The effect of working with iPad applications including macroscopic and submicroscopic level representations in different orders on students' conceptual understanding of gas laws

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of implementing macroscopic and submicroscopic level instructional activities in different order on conceptual understanding of Gas Laws in the 9th grade chemistry lesson by using iPads. The participants of the study were 44 ninth grade students studying at a private high school in Istanbul. In the beginning of the study, the participants were divided into two groups: first group (called MaMi, N=22) started with the macroscopic level activities, then continue with the submicroscopic level, whereas the other group (called MiMa, N=22) worked on the same activities in reverse order. The instrument used in this study was Gas Concept Test (GCT), which consisted of questions including only macroscopic, only submicroscopic and both types of representations. The GCT which was found to be valid and reliable (α=.777) was given before and after the implementation. In addition, during the implementation students filled in worksheets, and participated in the semi-structured interviews. The implementation was composed of two classroom activities, including iPad applications, "Gas Laws HD Lite" and "iGasLaw" accompanied with worksheets. The total scores of GCT-Pre and GCT-Posttests were compared by using parametric tests, namely, Independent Samples t-test and Paired Samples t-test. The analysis of results showed that both groups improved significantly (p=.000) from GCT-Pre- to GCT-Post; however no statistically significant difference (p=.243) was found in the total scores of GCT-Post between the groups. When groups' scores in answering macroscopic level questions from GCT-Pre to GCT-Posttest were analyzed by using non-parametric test, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, MaMi was found to perform significantly better (p=.003) in this type questions than MiMa did. In the worksheet analysis, no statistically significant (p=.378) difference was found. The findings from the interviews revealed student misconceptions regarding behavior of gas particles such as molecular size differs as temperature changes, and gas molecules stick together when temperature decreases.