyeongnam province. They were given a questionnaire that focused on the nine areas of the SSC: Needs for the teacher training and its application, its benefits, issues of safety and danger as well as treatment of environmental pollution, its economic efficiency and the development of investigative skills. The designed questionnaire was checked by an authority, and the responses to each question were tallied and analyzed. The results are as follows. The biggest problems of the traditional experimental methods as rated by the teachers were, in the order of importance, the preparation time, the legal liability of teachers for the safety and accidents, financial issues, disposal of the experimental wastes and the lack of relevant data. Since most of the teachers had not experienced the SSC lab programs in the field, they responded positively to the questions of need for its introduction and training. The implementation of the experimental SSC lab programs should proceed in the following order: introduction into the textbook, teacher training program, after-school education and the invitation of instructors. The most useful materials for the SSC program were CDs, videos, books and various printed materials, in that order. The responses regarding benefits of the SSC program included its simplicity, convenience, time savings, diversity, qualitative and quantitative aspects, integration into the regular class and use of toys. In particular, the teachers mentioned the increased safety due to the small amount of experimental reagents needed and the durability of plastic instruments. The familarity from the use of everyday tools as well as easy access to and the low-cost of the instruments were other important benefits. The teachers in general rated the educational content of the program highly, but many also found it to be average. Some pointed out the lack of sufficient discussion due to the individual or pair groupings as a potential shortcoming. The potential for development of problem solving ability and improvement of skills was rated positively. The number of teacher who rated the development of creativity positively was just over the half. As for the area of improving investigative skills, many found its assessment difficult and confusing because of the lack of its systemic definition and categorization. Based on the findings of this study, I would like to recommend the application and a wider dissemination of the small-scale chemistry lab program into the elementary school science curriculum.