INTERPRETING STUDENT LEARNING IN BALANCING CHEMICAL EQUATIONS USING THE MODIFIED MATRIX METHOD

The following chapters describe my dissertation work in which students were taught a modified method to balance chemical equations. Even though balancing chemical equations is a basic concept in general chemistry, many students struggle to learn the method. In this work we use a modified matrix method to teach students how to balance chemical equations using a graphing calculator. We examined test scores before and after the students learn the method to determine growth in student ability. We polled the students to find out which methods were easier for them to learn and use in the classroom. Additionally, we designed a full set of course materials to allow the modified matrix method to be easily adapted and implemented in the classroom.

In this work we found an improvement in student scores between pre-test and post-test pointing towards gains in their ability to balance chemical equations. Additionally, we found that all students used the guess and check method prior to the instruction session and afterwards the students demonstrated an increased level of understanding the modified matrix method. Lastly, we demonstrated that the majority of students preferred the modified matrix method to the guess and check method they had used prior to instruction previously.

With this work we aim to show that this method can be applied to students in secondary and tertiary education, due to the reduction in amount of prerequisite mathematical knowledge. This is shown by the improvement in scores across a group of students with varying mathematical basis and varying majors.