A new chemistry multimedia: How can it help junior high school students create a good impression?

Abstract

Most junior high school students considered chemistry as a complicated science subject with an abstract concept, symbols, and terms that must be memorized. The difficulty of learning chemistry made students had low positive perceptions of chemistry. It was needed the right ways to introduce chemistry to them. The purpose of the multiple case study was to explore chemistry multimedia could help students understood chemistry and created a good impression. The study was conducted in three 7th grade classes in different schools. Classroom observations were done in four meetings to collect students' responses toward this multimedia by ending students filling out a questionnaire of impression. Test of classification of matter and its change was given in the last meeting to investigate the level of students' understanding. In the way to gain more depth information, two students from each class were an interview about the application of multimedia. The chemistry multimedia made it easier for the teacher to introduce chemistry through a podcast, molymod-like, and digital simulation. This study documented that the appearance of this multimedia could make the students attracted and curious about chemistry.