Research: Science and Education
The Student-to-Student Chemistry Initiative: The Impact of Chemistry Demonstration Programs Presented by High School Students at Elementary Schools Phillip D. Voegel,* Kathryn A. Quashnock, and Katrina M. Heil Department of Chemistry, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX 76308-2099; *
[email protected] Many chemistry departments participate in outreach to pre-college students through a variety of programs. One of the most common is the chemistry demonstration show where college students and faculty perform exciting experiments for elementary (1–6), junior high (7–8), or high school (9–12) audiences. In small chemistry departments, the number of students and faculty available for outreach performances is often limited. Through the student-to-student chemistry initiative (SSCI) our department increased the number of elementary school students our outreach programs affect by training high school students to perform chemistry demonstration programs for elementary school audiences. Similar programs are reported where high school teachers have trained their students to perform demonstration programs at elementary schools (13–15). SSCI’s impact on high school students was described in an earlier report (16). In this work, SSCI’s impact on elementary school students is examined quantitatively. Similar statistical analyses are found in our analysis of the high school training portion of SSCI (16) and one report where a four question post-performance survey was employed (6). Extensive analyses of the relationship between student attitude and success in elementary school science classes (17), high school chemistry classes (18), and college chemistry classes (19) have been published. Program Overview In the past, our program presented chemistry demonstrations only to a limited number of elementary school students, typically 200–300 annually, at schools in close proximity to our campus because only a small number of college students and faculty were interested in participating. Our
Statements 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Level of Agreement
I want to be a scientist when I grow up. Doing science experiments is fun. I have never heard of global warming. Science is boring. I do chemistry when I breathe. I would not want to be a scientist. Chemistry makes my parents’ car go. Science is not a career I would like. I cannot wait to get science over with. Being a scientist is my career goal. Acid rain does not exist. I would read books about science.
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
Figure 1. Pre-demonstration survey for 5th graders; students indicated agreement ranging from 1 (total disagreement) to 5 (total agreement).
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former chemistry demonstration programs made no effort to reach high school students. SSCI is a two-part program designed to achieve two objectives: improving student perceptions of science, and increasing the number of students served by our chemistry outreach programs over an expanded geographic area. To increase the number of students able to present chemistry demonstration programs, SSCI trained high school students to perform the programs at elementary schools in their area under the supervision of their teachers. Thus our program had the opportunity to impact high school students through the training sessions and elementary school students through the performances by high school students. High school students and teachers attended ninetyminute training sessions on our campus and learned to complete a series of chemistry demonstrations that include a methanol film canister cannon (a safer version of the more common methanol cannon), luminol chemiluminescent reactions, polymers and others (for complete descriptions of experiments see reference 16 ). Each participating school received a demonstration kit containing the reagents, glassware, and other equipment needed to perform demonstration programs. They also received small gifts (ACS balloons, etc.) and printed materials to give to elementary school students. The high school teacher was required to be present for all practice sessions and all performances by high school students. Goggles were required for all high school student performers and any elementary school student participating in hands-on portions of the program. The series of experiments were selected to minimize safety issues during the demonstration performances and to eliminate the need for special disposal of wastes. Safety was stressed for all experiments in accordance with ACS Guidelines for Chemistry Demonstrations (20). While the kit does not contain a fire extinguisher, schools were expected to have one on hand at all practice sessions and performances. Program Assessment Methods A twelve-statement assessment instrument (Figure 1) was developed in consultation with the West College of Education at MSU. The assessment instrument examined the program’s immediate impact on students’ attitudes toward science (statements 2, 4, 9, and 12), interest in science careers (statements 1, 6, 8, and 10), and science awareness (statements 3, 5, 7, and 11). At this point, no attempt has been made to assess the long-term impact of the program. Elementary school teachers distributed the pre-performance survey forms just prior to the demonstration performance and instructed students to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each statement by circling 1 (total disagree-
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www.JCE.DivCHED.org
Research: Science and Education
ment) to 5 (total agreement). Immediately following the demonstration performance, students completed the post-performance survey. Initially, the two surveys were printed separately and students were asked to place their first name and last initial on each sheet. To protect student privacy, the later version of the assessment instrument was printed with the preperformance survey on the front and the post-performance survey on the back of a single sheet and required no personal information to provide paired results. Before assessing student responses, scores for negatively phrased statements were adjusted by subtracting from six (e.g., if a student responded to statement 4 (science is boring) by circling 1, the score was converted to a 5). The scores for the four statements addressing each area on individual surveys were then summed. The total scores for each assessment area were then averaged. The average scores from preand post-demonstration surveys were then compared using Student’s t-test for paired responses.
