Technology Report pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Photosynthesis in Dynamic Animations Milada Teplá* and Helena Klímová Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 3, 128 43, Prague, Czech Republic S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Our contribution provides information about an educational program called “Photosynthesis in Dynamic Animations”. This program was created in Adobe flash and is designed for high school chemistry students.
KEYWORDS: High School/Introductory Chemistry, Biochemistry, Computer-Based Learning, Multimedia-Based Learning, Photosynthesis
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subject. The focus of the questionnaire was high school biochemistry instruction in the Czech Republic. The research was conducted in 2006−2009, and 104 high schools participated.1 The educational program was developed on the basis of chemical literature.2−5 A help session that informs what is the minimal hardware and software required to use this program is available on the Adobe Company Web site.6 The educational program is available in the Supporting Information. You can start the program by clicking on the photosynthesis.exe or photosynthesis.html file.
o support chemistry instruction in high school we created a series of interactive animations that show photosynthetic processes in a eukaryotic cell. The result is an educational program called “Photosynthesis in Dynamic Animations” (Figure 1). This program was designed for high school chemistry students.
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EVALUATION RESULTS The educational program Photosynthesis in Dynamic Animations was given to eight high school chemistry teachers who evaluated the animations, chemical content, student preferences, and its suitability for high school biochemistry teaching support. The results of the survey are shown in Figure 2. This survey showed that this educational program is suitable for education purposes. The majority of teachers confirmed that using this program decreases the demands of lesson preparation. It was also found that the program is vivid, easy to understand, and attractive for students. The students achieved better study results than traditionally educated students, their attention level increased, and so did their motivation to achieve better results.
Figure 1. The example from the educational program “Photosynthesis in Dynamic Animations”, the description of photosynthetic cell.
Through a questionnaire administered by our institute, we found that photosynthesis is the most difficult unit in high school biochemistry, both for the student to grasp and for the teacher to explain. We believe that teachers would appreciate didactic aids that would facilitate their explanations and enable the student to better grasp this challenging © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: October 9, 2013 149
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300213h | J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91, 149−150
Journal of Chemical Education
Technology Report
Figure 2. Results of the questionnaire.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information S
Description of the instructional program and the educational program. This material is available via the Internet at http:// pubs.acs.org.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Teplá, M.; Klímová, H. Media4u Mag. 2011, 8 (X3), 122−128. (2) Alberts, B.; Johnson, A.; Lewis, N.; Raff, M.; Roberts, K.; Walter, P. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 5th ed.; Garland science, Taylor & Francis Group: United States of America, 2008; pp 840−855. (3) Raghavendra, A. S. Photosynthesis: A Comprehensive Treatise; Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom, 2000; pp 87−104. (4) Heldt, H. W.; Piechulla, B. Plant Biochemistry, 4th ed.; Elsevier: United States of America, 2011; pp 65−109. (5) Voet, D. J.; Voet, J. G. Biochemistry, 4th ed.; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: United States of America, 2011; pp 901−939. (6) Web site of Adobe Company. http://www.adobe.com/products/ flashplayer/tech-specs.html (accessed Sep 2013); contains system requirements for Flash Player 11.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300213h | J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91, 149−150
