Worksheet Alone Versus Activity and Worksheet Impact on Student Learning in General Chemistry

• Ahmed M. Abouelmagd ^[1] ; Courtney L. Thomas ^[1]
  1. [1] Towson University

     Towson University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 102, Nº 1, 2025, págs. 34-42
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Hands-on activities can engage students while learning about new information in the classroom. Frequently, hands-on activities are paired with worksheets that students complete and submit for a grade. While hands-on activities have been shown to improve student learning and are typically well received by students, they can require substantial time and money to develop, implement, and assess. This research seeks to investigate if the use of a simple worksheet alone can improve student learning when compared with a hands-on activity and worksheet together. An activity and worksheet were developed to help students learn valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory, and a second activity and worksheet were developed to help students learn to solve stoichiometry problems. Both the worksheet alone and the activity and worksheet together were assessed over two semesters in a General Chemistry course. Results show that a worksheet alone yields student learning gains for both topics. However, only the stoichiometry activity and worksheet together improved student learning, while the VSEPR activity and worksheet did not improve student learning. These results are the first report of a worksheet alone achieving similar learning gains as an activity and worksheet together and suggest a pathway for future research to examine whether learning gains can be achieved using a worksheet alone for other concepts and disciplines as well.