摘要：Verification labs are widely used, despite the belief by many that other types of labs are more effective. For those who use verification labs it is important to understand how these experiments contribute to student learning. The main purpose of this study is to determine if there is evidence that completing a verification experiment leads to improved performance on a corresponding exam question related to the lab content. Student performance on exam questions that related to lab content was compared to student performance on exam questions that were not related to lab content in two general chemistry courses. Student performance on quantitative exam questions that related to lab content was also compared to student performance on conceptual exam questions that related to lab content for a few experiments. Overall results were mixed. Students performed better on lab-related questions for some topics, such as kinetics and electrochemistry. The graphing component of the kinetics experiment seemed to benefit science majors and female students more than engineering majors and male students, respectively. In contrast, similar performance was observed on lab-related quantitative and lab-related conceptual questions related to pH titration and electrochemistry.
