Basic Chemistry Calculation Achievement Enhancement for Pharmacy Students Using Chemistry Calculation Exercise

Abstract

Objective: To develop basic chemistry-calculation achievement for thepharmacy students by using chemistry-calculation exercise. Method: Theexercise consisted of 4 basic learning units including 1) chemical unit andunit conversion, 2) chemical equation (balancing chemical equations), 3)solution and expression of concentration, and 4) chemical equilibrium.Subjects were 52 3rd year pharmacy students enrolling in thePharmaceutical Quality Control I (QC I) course in the 1st semester of theacademic year 2009, voluntarily participating in the study. With one-grouppretest-posttest design, 4 learning units were given sequentially to studentswithin a 3-month period. Chemistry calculation achievement was testedbefore and after the 3-month learning. Students’ average score of thecalculation parts from the midterm and final examination of the QC I coursecalculation was also tested whether at least 50% of such total score wasachieved. Results: Posttest score was significantly higher than the pretestone (from 2.46 to 4.26, P < 0.001, Wilcoxon signed rank test). Score fromcalculation part from the QC I course was significantly higher than 50%(70.0%, P < 0.001, t-test). Conclusion: Learning by means of chemistrycalculationexercise effectively enhanced the calculation achievementreflected by test scores among pharmacy students in the PharmaceuticalQuality Control I course. The exercise and its concept could be furtherapplied in other courses, but with some caution since there was no controlgroup and some other factors potentially contributing to such achievementcould not be fully controlled.Keywords: chemistry calculation, pharmacy students, chemistry calculationexercise