Using Laboratory Activities Enhanced with Concept Cartoons to Support Progression in Students' Understanding of Acid-Base Concepts

The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an intervention based on a series of laboratory activities enhanced with concept cartoons. The purpose of the intervention was to enhance students' understanding of acid-base chemistry for eight grade students' from two classes in a Turkish primary school. A pretest-posttest non-equivalent groups design and one experimental group (EG; N = 19) and one comparison group (CG; N = 17) were used in the study. While the comparison group taught with laboratory activities-based instruction, the experimental group received concept cartoon enhanced laboratory activities-based instruction. "Acid-Base Achievement Test (ABAT)" consisting of 25 multiple-choice questions was administered in the form of a pretest/posttest research design. Besides, pre-interview was used for collecting data. Alternative conceptions identified in the pretest and pre-interviews were incorporated into the intervention, which thereby sought to move students toward views more in accord with scientific views for the concepts. The results of the study indicated that while there is no statistically significant difference between groups in pretest, performance of EG students is greater than the CG ones in posttest. Besides, the EG students are better in remediating their alternative conceptions related to concepts of acid-base chemistry. The findings show that laboratory activities enhanced with concept cartoons help student improve their understanding and reduce their alternative conceptions. (Contains 3 tables.)