CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The quality of learning attained by a student is related to the quality of

teaching done by the teacher. Consequently, better teaching should always bring

about better learning and better learning should always show better teaching

(Bustos, 1996). To achieve better learning, Anderson (1990), stressed that

without necessary tools, teachers are handicapped. And it is sad to know that

approximately half of the teachers they interviewed rated their teaching materials

as “poor”.

Aside from materials Salandanan (2000), pointed out that as a teacher

one needs a lot of strategies to better achieve his goal, which is to create an

environments open to maximum learning. Furthermore, Lardizabal et al (1996),

added that a great deal has been said that teaching is one of the most important

professions from a standpoint of human welfare.

Laboratory Method

According to Weiss (1985), one of the most generally accepted axiom in

chemistry is that despite all of the advances in theory during the past fifty years,

chemistry is still an experimental science. Experimental in the sense that one

can’t understand chemistry better just knowing its definition, its properties and

composition, the laws and principles that govern these changes but by making

use of experimentation with apparatus and materials in order to verify physical

 9

laws and other facts as well as to study such relationship and discover new facts

if possible. Therefore, chemistry needs to have laboratory, for it is often said to be

the heart of chemistry course (Beach and Stone, 1980).

Lardizabal (1995), defined the term laboratory as a place for doing

experiments in natural science where various chemical materials are tested,

analyzed, and prepared. He further added that it is a place where learners

conform and disprove something or simply test an idea. A laboratory is essential

not only as a tool to learn chemistry, but also as a method to learn life skills

(Calvo, 1993). It is considered as a method because it is used to designate a

teaching procedure (Walton, 1966). To use this method, the instructor should give

the necessary directions for work and provide manuals and workbooks to the

students.

According to Gardner (1989), the laboratory has been expected to help

students understand important science concepts, provide concrete experiences

in carrying out an investigation and help in developing skills. This is reinforced by

Johnstone (1991), when he pointed out that in the laboratory not only concept

learned and applied but new skills, equipment and terms are encountered that

must be learned and aced upon within the limited time period. The fundamental

values of laboratory method are those resulting from practical, first-hand

experiences in handling new data, materials and apparatus which cannot be fully

realized in any other way.

However, Landgrebe (1996), reported that laboratory instruction has

deteriorated to the point where it is often uninspired, tedious, and dull. Thus
 10

many students find chemistry irrelevant and boring. Johnstone and El- Banna

(1986), found that students seem to experience difficulty in integrating their

understanding of chemical concepts gained in lecture with the physical

phenomena observed in the laboratory. These difficulties could be because a

laboratory is complex information- rich environment, perhaps making students

simply become overwhelmed in their efforts to process the information effectively.

Lecture Method

The lecture is still the most frequently used method of instruction.

However, presenting a lecture without pausing for interaction with students

can be ineffective regardless of one’s skill as a teacher. The use of pauses during

lectures for direct oral questioning creates interaction between teacher and

students. Unfortunately, when classes are large, the teacher cannot possibly

interact with all students on each point. The learning effectiveness of the lecture

method then is being questioned because of its lack of interaction. However, it

continues as a means of reaching a large group at one time with a

condensed, organized body of information. By providing students with lesson

objectives before the lecture, the teacher enables them to listen more

effectively. It helps them to take concise, brief notes concerning the objectives

rather than writing feverishly throughout the lecture.

Technology is the application of science, especially to

industrial or commercial objectives. It is also a scientific method and material

used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. It includes new invention,

 11

which make mans’ work easier. It also refers to the latest advancements in

computers and electronics as well as to the social and political environment and

consequences created by such machines (Harrison, 1998).

The computer is a powerful and highly motivating learning tool. Used

creatively, it can enhance the secondary students’ repertoire of learning skills;

increase their access to the curriculum especially those children with a variety of

individual needs and from diverse cultural heritage.

With increasing pressure on schools to demonstrate the rise in children’s

attainment in academic subjects, there can be a tendency for such important

goals to be in the sidelines. Opportunities can be created to explore the issues

on the way to achieving goals in many subject areas by using computer as a tool.

The collaborative use of a highly motivational tool such as the computer provides

to facilitate children’s learning growth in these areas (Harrison, 1998).

When allied by a computer communication technology can be a window to

the world. Websites from many thousands of miles away can be downloaded in a

matter of seconds in the computer right inside the classrooms. Moreover, there is

a finding that for many children whose lives will increasingly be dominated by

computer technology, their only experience with Information Technology is in the

classroom. The use of computers to support curricular goals is clearly

established in almost all secondary schools (Harrison, 1998).

