Laboratory Research Motivated Chemistry Classroom Activity to Promote Interests Among Students Towards Science

This article reports a pedagogical classroom activity stimulated by the research experience of the teacher. The research was conducted to develop a gasochromic sensor for detecting hydrogen gas. The classroom activity was designed to stimulate student’s interest towards science through demonstration of scientific research and possible applications in real life. In this activity high school chemistry student in grades 10 through 12 were shown the research on developing a nanotechnology based hydrogen gas detecting sensor and were made aware of a real life example where a similar gas sensor could have saved a disastrous gas explosion that occurred in Bhopal, India in 1984. Apart from the research demonstration, the classroom activity was composed of watching a video, reading an article related to the disaster, and using inquiry based discussion techniques to integrate current sensor research in the laboratory of University of Central Florida with their current chemistry curriculum at school. The effectiveness of the activity was measured by pre-activity and post-activity questions. The goal of this paper is to present an example where the real world problems or events were communicated to students with emphasis on how science is put into action in daily lives, and motivate the use of similar activity as a means of invigorating the student’s interest in class course content.