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Title Students’ understanding of acid, base and salt reactions in qualitative analysis Author(s) Kim-Chwee Daniel Tan, Ngoh-Khang Goh, Lian-Sai Chia and David F. Treagust Source School Science Review, 84(308), 89-97 Published by The Association for Science Education This document may be used for private study or research purpose only. This document or any part of it may not be duplicated and/or distributed without permission of the copyright owner. The Singapore Copyright Act applies to the use of this document. Students' understanding of ;ed towards materials, acid, base and salt ing young people and 'dialogue and debate' reactions in qualitative e and particle physics. analysis jal exhibits at school neighbouring schools, Kim-Chwee Daniel Tan, Ngoh-Khang Goh, Lian-Sai Chia :recent Awards can be and David F. Treagust Conventional methods of teaching QA do not seem to help students understand the reactions involved. This new instructional package may help. The topic qualitative analysis (QA) is an important specified in the syllabus. J\s students are assessed >\RC component of the national grade I 0 chemistry mainly on their written observations, the main ~hysics and Astronomy practical examinations in Singapore. During the emphasis of QA practical work is getting correct esearch Council practical examinations, grade 10 students ( 15- to 17- results and writing 'standard' observations. Thus, years-old) are required to carry out a series of many students merely follow instructions given in the procedures using chemicals. apparatus and worksheets, and seldom think about what they are appropriate techniques. They also need to observe and doing (Tan et ul., 2001 ). record what happens, and make inferences based on To understand the reactions involved (Figure I), their observations. Teachers in Singapore usually students mainly need to apply the content knowledge begin teaching QA by reviewing the reactions which they have learnt in the topic,' Acids, bases and involved and demonstrating some procedures that the salts'. However, studies have found that students have students need to carry out. Using commercially difficulties in understanding the reactions in this topic. available workbooks or teacher-prepared worksheets. For example, Butts and Smith ( 1987) found that students then do a series of tests for the various cations. students could not relate the formation of a precipitate anions, gases, oxidising and reducing agents as in a double decomposition reaction to the low solubility of the salt, and Boo (1994) found that ABSTRACT students believed the driving force for a double A two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic instrument decomposition reaction was the difference in was used to determine 915 grade 10 students' reactivity between the metallic elements present in (15- to 17-year-olds) understanding of the acid, the compounds involved. Another alternative base and salt reactions involved in basic qualitative analysis. The results showed that conception of double decomposition reactions was many students did not understand the formation that the ions from the reactants had to return the of precipitates and complex salts, acid-salt/base electrons to their original atoms before a new electron reactions and thermal decomposition involved in transfer occurred to form the precipitate (Taber, 2001 ). qualitative analysis. This indicated that the usual [n another study, Schmidt (2000) reported that method of teaching the topic might be ineffective students believed the reaction between magnesium in fostering its understanding. In response to this, an instructional package which emphasised oxide/hydroxide and hydrochloric acid was a redox the three levels of representation of the reactions reaction because of the oxygen present in the oxide was developed. and hydroxide. School Science Review, March 2003, 84(308) 89 <.0 0 qualitative analysis ~ :::r- 0 2.. ~ (J) )> ~- :::0 0 (") (!) Ci :JJ (!) C"' such as Q) (/'J ~- ('t) _:;:;: double $: decomposition Q) lll ::3 0 (precipitation) c. :::r (/'J 1\.) Q) 0 ;::; 0 de tee" detec" w ""'! ~detect< l ('t) 00 .j::o Q) 0 w cation 0 I IEJ='-.--,.---~ ~ =·0 ::3 (/'J '"' 1O<ing 1 1"''"0 .. 9 02' H2 Qji _::::0 G) 0 _::::o- • ... CJ NH + ::J 4 C02 i:i)• jusing tb ::::0 Cu 2+•····· 3 Q ..... Al + 1· ... ..,.I- ~ ~aclalrrea 2 ;i detects I detects Fe +..,. ... ..- ~--~--- ... ..,.. Fe2+ Pb!NO")" ·zno (!) tb (Q 2 Fe 3T..,. __ further "-.. ...... Fe 3+ N03- + so2 ,- ' Cu Cl2 form1ng c:: 2 """] ~ Ca +..... I I AgN03 /.. ..... CI Key ----e.g. acidif~ ..... ··· ... 8042- ............ identifies . ......... Cu2+ I BaCI2 I ......... Fe2+ Ba(N03)2 ·........ ..,.. Zn 2+ ....... Fe3+ Figure 1 Concept map. -~ ··.f~f.