Teaching ANOVA in a Laboratory Class: Emulating an Inter-Laboratory Exercise Using a Simple Liquid Chromatographic Practice

TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

Table of Contents

Abstract Volume 22 (2017) pp 55-59

Teaching ANOVA in a Laboratory Class: Emulating an Inter-Laboratory Exercise Using a Simple Liquid Chromatographic Practice

María Pilar Godoy-Caballero^†, María del Carmen Hurtado-Sánchez^†, Isabel Durán-Merás^†, David Muñoz de la Peña^‡ and Arsenio Muñoz de la Peña*^,†

^†Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Extremadura, 06006, Badajoz, Spain, arsenio@unex.es; ^‡Department of Automation and Systems Engineering, University of Seville, 41092, Seville, Spain Received September 23, 2016. Accepted January 20, 2017.

Published: 6 March 2017

Abstract. In this work we present the application of an automatic grading system, Goodle GMS, to an analytical chemistry lab practice intended to emulate an inter-laboratory exercise. To show the potential of this grading system the determination of paracetamol and acetylsalicylic acid in a pharmaceutical preparation was used as a lab-case. Goodle GMS is a web-based application that has been extensively used in engineering courses and, more recently, in analytical chemistry courses to automatically assist the instructor in the grading process. Goodle GMS allows students to submit their results to a server via a web-based form from any networked computer. They receive back their grade, feedback and an indication of where mistakes have been made. Groups of students, emulating each of them to be a different laboratory, have performed the proposed lab example. The results obtained were analysed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The ANOVA test indicated if the students provided statistically similar results or whether, at least one of them, provided results different from the others. This allows teaching the students the use of the statistical test with their own experimental results.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; analytic chemistry; automatic evaluation; internet web-based learning

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: arsenio@unex.es )

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Supporting Materials:

The evaluation code developed for the ANOVA test of the inter-laboratory chromatographic data is provided as Supporting Materials. (265 KB)