“ChemFUN” Android Application to Explore Students’ Understanding of Chemical Representation on Matter Topic

Abstract

This study aims to develop an android-based application to explore students understanding of chemical representation on matter topics. This study used a DDD-E development model as a research method, consisting of deciding stage, designing stage, developing stage, and evaluating stage. The deciding stage begins with analyzing the content and the software used to develop it. The designing stage consists of drawing a flowchart and the storyboard. Then, in the developing stage, the application was developed based on flowchart and the storyboard. The last is evaluating stage, which involves five expert judges reviewing the application. The result shows that the ChemFUN Android application is compatible only for the Android operating system. However, there are many buttons the user can interact. In guided inquiry, the materials show the chemical multiple representations view and the interconnections between macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic views. The review result show that the final average score on the content quality is 3.64, followed by a language category with an average score of 3.65 and the design category with an average score of 3.60. Although it still has a low audio, spelling, and grammar score, it has been revised. The average for all categories is 3.63, which is very good, indicating that ChemFUN Android application is ready to be used in the learning activity to explore students understanding of chemical representation on matter topics. Also, this kind of research can be done with different chemistry topics, whether in National Curriculum or Cambridge Curriculum.