Teaching of stoichiometry through analogies of the sociocultural context of students

Abstract

In chemistry teaching, quantitative relationships provoke understanding and resolution issues of stoichiometric calculations. It happens, expressly, due to the difficulty of applying the concepts of ratio and proportion, as well as the abstract representations and mental models that must be made. The present study applied a didactic strategy based on the use of typical analogies from the sociocultural context of tenth graders of Loperena National Educational Institution (Valledupar, Colombia). This strategy helps to facilitate the understanding and visualization of abstract concepts such as those that are part of stoichiometry learning. The strategy begins with a stage of previous concepts identification. Then, it considers analogies structuring, with analogies taken from students’ daily life. Later, a development and application stage that includes the use of worksheets to establish a link with the topic of the class. Finally, it applies an evaluation instrument to assess the strategy’s scope of application. The results revealed a significant improvement, not only in the interpretation and resolution processes of hypothetical situations associated with stoichiometry, but also in the motivation of students towards the learning of chemistry.