The Design and the Development of the SCI HUB Database

Undergraduate #151
Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Chemistry (not Biochemistry)

Zachary Farley - Kennesaw State University
Co-Author(s): Kimberly Linenberger

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Concept inventories have been developed for the past few years addressing different kinds of misconceptions students have. Unless teachers are aware and involved in education research, they remain oblivious of the purpose and use of these concept inventories let alone their existence. Although many have been developed there is no central location where anyone can obtain concept inventories. If teachers have a way to access these amazing resources then it will improve the efficiency of their teaching methods by correcting possible misconceptions students have and ultimately improve their students overall learning experience. If a website can hold all existing concept inventories as well as future inventories, and even relevant demographic info of the inventory itself then more professors will become aware of concept inventories and will be more likely to implement them in their classrooms. In order to solve this problem possible preexisting concept inventory databases were examined to use as a model for the creation of the website. The website found was the cihub.com website. This website was the end result of a research project. The website was meant to hold only physics concept inventories but was discontinued due to lack of funding. After a model was found then database software was researched to help develop and maintain the online database.

After careful research it was decided to use the software DRUPAL to develop the website. After a semester of research and planning the SCI Hub database was created. This online database currently contains subjects within the science STEM fields. Once concept inventories have been found the research paper explaining its development process was read and analyzed for specific information useful for teachers, including total number of questions, topic of the concept inventory, intended target population and even contact info of any corresponding authors. After the website was developed the design was questioned as to how usable it was, or how intuitive the design is. Once the website launched only teachers were allowed to have access to the content of the website. A usability study will be conducted to test the elements of the website and to discover any underlying design issues.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): LSAMP / NSF

Faculty Advisor: Kimberly Linenberger,