The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a treatment strategy: a laboratory experiment involving model manipulation versus the effectiveness of a teacher-centered approach to teaching and learning for the electrochemistry unit of Grade 12 Chemistry. The subjects were grade 12 students (n = 68) enrolled at two high schools within one urban school division. These students were split into four groups, two control groups and two treatment groups, one of each at both schools. There were also two instructors. All four classes participated in parallel instruction programs with the same notes and laboratory questions. At the end of the teaching sequence, the treatment group worked with a model of an electrochemical cell and an electrolytic cell from which they worked through questions based on their observations and manipulations. Pre-test and post-test data were analyzed by an analysis of variance with repeated measures. Overall, the electrochemical and electrolytic models allowed the students to interact with a secondary strategy assisting them to create a meaningful understanding of the complex topic of electrochemistry in Grade 12 Chemistry. Statistical analysis indicated significant growth over time but there were no significant results for the time by treatment by instructor interaction or for the time by treatment interaction.
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