Children have different approach to the use of computer. The interpersonal

skills, which children develop are not unique to the work they undertake in the
 12

computer but such small group work may be effective in allowing personal

development alongside any other learning that takes place (Gonzales, 1998).

The PowerPoint is a high-powered software tool used for presenting

information in a dynamic slide show format. Text, charts, graphs, sound effects

and video are just some of the elements PowerPoint can incorporate into one’s

presentations with ease. Whether it's a classroom lesson, a parents' group

meeting, a teachers' seminar or an unattended kiosk at the Science Fair -

PowerPoint shows you how to make a powerful impression on the audience.

(http://www.actden.com/pp2003/guide.htm)

“Do-It-Yourself” Instrument

When the term laboratory is mentioned in connection with any subject a

mental picture is immediately formed of a classroom equipped with long and

heavy tables with numerous cases whose shelves are plentiful stock of

apparatus and equipment. Although a laboratory is defined as a work shop

devoted to experiments in any science with a purpose of observing the laws in

operation, formulating its principles, and systematizing them. The question might

well be raised then whether it is essential that a student follows directions in

performing the experiment or a series of experiments, and whether or not it is

possible to do the laboratory work in schools where classes cannot be equipped

with real laboratories. Realizing the need of such adaptation after a careful study

of the purpose of the laboratory method, leading educators have formulated the

following ---“Laboratory methods provide the subject matter an instruction in the

 13

form of real, present experiences”. This practice contrasts with the method in

which the subject matter is derived through the medium of books or teachers or

from the past real experiences of students. (http://links.jstor.org)

“Do it yourself”, often referred to by the acronym DIY, is a term used by

various communities that focus on people creating things for themselves without

the aid of paid professionals. The notion is largely made possible by living in a

modern industrial society, and is related in philosophy to the Arts and Crafts

movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many modern DIY

subcultures take the traditional Arts and Crafts movement's rebellion against the

perceived lack of soul of industrial aesthetics a step further. DIY subculture

explicitly critiques modern consumer culture, which emphasizes that the solution

to one’s needs is to purchase things, and instead encourage people to take

technologies into their own hands to solve needs. Actually, the actual activity of

DIY goes back through the ages. Since the beginning of time, people have used

their own abilities and available tools and technologies to take care of their own

needs.

The Department of Education - National Science Teaching Instrumentation

Center (DepED-NSTIC) is located at ECOTECH Compund, Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu

City. It started as a Philippine-German Cooperation under the Department of

Education as Science Teaching Improvement Project (STIP). On July 22, 1993,

STIP was institutionalized as NSTIC by virtue of Executive Order No. 112 signed

by then His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos, and was fully operated as such

in 1995.
 14

The Do-It-Yourself Science Equipment is a program developed by DepED-

NSTIC to address the lack of science equipment in government schools. As the

name suggests, this equipment is the kind that teachers will have to make

themselves. The teachers will be trained and provided with a complete guide on

how to construct the equipment.

The DIY design utilizes the blue PVC pipe and fittings and aluminum

curtain rail for the main parts. Bulldog clips replace the expensive laboratory

clamps. Other parts use common household items such as drinking straws, party

cups, empty soda cans, empty mineral water bottles, etc.

(http://www.nstic.net.ph/).

The Center is organized into four operating divisions, namely: Research

and Development, Production, Administrative, and Executive divisions. It is

managed by an Executive Director, assisted by the Technical Director; while the

division chiefs supervise their respective divisions. The Center has a total staff

complement of thirty-three personnel, including the two Directors. Supporting the

operation of the Center is a complete administrative structure headed by an

Administrative Officer. To address the need of fully equipping the schools’

laboratories, NSTIC will develop affordable quality science instructional

equipment in the four subject areas of science: Science I-General Science,

Science II-Biology, Science III-Chemistry, and Science IV-Physics. There are two

types of science instructional equipment, i.e. the standard science equipment

and the improvised or Do-It-Yourself (DIY) science equipment. The standard

equipment has high precision, used for quantitative experiments, commonly

 15

available in the schools, and fabricated in a manufacturing plant. On the other

hand, the DIY science equipment is low-cost type and can be manufactured by

the teachers themselves. The DIY is an alternative to some of the standard

science equipment and can be easily constructed since it is simple, although not

comparable to the precision, quality and rigidity of the standard ones; still, it is

recommended to be used for qualitative experimentation. The DIY is one of the

solutions to the very low availability of science equipment in schools.

(http://www.nstic.net.ph/annualreport.htm).

Volume and Temperature Relationship

Hot air balloons were extremely popular at that time and scientists were

eager to improve the performance of their balloons. Two of the prominent French

scientists, Jacques Charles and Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, made detailed

measurements on how the volume of a gas was affected by the temperature of

the gas. Given the interest in hot air balloon at that time, it is easy to understand

why these men should be interested in the temperature-volume relationship for a

gas.

