The study sought to measure the effect of integrated approach on academic achievement of senior secondary school Chemistry students. Two (2) research questions and 2 research hypotheses guided the study. The study employed quasi-experimental design. The sample comprised 160 SS 72 males and 77 females chemistry students drawn from 1062 population (563 male and 499 female) in 60 public co-educational school in Nsukka education zone of Enugu State Nigeria. The experimental groups were exposed to integrated approach while control group were expose to lecture. Data was collected using electrochemistry achievement test which was validated by three experts and reliability index of 0.707 were obtained using Kuder-Richardson's formula 20. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at 5% level of significance, using analysis by covariance. The findings revealed that integrated approach was more effective in enhancing students' achievement and retention in chemistry than lecture method. Also, there was no significance different in male and female student's achievement in chemistry. Based on the findings the research recommends, among others, that chemistry teachers should teach chemistry with integrated approach to encourage active engagement, self-motivation and retention among learners to enhanced academic achievement.
The study investigated the effects of concept mapping instructional strategy on students' ability in organic chemistry. The study was carried out in E nugu State of Nigeria. Specifically the pretest posttest non -equivalent control group research design was used. The study employed a quasi experimental design. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The experiment was done on the teaching of Chemistry to senior secondary school students two (SS2). A sample of 200 students (92 boys and 108 girls) selected randomly out of the population of 457 students in SS2 from four public secondary schools in Enugu State. Pre-test of Chemistry was given to both the groups and the results were recorded. One group was taken as a control group which was taught Chemistry by the teach er who used conventional approach of teaching while the other i.e the experimental group was taught by the teacher who used concept mapping teaching strategy. After one month 's time of teaching, a post -test was conducted. Mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Co -Variance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze data. Results showed that concept mapping is an effective strategy for teaching and learning chemistry. The strategy is also capable of improving students' mastery of content at the higher-order levels of cognition. Based on the findings, the study recommended that concept mapping should be added to the teaching strategies of chemistry teachers at the secondary school level.
Cause and effect of biological phenomena seem to remain ambiguous to most people, including biology students. Understanding the concept of biological phenomena requires proper articulation of biological concepts and scientific reasoning. This study on enhancing the understanding of biology students on how and why biological phenomena occur through causal reasoning was carried out in Enugu North local government area of Enugu State, Nigeria. The population of the study was 4,612 biology students in Enugu North local government area. The sample size was thirty (30) biology students. This was made up of one (1) male and one (1) female, biology student that were sampled through simple random sampling, by balloting, from each of the three senior secondary school classes of five public co-education schools in Enugu North local government areas. Pre-teaching and post-teaching of causal reasoning interviews were conducted on the students to determine the impact of teaching causal reasoning to the students. Data collected from their interview responses prior to the teaching and after the teaching of causal reasoning about biological phenomena were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and subjected to Chi-Square test at 0.05 level of significance, to determine the impact of the teaching on their understanding of how and why biological phenomena occur. The Chi-Square test result indicated that there was significant association between causal reasoning with enhancement of the understanding of biology students on how and why biological phenomena occur. It was, therefore, recommended that teaching towards understanding how and why biological phenomena occurred, should be approached through scientific reasoning, by the teachers. Biology teachers should teach their students on how to think analytically and scientifically in order to understand and interpret biological phenomena.
Soursop juice was fermented as substrate in the presence of ammonium carbonate using saccharomyces cerevisiae to determine kinetic parameters: overall rate constant; k, order of initial reaction; n, maximum rate of fermentation; V max, catalytic constant; k 2, dissociation constant for the enzyme -substrate complex; k s, the Michaelis constant; k m, and the specific ac tivity of th e enzyme. These were obtained by monitoring the rate of carbon (IV) oxide production at different time intervals. It was observed that in the first order reaction, the overall rate constant k, with respect to ammonium carbonate is, 2.23. It's also seen tha t the curves achieved from the plots of volume of carbon dioxide produced with time approached the time axis in a shorter time and the reaction was faster upon its addition. Most importantly, the maximum rate of fermentation with the substrate, 2.58x102M1min-1 and ad dition of ammonium carbonate is 2.49x102Mmin-1. The value represents the maximum velocity attainable. The maximum rate at which all the enzyme molecules were in the complex form was high and became lower upon the addition of the additive. This s uggests inhibition of the fermentation process by the additive due to decrease in the maximum activity of the enzyme. The catalytic constant, k 2, 8x10-2min-1 and the value upon addition of ammonium carbonate is, 2.0x10 -2 min-1 The dissociation constant of enzyme-substrate complexes, k s 1.64x102 and for the addition of ammonium carbonate is, 5.30x10 -1. The Michaelis constant, k m 1.64x102 M and 5.30x10 -1 for ammonium carbonate. The specific activity which is the unit of enzyme activity per gram of protein (yeast) is found to be 1x10 -1 in both. Finally, the effect was found to be uncompetitive from the extrapolated Lineweaver-Burk plots.
