THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMPUTER MEDIA WITH LABORATORY

EXPERIMENT TO INCREASE STUDENTS ACHIEVEMENT IN TEACHING

THERMOCHEMISTRY

Yunia Rizki*

*Chemistry Department, State University of Medan, Jl. Williem Iskandar, Psr V, Medan
20221, E-mail: yuniarizki@ymail.com

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

The effectiveness of computer media with laboratory experiment in teaching

thermochemistry was explained in this research. Chemistry is the branch of natural science.
Chemistry deals with concept such as simple concept, complex concept and abstract concept.
So, it is required the great understanding to the subject. One of the materials in Senior High
School Chemistry is thermochemistry which has the concept, law and calculation. Generally,
learning process of thermochemistry is done by conventional method so it makes students
become bored and not interested. Therefore, it is needed the method or media that make the
subject easy to understand and become interesting. Two of the teaching methods have been
chosen, Laboratory Experiment and Macromedia Flash as Computer Media. These two
methods are chosen to be applied for the teaching of chemistry subject to attract students
attention in the teaching and learning process in chemistry, so that those will be expected to
increase students achievement in studyng chemistry subject.

The objective of this study was to examine the effectiveness of computer media with
laboratory experiment in teaching thermochemistry topic compare to the conventional
method. The samples were selected from SHS 1 Binjai as experiment class to get teaching
treatment in form of computer media using macromedia flash with laboratory experiment.
Then thermochemistry topic test was examined to students as pretest. After giving pretest,
Teaching treatment with macromedia flash and laboratory experiment about thermochemistry
was explained to the student. After application, thermochemistry topic test was conducted to
students as a posttest. The data collected in this study are the students achievement from
pretest and posttest.
The data gotten from pretest and posttest consists of 20 question with five options in
each question that has been tested by validity, reliability, difficulty level and difference scale.
From research obtained, the average of pretest value equals to 44.444 7.763 whereas the
average of posttest value is 76.296 7.151. From the calculation of the average gain, the gain
of students learning outcomes is obtained at 57.33%. So it can be concluded that computer
media using macromedia flash and laboratory experiment is effective to increase students
achievement in teaching thermochemistry topic.