It is expected that the volume of the gas will increase as the temperature

increases. If a decrease in temperature results in a decrease in volume, what

happens if the temperature is lowered to a point where the volume drops to zero?

A negative volume is obviously impossible, so the temperature at which the

volume drops to zero must, in some sense, be the lowest temperature that can

be achieved. (http://www.chm.davidson.edu/chemistryapplets/gaslaws.html).
 16

Atmospheric Pressure

Air is a tangible material substance and as a result has mass. Any object

with mass is influenced by the universal force known as gravity. Newton's Law of

Universal Gravitation states: any two objects separated in space are attracted to

each other by a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely

proportional to the square of the distance between them. Thus atmospheric

pressure is defined as the force per unit area exerted against a surface by the

weight of the air above that surface.

(http://www.2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/fw/prs/def.rxml).

Boiling Point and Pressure

The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which the vapor pressure

of the liquid equals the environmental pressure surrounding the liquid. A liquid in

a vacuum environment has a lower boiling point than when the liquid is at

atmospheric pressure. A liquid in a high pressure environment has a higher

boiling point than when the liquid is at atmospheric pressure. In other words, the

boiling point of liquids varies with and depends upon the surrounding

environmental pressure.

The normal boiling point (also called the atmospheric boiling point or the

atmospheric pressure boiling point) of a liquid is the special case in which the

vapor pressure of the liquid equals the defined atmospheric pressure at sea

level, 1 atmosphere. At that temperature, the vapor pressure of the liquid

 17

becomes sufficient to overcome atmospheric pressure and lift the liquid to form

bubbles inside the bulk of the liquid. The standard boiling point is now (as of

1982) defined by IUPAC as the temperature at which boiling occurs under a

pressure of 1 bar.

The heat of vaporization is the amount of energy required to convert or

vaporize a saturated liquid (i.e., a liquid at its boiling point) into a vapor. Liquids

may change to a vapor at temperatures below their boiling points through the

process of evaporation. Evaporation is a surface phenomenon in which

molecules located near the vapor/liquid surface escape into the vapor phase. On

the other hand, boiling is a process in which molecules anywhere in the liquid

escape, resulting in the formation of vapor bubbles within the liquid.

(http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7d.html).

Electrolytes and Non-electrolytes

Electrolytes are substances that produce ions in solution. Substances can

be categorized as strong electrolytes, weak electrolytes or nonelectrolytes.

(http://www2.volstate.edu/chem/111internet/Solutions/electrolytes.html).

Strong Electrolytes

Strong electrolytes are substances that only exist as ions in solution. Ionic

compounds are typically strong electrolytes. Strong acids, strong bases and salts

are strong electrolytes. When solid NaCl is placed in water, it completely

 18

dissociates to form Na+ and Cl- ions.

(http://www2.volstate.edu/chem/111internet/Solutions/electrolytes.html).

Weak Electrolytes

A weak electrolyte only partially dissociates in solution and produces

relatively few ions. Polar covalent compounds are typically weak electrolytes.

Weak acids and weak bases are weak electrolytes.

(http://www2.volstate.edu/chem/111internet/Solutions/electrolytes.html).

Nonelectrolytes

A nonelectrolyte does not dissociate at all in solution and therefore does

not produce any ions. Nonelectrolytes are typically polar covalent substances

that do dissolve in water as molecules instead of ions. Sugar (C 12H22O11) is a

good example of a nonelectrolyte.

(http://www2.volstate.edu/chem/111internet/Solutions/electrolytes.html).

Tyndall Effect

The Tyndall Effect is caused by reflection of light by very small particles in

suspension in a transparent medium. It is often seen from the dust in the air

when sunlight comes in through a window, or comes down through holes in

clouds. It is seen when headlight beams are visible on foggy nights and in most

X-File episodes when Moulder and Sculley check out some dark place with

flashlights.
 19

In liquids the Tyndall effect can be easily seen by using a laser pointer. If

you dilute milk to where it is almost clear, or if you have any type of sol, such as

colloidal silver, then the beam of the laser can be easily seen as it travels through

the liquid.

Tyndall effect is seen here using a laser pointer. The glass on the left

contains 5 ppm of HVAC colloidal silver and the one on the right is from the tap

after the bubbles have settled out. Fairly large particle size was used for this

demonstration so it could be caught by the camera in broad daylight. True high

quality CS will have a faint, but perceivable Tyndall when viewed in a darkened

room (http://silver-lightning.com/tyndall/).