- 15t Tan, Goh, Chia and Treagust Acid, base and salt reactions The study possible reasons for the answer to the first part. Incorrect reasons (distracters) are derived from actual In this study, we used a two-tier multiple-choice student alternative conceptions gathered from the diagnostic instrument (Treagust, 1995) to determine literature, interviews and written tests. Examples of items in the Qualitative Analysis Diagnostic + + + 915 grade 10 students' understanding of the reactions N N M ::J QJ QJ Instrument (QADI) (Tan et al., 2002) that relate to 0 lL lL involved in QA. The students were from 11 secondary . ~ . schools and were preparing for a national examination, this paper are given on pages 96-97. one of their subjects being chemistry. Sixty per cent were females and forty per cent were males. These Results and discussion students were academically above average and all were studying chemistry as a single subject rather than The grade 10 students found the QADI difficult- the as part of a combined science subject. average mark was 5.8 out of a maximum of 19, with The items in two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic 87% scoring 9 marks or less. The facility indices instruments are specifically designed to identify indicating the proportion of students obtaining both I N alternative conceptions and misunderstandings in a the correct answer and reason for each item are given '- o" '-- 0 (f) limited and clearly defined content area. The first part in Table 1. It can be seen that complex salt formation • ~ of each item consists of a multiple-choice content and reaction posed the greatest difficulty, followed question having usually two or three choices. The by acid-salt/base reactions, thermal decomposition of second part of each item contains a set of four or five salts and precipitate formation. "0 ~ QJ N "' ;;::: 0 0 '6 ell ·c:; z (1) ~ ell (1) Table 1 Students' performance on the items in the QADI. + -- N N ::J c: Facility Item Reaction 0 N • • index Precipitates and complex salts ~-t)) .17 3 complex salt (zincate) +alkali (sodium hydroxide) +acid (nitric(v)) c: § ,o .19 9 complex salt (ammine) +alkali (aqueous ammonia) +acid (nitric(v)) .19 2 complex salt (zincate) formation c:-~ .20 8 complex salt (silver ammine) formation L~ .23 15 complex salt (ammine) +alkali (aqueous ammonia) +acid (sulfuric(v1)) ~~ .29 14 complex salt (copper(11) ammine) formation .38 12 formation of precipitate (barium + sulfate(v1)) .41 1 formation of precipitate (zinc+ hydroxide) + + N .43 5 formation of precipitate (silver+ chloride) ' "'••ell "' c: 0 4: N .45 13 formation of precipitate (copper(11) +hydroxide) .48 7 formation of precipitate (silver+ chloride) .48 18 formation of precipitate (lead(11) +iodide) Acid-salt/base reactions .20 17 acid (nitric(v)) +carbonate .22 4 acid (nitric (v)) +base (zinc hydroxide) .23 16 acid (sulfuric(v1)) +base (copper(11) hydroxide) 0"' z .24 11 acid (nitric(v)) +carbonate 0.rn E .34 6 acid (nitric(v)) +carbonate 0.. Q) (.) Thermal decomposition c 0 .29 19 thermal decomposition of salt 0 .35 10 thermal decomposition of nitrate(v) 0 (f) School Science Review, March 2003, 84(308) 91 Acid, base and salt reactions Tan, Goh, Chia and Treagust Precipitates and complex salts reactive than the zinc ion; this is similar to the findino Unknown cations are identified by reacting them with of Boo ( 1994) mentioned earlier. This showed th~~ aqueous sodium hydroxide and/or aqueous ammonia. students did not understand that the precipitate was For example, zinc salt solutions react with aqueous the result of a double decomposition reaction, and that, sodium hydroxide to form a white precipitate, zinc in a displacement reaction, a more reactive element hydroxide, which in turn will react with excess displaces the ion of a less reactive clement rather than aqueous sodium hydroxide to form a colourless a more reactive ion displacing a less reactive ion. solution of sodium zincate, a complex salt. However, Examples of students' alternative conceptions are in item I, only 41% of the students knew that the zinc shown in Table 2. and hydroxide ions combined to form the zinc Students found complex salt formation and hydroxide precipitate. Many students (25%) indicated reactions difficult. Although they learned that zinc that a displacement reaction resulted in the formation hydroxide was amphoteric and would react with of the precipitate because the sodium ion was more excess aqueous sodium hydroxide to form a complex Table 2 Examples of students' alternative conceptions of reactions in qualitative analysis. Alternative conception Choice Students combination with the alternative conception/% Precipitates and complex salts 1 A more reactive ion displaces a less reactive ion in a double 01 (A3) 25 decomposition/precipitation mixture. 2 The precipitate dissolves in the excess reagent (instead of reacting with it) because: a more excess reagent means more space/volume for the 02 (A1) 29 precipitate to dissolve. b no further reaction is seen except its disappearance and no 02 (A2) 16 new reagent is added. 3 When acid is added to a mixture containing excess alkali and a 03 (A5) 18 complex salt (e.g. ammine, zincate or aluminate), it removes the solvent (alkali) which dissolved the precipitate in the first instance. Acid-salt/base reaction The insoluble base dissolves in the excess acid (instead of 04 (A3) 16 reacting with it) because no further reaction is seen except its disappearance and no new reagent is added.