Table 1. Demonstration Participation and Returned Survey Data by Elementary School
Results and Discussion In the program’s first year, 80 high school students from ten schools were trained to perform chemistry demonstrations. These high school students offered chemistry demonstrations attended by 1573 students from 17 elementary schools and one junior high school: this represents a greater than five-fold increase of students potentially influenced by our department’s outreach programs. The average distance to participating schools was 20 miles. Table 1 provides information on the schools from which assessment surveys were returned. Valid surveys from 598 students (38%) attending the chemistry demonstrations by high school students were analyzed. Valid surveys were defined as those which had responses to all twelve statements and only one numeric answer indicated per statement. The number of surveys returned by each school is shown in Table 1. Because the demonstration programs were intended for a fifth-grade audience, surveys were provided in each high school’s demonstration kit only for the number of fifth-grade students in their districts. However, high school classes in many of the smaller school districts gave performances for additional grade levels. Based on the criteria above, 74 pre-demonstration surveys and 98 postdemonstration surveys were rejected. Of the remaining surveys, 310 pre-performance and post-performance surveys could be identified as belonging to one student and were compared using the paired t-test. Table 2 shows the average predemonstration and post-demonstration survey scores with values at the 95% confidence level, and the resulting p values from the paired t-test. In all analysis areas, statistically significant increases ( p ≤ 0.05) in post-performance survey scores were observed. Histograms of paired survey responses were used to examine the number of students providing each possible response to the survey statements. The histograms for each of the three analysis areas are shown in Figures 2–4. A score of four indicates the most extreme negative response to the four statements of an analysis area, while a score of twenty indicates the most extreme positive response. Prior to the demonstrations, only three (1.0% of all paired surveys) students gave the most negative response of four with respect to attitude toward science. Following participation in www.JCE.DivCHED.org
the program, the number of students giving this response dropped to one (0.3%). An increase, from 47 (15.2%) to 77 (24.8%), was observed in the number of students giving the most positive response of twenty. In the area of science awareness, the most negative response of four was observed from only two (0.6%) students prior to the demonstration and fell to zero following the demonstration. The number of elementary school students observed to give the most positive response in the area of science awareness increased from 13 (4.2%) to 33 (10.6%) after demonstrations by the high school students. Finally, in the area of interest in careers in science, a similar trend was observed. The number of students giving the most extreme negative response was quite large compared to the other areas of analysis. Fifty-seven (18.4%) students gave this response initially. After the high school students gave the demonstrations the number dropped to 29 (9.4%). Stu-
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School District: Elementary School
Number of Students (Returned Surveys)
Grade Level(s)
Burkburnett: 00Burk. Jr. High
47
1(34)
7–8
Chillicothe: Chillicothe
20
1(15)
5
Gold-Burg: Gold-Burg
77
1(18)
1–6
Harrold: Harrold
48
10(9)
1–6
Henrietta: Henrietta
97
1(79)
5
Holliday: Holliday
61
1(60)
5
405
(137)
3–5
83
1(15)
1–6
45 84 71 41
1(38) 1(83) 1(71) 1(39)
5 5–6 5 5
Iowa Park: Bradford Throckmorton: 00Throckmorton Wichita Falls: 00Ben Milam 00Cunningham 00Fowler 00West Foundation
Table 2. Average Student-Reported Attitudinal Change Pre- and Post-Demonstration Area of Analysis
Pre-Demonstration Average (n = 310)
Post-Demonstration Average (n = 310)
p Value
Attitude toward science
15.2 ± 0.4
16.3 ± 0.4
