Find Your Personal Elements: An Engaging Approach to Introducing Chemistry to Secondary School Students

Abstract

[Abstract] Creative educational methodologies capable of engaging students in interactive, enjoyable learning help to lessen students’ anxieties and motivate them. In this context and with the objective of making easier the learning of the chemical symbols and periodic table as well as introducing the concept of chemical formula, we have designed the activity called FYPE (FindYourPersonalElements). Conceived not as a game but as a fun and entertaining activity to introduce chemistry to secondary students, FYPE has been found to be very motivating. It is aimed at eighth-grade students (13–14 years old), corresponding to the second course of Compulsory Secondary Education in Spain, when the first contact of our students with chemistry as an independent subject occurs. FYPE is composed of three complementary and consecutive parts: (i) writing your “chemical name”, (ii) a flash presentation, and (iii) an art exhibition. It takes place over a month and a half, ending with an open activity in the main hall of the high school in which parents and relatives also participate, making this activity go beyond the classroom. In a pleasant way, the concept of chemical formula is easily understood by the students, who also discover for themselves many elements that they had never heard of. The students’ perception of the activity was assessed by means of a survey and found to be very positive, with a score of 8.20 (maximum 10). The result showed that 77% of the students considered FYPE to be “great fun”, and 82% of them admitted that FYPE “had helped them to get to learn about elements that they did not know existed”. Around 60% found that “chemistry is more interesting than I had thought”. The positive perception of this activity is even slightly higher for female students than for male students.