Effects of Chemistry-Based Puzzles on Senior Secondary School Chemistry Students’ Interest in Chemical Periodicity

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of chemistry-based puzzles on senior secondary school chemistry students’ interest and gender in chemical periodicity. The design of the study was quasi-experimental; specifically the pre-test, post-test non-equivalent control group design was adopted. A sample of 129 students from a population of 4369 was used in the study. Students were classified into experimental and control groups: Students in the experimental groups were instructed with chemistry-based puzzles while students in the control groups were instructed with the demonstration method. An interest questionnaire called Chemical Periodicity Concepts Interest Inventories (CPCII), constructed by the researchers and validated by experts from three universities in Nigeria, was used in the study. Reliability coefficient of the instrument was calculated and found to be 0.79. Three research questions and three hypotheses were raised in the study. The research questions were answered using Mean and Standard Deviation while hypotheses were tested at 0.05 confidence level using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings showed that students in the experimental group who were taught with Puzzle-Based Strategy (PBS) had higher interest in the topic ‘chemical periodicity’ than those in the control group who were taught with the Demonstration Method (DEM). There was no significant difference in the interest of students by gender. Interaction effect of gender and treatments on interest was not significant. It was recommended that teachers should incorporate puzzle-based instructional strategies in their teaching as a variety to curb boredom in the classroom due to monotony of the conventional methods among others.