Abstract:

Smartphones and tablets are devices that present high possibilities in different fields that, at least at the beginning, could not be related with. “Smart” devices can offer to the student a way to obtain supplementary information about the theoretical and laboratory practical section of the subject. For this purpose, and with the objective to make the search as easy and quick as possible, we propose the use of Quick Response codes (QR code) [1]. These codes are a particular case of bar code that can codify different kinds of information as diverse as website directions or GPS coordinates of a determinate location. Therefore, applications of these codes are very different and variated, and their size or structure depends on the codified information.

Focused on teaching field and, particularly, in the practical session of a subject, QR codes can be used to supply information related to the laboratory tasks that students must perform, but with no need to provide them a huge and complicated laboratory guide note. In this way, the laboratory guide note can contain the basic details to understand and perform the laboratory task in a simple and clear way, but including other related information that can complement their formation. We propose the use of QR codes to give information about health and safety in the laboratory, work procedures and complementary bibliographic references.

Information about health and safety in the laboratory will make aware to the student about the risk of a laboratory work, showing him the personal prospective equipment that he must use when reagents are manipulated or the protocol that must be followed in order to discard the wastes generated during the work.

Second, work procedures will form students about the correct use of equipment and instruments in laboratory. These work procedures will give them the basic rules that must follow to work properly in the laboratory and, consequently, obtain reliable results when they perform different operations as pipetting a solution, weighting a reagent or using a spectrophotometer.

At last, the complementary bibliographic references will provide supplementary information as papers or book chapters in order to obtain a better comprehension and formation [2].

Concluding, QR codes are a useful tool that can provide in an easy and quickly way supplementary information to the student and using a platform, smartphones and tablets, that can result more attractive to them than the traditional ones.

References:
[1] Web-site about general information about QR codes by DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED. http://www.qrcode.com/en/
[2] Printable periodic table: QR-coded. https://www.webelements.com/nexus/chemistry/printable-periodic-table-qr-coded

Acknowledgement:
Vicerrectorado de Ordenación Académica y Profesorado, University of Granada. Project reference: PID-13-170

Keywords:

QR codes, health and safety, analytical chemistry laboratory.