This research investigated the effect of Peer Instructional Strategy (PIS) on the academic achievement of Secondary School Biolo gy Students in Enugu Education z one of Enugu State. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study employed non-equivalent control group design involving 528 (227 male and 301 female) SSII Biology students drawn from six randomly selected co -educational schools out of the ten secondary schools in Enugu Education z one that met the inclusion criteria. Two intact classes from each of the six schools (twelve classes) were randomly assigned to either Peer Instructional Strategy and Expository Method group by balloting. U sing the assigned method for each group, trained research assistants taught the same content to the respective groups, simultaneously. The instrument for the study was a researcher -made Biology Achievement Test (BAT), validated by three experts, and pilot tested. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to carry out test-retest reliability of the instrument, r = 0.74. The BAT was administered (pretest) before the interventions, after 4 weeks long intervention (post -test).. To avoid distribution bias; scores of forty -four students who completed the study procedures and took all the appropriate tests were randomly drawn from each of the twelve intact classes through software randomization. The scores were processed for data a nalysis. Statistical tools of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance was used to test the hypotheses at.05 level of significance. The researcher concluded that P IS improves the academic achieveme nt and of both ma le and female secondary school Biology students better than the expository Method.
Stephanie N. Ozota, Angela C. Asuzu, Chidimma O. Nwafor
The relative decline in the academic achievement of students in Biology in Senior Secondary Schools has necessitated this study. Thus, the study sought to find out the appraisal of instructional resource utilization for teaching and learning of Biology in Senior Secondary Schools in Enugu North L.G.A. of Enugu State. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The researcher adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was made up of thirty - one (31) Biology teachers in Enugu North L.G.A. No sampling was carried out as the population size was manageable. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Cronbach alpha Statistic was employed in determining the internal consistency of AIRUTLBSSS.in which the overall reliability coefficent index of 0.873 w as obtained. The data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for answering the research questions, and t- test statistic for testing the null hypotheses. The study arrived at the following findings: Biology teachers use the available resou rce teaching materials in teaching and learning of biology to a high extent. Biology teachers had positive attitude towards utilization of instructional materials in teaching of biology. There are impediments to utilizing instructional resources for teaching and learning biology in senior secondary schools. The hypotheses showed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female biology teachers on the extent to which teachers use the available resource teaching materials for teaching and learning of Biology and their attitude towards utilization of instructional materials. The hypothesis also showed no significant difference in the mean responses of male and female teachers on the impediments in utilization of instructional materials in teaching and learning of Biology. Based on the findings, the researchers recommended that teachers should be encouraged to the method of use of instructional materials in teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary schools.
The study examined the effect of Peer Instructional Strategy (PIS) and expository method (EM) on the retention of Secondary School Biology Students. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of peer instructional strategy relative to expository method on the retention of secondary school Biology students. The area of the study was Enugu Education Zone of Enugu State. Two research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The study was a quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest, non-equivalent groups research design; involving 528( 227 male and 301 female senior secondary school 2 Biology students drawn from six randomly selected co -educational schools out of the ten secondary schools in Enugu Education z one that met the inclusion criteria. Two intact classes from each of the 6 schools were randomly assigned to either PIS or EM group by balloting. The instrument for the study was a researcher -made Biology Achievement Test (BAT), validated by three experts. C ontent validity was ensured using text blueprint. The Pearson's product moment correlation c oefficient was used to carry out test -retest reliability of the instrument, r = 0.74. The BAT was administered 2 weeks after posttest. The results showed that PIS group significantly performed better than EM group in terms of academic level of retention. The researcher recommends PIS should be used in teaching and learning of Biology.
