Members of the American Chemical Society have volunteered countless hours of their time to conduct chemical demonstrations in an effort to increase the interest of student and adult audiences in science. The question is: Do these demonstrations genuinely increase interest in science? While there is a great deal of anecdotal evidence to support this assumption, there is very little analytical data available. This study was performed as an attempt to gather such analytical data. The authors conducted chemical demonstrations in front of several groups of fifth graders. An attempt was then made to measure the effectiveness of these demonstrations in increasing students’ interest in science. Students were given a questionnaire to evaluate their general interest in the field of science prior to the demonstrations, and directly after the presentation of the chemical demonstrations. The questionnaires were given to the students again one week after the chemical demonstrations. Preliminary data, collected in an earlier study conducted using the same questionnaires, suggested that the chemical demonstrations performed had a positive effect on students’ perspective of science. Based on the data, immediately after being exposed to the demonstrations students were more interested in the field of science, more eager to take more science courses than required, more likely to be interested in a career in science and more likely to have a higher level of respect for scientists. This interest declined slightly after a week suggesting that regularly implementing demonstrations into instruction will help sustain student interest in science. The results of the present study, which includes a much larger sample size, will be discussed.<br/>

Effectiveness of chemical demonstrations in increasing student interest in science

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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