Can Computer Animations Affect College Biology Students' Conceptions About Diffusion & Osmosis?

Abstract

T HE concepts of diffusion and osmosis are very important for biology students to understand. Diffusion is the primary method of short-distance transport in cells and cellular systems. Osmosis is used to explain water uptake by plants, turgor pressure in plants, water balance in aquatic creatures, and transport in living organisms (Odom 1995). Unfortunately, students find these topics very difficult to understand (Friedler, Amir & Tamir 1987) and several biology education researchers have reported student misconceptions associated with these topics (Marek 1986; Zuckerman 1994; Odom & Barrow 1995). One reason why students may have difficulty with the concepts of diffusion and osmosis is because these concepts require students to visualize and think about chemical processes at the molecular level (Johnstone & Mahmoud 1980; Friedler, Amir & Tamir 1987; Westbrook & Marek 1991). A decade ago, Nurrenbern and Pickering (1987) discovered that students who are successful in solving numerical chemistry problems did not necessarily understand the molecular concepts underlying these problems. Since that time, others have documented students' difficulties in answering visual conceptual questions based on the particulate nature of matter (Gabel, Samuel & Hunn 1987; Sawrey 1990; Pickering 1990; Nakhleh 1993). Research in this area has demonstrated that instruction involving computer animations can facilitate the development of students' visualization skills and their abilities to think about chemical processes at the molecular level (Williamson & Abraham 1995; Russell et al. 1997; Sanger & Greenbowe 1997). The purpose of this study was to determine whether viewing computer animations depicting the molecular processes of diffusion and osmosis would affect students' conceptions of these topics. Students' conceptions of diffusion and osmosis topics were measured using the Diffusion and Osmosis Diagnostic Test (Odom 1995; Odom & Barrow 1995).