A low-price handy-size spectrometer was designed and fabricated. Wavelength scanning was achieved by switching LEDs with eight wavelengths. The obtained transmission spectra agreed well those obtained with a conventional spectrometer with the correlation coefficients up to 0.9985-0.9999. The LED spectrometer was applied to measure a time-varying chemical reaction such as neutralization titration. It was applied to a first-year natural science fundamental education. The evaluation from the students showed the usefulness of the present apparatus for the engineering basic education.