19-01-2013, 11:25 AM
Database Design and Implementation for General Chemistry
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Abstract
The paper presents the main aspects and implementation of the classification system, database design and software, implementation of a multiple choice examination system for general chemistry in order to generate tests for student evaluation. The testing system was used to generate items for multiple choice examinations for first year undergraduate students in Material Engineering and Environmental Engineering from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, which all attend the same General Chemistry course.
Introduction
The student evaluation at the end of a semester usually comprises all discussed subjects on course, laboratory, seminars, and projects. When the area of subjects is large, as in general chemistry, a practical idea is to create a multiple choice examination system. The practice is prevalent because multiple choice examinations provide a relative easy way to test students on a large number of topics. More, for large number of students, a classical evaluation system (written evaluation) consumes a considerable amount of time
Subjects Classification
At beginning of multiple-choice questions test constructing the area of subjects must be classified. A good idea is to start from naturally classification in chapters, sections, and subjects.
According our classification for general chemistry (part one) for material and environment engineering students, nine chapters were chosen: Object of chemistry, Atom structure, Periodic system, Chemical bond, Chemical reactions, States of matter, Thermodynamic, Chemical kinetic, Electrochemistry.
The chapter Object of chemistry contain the sections: Importance of chemistry, Fundamentals, and Stoechiometry calculus. The chapter Atom structure has Quantum mechanic model and The “aufbau” principles. The Periodic system chapter has Historical and Long form sections. The chemical bond chapter has Stable configurations, Ionic bond, Covalent bond, Bond from quantum mechanics point of view, Metallic bond, and Intermolecular bonds sections. The chapter Chemical reactions has Generalities, Acid-base, Precipitation, and Redox sections.
Results
The multiple choice evaluation tests were applied on two groups of undergraduate students which took the same course one in Materials Engineering (I-ME) and other in Environmental Engineering (I-EE) for the General Chemistry course, first semester of study.
From every group of students a subgroup was extracted on pass examination criteria (I-ME-passed and I-EE-passed). The numbers of points obtained by all tested students by group are in table 3. The underlined values from table 3 represent the pass examination subgroup (which includes also an oral examination). The statistical results for numbers of correct answers obtained after evaluation for all groups and subgroups (table 4) are presented.
Conclusions
The use of MySQL database server combined with an easy to use programming language (such as PHP) and output interface (such as HTML) make the task of multiple choice examination system creation an easy one. More, any update is easy to make.
A statistical interpretation of multiple choice examination tests results can reveal interesting aspects about the level of knowledge on different groups of students, which can lead to educational issues applicable on practical works and seminaries.
References