ENHANCING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF CHEMICAL RATE REACTION BY USING A SMALL-SCALE CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENTAL KIT ON THE BLEACHING OF FOOD DYE

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to enhance students’ understanding of the chemical rate reaction by using a small-scale chemistry experimental kit with a smartphone application on the bleaching of food dye. The sample in this study was forty-five Matthayom-Suksa 5 students from a high school in Bangkok. The research design was based on one group pretest–posttest design. The instruments were the small-scale chemistry laboratory direction, the students’ understanding test on chemical reaction rates, and a Likert-scale questionnaire on the experimental kit’s satisfaction. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics in terms of mean and standard deviation. The results of this study indicated that 60% of students showed moderate improvement and 28.89% of students showed high-level improvement in their understanding of chemical reaction rates. The students had a significantly higher level of knowledge development in factors affecting the rate of chemical reaction after performing the developed experiments. From the questionnaire, students were satisfied with using the experiment kit at a high level (mean 4.71 and SD 0.50). They agreed that the experimental activities on the bleaching of food dye contributed to promoting the understanding of the reaction rate and factors affecting reaction rates (mean 4.63 and SD 0.53).