There is no doubt that science education is becoming a difficult subject for the younger generation despite learning resources becoming readily available through the internet.
This comment was made by Doctor David Rohindra, an academic in the Faculty of Science Technology and Environment at the University of the South Pacific.
Dr Rohindra along with his fellow lecturer Roselyn Lata – also an academic at the University of The South Pacific in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences – launched a book called the Volumetric Analysis – Titration for Beginners.
“It has been noticed that many secondary school students are instructed by their teachers to copy notes directly from the prescribed textbook into their exercise book. However, the best practice would be to ask students to read from a range of books on the subject matter and write a summary according to what they have understood,” Dr Rohindra said.
“Unfortunately, students don’t have this opportunity because of the lack of books written locally that are of reasonable price.
“Most of the textbooks are sourced from overseas and the contexts in which these books are written are not suitable to generate interest in reading the book.”
He added that one area in Chemistry that caught the attention of the authors was the lack of understanding first-year students majoring in chemistry had been stoichiometry.
“This topic involves dealing with chemical reactions that occur based on balanced chemical equations and in certain proportions- known in chemistry as mole ratio.”
