D. P. Miller Washburn University Topeka.Kansas66621
A Liberal Arts Chemistry Course on Educational Television
The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a questionnaire evaluating the techniques used in a liberal arts chemistry course offered on educational television. The results are discussed in terms of effective ways to accomplish two course objectives: to increase the student's knowledge of the subject, and to improve the student's attitude toward the suhiect. As part of an educational public television endeavor conducted by Washhurn University, a general education credit chemistry course was aired for the first time during the Fall Semester 1975. The title of the course is "The Chemistrv of Cooking." Food and cooking was chosen as the topic o f t h e course because it can illustrate all of the basic chemical principles using concrete and everyday items and experiences. By choosing foods and cooking, two important facets in chemistry were handled. First, chemistry is basically a laboratory science, based on observations and experiments on things found in the world. By choosing food, it is possible to develop the suhject of chemistry using observations familiar to all students. Second, chemistry is a highly ahstract suhject. The neophyte must relate everyday experiences with the ahstract models developed to explain the behavior of matter on the molecular level. Again, foods and cooking provide an easy sorinehoard to develoo the abstract concewts of modern . chemistry. The course consists of 30 half-hour Droerams. The content in each program is limited to the preserkacon of no more than three maior conceuts, alona with suuportive material. As a .. result, any rontinuous activiry or presentation is limited to 10 min or less. Alrhmeh a deliherare artemm was made for the sake of good television to have each able to stand alone, the series is or~anizedso that new material is built on foundations established in previous programs. In an attempt to alleviate the apprehension of many students to science, the set is designed to look like an ordinary kitchen, and the instructor moves about explaining and demonstrating in an informal manner.
vision and not in the classroom. and nresumablv was willine to cope with the special difficulties &sociated with learning through educational television. The correlations revealed that the successful student felt the course material would he relevant to both his work and everyday life. He found the material interesting enough that he would have watched the program even if he had not been enrolled in the course for credit. On the other hand, the unsuccessful student had different attitudes and exuectations. In addition to expressing the opposite of the above traits, he wanted more on campus review &&ions and eventually lost interest in the course. Changes in attitude were correlated with performance in learning the material. Of the students who scored high in knowledge, only half experienced a positive change in attitude. On the other hand, of the students who experienced the positive change in attitude, most scored high and none scored low in knowledge. This indicated that a positive change in attitude is a sufficient but not a necessarv condition for scorine hieh in knowledge. The reason for thcs is that there are a nlmKer of students who are either strongly motivated or already have a positive attitude toward the subject and perform well in knowledge, but do not indicate a dramatic change in their attitude. The student who scored low in knowledge predominatelv had no chance in attitude. This is interpreted as the apathktic student. he student who scored average on knowledge predominately expressed a negative change in attitude. Apparently this type of student learns enough to get by in spite of his attitudes. The student that is most likely to have a positive change in attitude has not taken other science courses a t the college level, does not like to read science related articles in newspapers and magazines, and enrolled in the course specifically because it was offered on television and not in a classroom. In other words, the student was apprehensive and tended to avoid science. The other students, who expressed no or a negative change in attitude, expressed views opposite to those above.
Results In order to evaluate whether the ohiectives of the course were met, questionnaires were given td the students. T o encouraee frank and honest responses, the participation hv the student was voluntary, anonymity was assured, and all questionnaires were sealed and unavailable until after final grades had been recorded. The first objective, increasing chemistry knowledge and skills of students. was tested hv the scores on a knowledee test given before and after the course. In order to evaluate h& this ohiective was or was not met. the second test scores and the imjmvement scores were coirelated with other questions in the auestionnaire. Several traits oredicted scores in learnine the material. For the most part,the successful student ha2 prior exposure to chemistry, felt chemistry was important in his education, and expected to learn chemistry rather than cooking. He chose the course because it was offered on tele-
Summary If a gain in knowledge is the objective in a terminal introductory course, then the material being taught should he relevant to the professional aspirations of the students. If a positive change in attitude is achieved, then a large gain in knowledge is assured. However, a negative change in attitude does not rule out learning by the students. The content of the course is more important than the style in which it is presented Prior academic exposure to related material helps the student sienificantlv. If a positive change in attitude toward the subject is the ohiective of the course, then the stvle of the deliverv of the material is more impo;tant than its relevance and Eontent. The student most likely to express a positive attitude change is inexperienced and apprehensive; hut if the material holds his interest, he scores high on knowledge tests.
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694 / Journal of Chemical Education
