Graphical Application to Assist Students Understand the Basic Concepts in Acid-Base Titrations

During the 1960s, Edgar Dale published the concept that learners are likely to retain more information if they see and hear information rather than justlisten. Therefore, many educational applications have been created for students tolearn theoretical concepts through visuals and in an interactive manner. Microsoft(MS) Excel has been used in many of these applications due to ease of use andwidespread applicability. The main objective of this research is to introduce an MSExcel application to study the theoretical concepts associated with acid-basetitrations. This application allows the user to select the type of titration,Ka/Kbvalueswhere applicable, concentrations of the reagents, titration volume, commonly usedindicators, and follow the variation in the titration curve. With the use of theapplication, students can clearly visualize the change in pH during the titration, bufferregion, and the effect of reagent concentrations andKa/Kbvalues on the titrationcurves. It further allows the user to determine the end point of the titration via afirstderivative plot, observe the variation in fractional composition of the reactive species with pH, and identify the indicator best suitedfor the titration. The application was proven successful when used to teach the concepts of acid-base titrations to a group of high school students