Deanna is an Technical Specialist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA.

Research Summary

Microcomputers in the Chemistry Lab: Influence on Students' Attitudes Toward Computers and Understanding of Acid/Base Titrations

Focus: It is my purpose to study student learning in the laboratory environment, specifically to investigate how using computers in lab affects students' understanding of chemistry concepts underlying the experiment.

Background: Students in CHM 116, a second semester general chemistry course for engineering and science majors, perform potentiometric acid/base titrations as a standard part of the course.  Microcomputers are used by one fourth of the class as data collection device and pH meters are used by the remainder of the students.

Research Questions:

		What are students' attitudes about using computers in lab?
		Do computers affect how students understand the chemical concepts underlying the lab?
		Do students who used pH meters understand differently from students who used pH meters in the lab?

Specific Procedures: The pilot study was conducted in the fall of 1997. The surveys were composed of Likert scale and free response questions. This was to ask about students' previous computer knowledge and how the laboratory experiments using microcomputers influenced their understanding of the chemical content of these experiments.

The survey, which has been slightly revised based on the pilot data, will be administered this semester after the students perform the sequence of titration labs. Interviews will also be conducted with groups of three to five students to obtain more detailed information about the nature of the students' experience with the microcomputer-based laboratories.