Chemical Analysis of Improvised Limestone Ore Concentrate: A Resource for Teaching the Concept of Qualitative Analysis in Practical Chemistry

The study on chemical analysis of improvised limestone ore concentrate in the teaching of qualitative analysis, through the deployment of materials within the learners immediate environment was undertaken to find a solution to persistent shortage of learning resources for the teaching of chemistry in secondary schools. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) senior secondary (III) chemistry students were involved in the study. This number was made up of 62 females and 58 males from four secondary schools in Ogoja Educational zone of Cross River State of Nigeria. Four research hypotheses and three research questions were formulated to guide the study. The instruments used in gathering data for the study were chemistry achievement test (CAT) and chemistry retention test (CRT). A non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design was adopted for the study. Kuder-Richardson formular-21 was used to establish the reliability of chemistry achievement test and the reliability showed a reliability coefficient of 0.82. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). From the findings, it was observed that improvised limestone ore concentrate is a suitable sample in teaching the concept of qualitative analysis in practical chemistry. It was also observed that improvised limestone ore concentrate had significant main effect on students’ performance and retention in the concept of qualitative analysis in practical chemistry. There was no significant difference in the performance of male and female students when taught the concept of qualitative analysis using improvised ore concentrates. Conclusions from the findings led to the recommendations that chemistry teachers should adopt local resource within their environment to teach various concept in chemistry.