Chemical Analysis of Corrosion of Metals: A Resource for Teaching Difficult Concepts of Redox Reactions and Electrochemistry in Tertiary Institutions

The research study was on the Chemistry of corrosion of metals – as a resource for teaching the concepts of redox reactions and electrochemistry through deployment of materials within the learner’s immediate environment. This was undertaken to find a solution to persistent students’ poor performance on the difficult concepts of redox reactions and electrochemistry in tertiary institutions. Three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study in investigating the effects of gender and computational ability on students achievement on the concepts, when exposed to experiments on the corrosion of metals and standard galvanic cell experiments, relevant literature were reviewed on various subheadings like improvisation in science teaching, students’ academic performance in science (Chemistry), gender and academic performance, corrosion, types and mechanism, and demonstrating redox reactions in electrochemical systems. A non-randomized pre-test, post-test control group was used for the study and 100 students were drawn from four (4) intact classes in four (4) selected Colleges of Education in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States respectively from a population of (250) two hundred and fifty students. The instrument used in collecting data for the study was the test on redox reaction and electrochemistry (TORE) and test on computational ability (TOCA). Kurder Richardson formula 20 was used to establish the reliability of the test instruments and the validated instruments were administered to the subjects by the researchers. The following procedure was adopted in carrying out the research. Pre-test was administered to two groups and also computational ability test. After four weeks of teaching using corrosion of metals with galvanic cells to the experimental group, post-test was administered after treatment, and also after three weeks retention test was administered. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, t – test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results indicated that teaching learning experiences/materials and students computational ability significantly influence students’ performance on the concepts whereas gender does not. Result also indicates that experiments on corrosion of metals can be used to enhance students’ performance on redox reaction and electrochemistry. The adoption and inclusion of experiments on corrosion of metals among learning experiments for teaching redox reaction and electrochemistry in tertiary institution were recommended.