Learning Chemical Reaction Formulae Using Toy Blocks

Abstract

This study, using toy blocks as models of atoms, was conducted with the aim of improving students’ understanding of chemical changes and chemical reaction formulae studied in atoms and molecules in Lower Secondary School. The results of the study demonstrated that the student’ understanding of chemical reaction equations was deepened when they learned by manipulating toy blocks as a model of atoms. In addition, it is thought that, by representing valence in terms of the size of the blocks, the students will be able to consider chemical changes by taking into account the number of arms of the atom. This indicates that modeling atoms using toy blocks is also useful in predicting what kind of substances will be formed by chemical reactions. The results of the questionnaire survey further revealed that the use of toy blocks as atoms models increased students’ liking for learning chemical reaction formulae, ease of understanding, and willingness to continue learning more positively as compared to the conventional teaching materials that use card models of atoms.