Transforming Industrial Chemistry Content into Insecticide Production as an Entrepreneurial Skill among Senior Secondary School Students in Zamfara State

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which industrial chemistry content knowledge can be transformed into insecticide production as an entrepreneurial skill among senior secondary school students in Zamfara State. The study has four objectives, four research questions, and three null hypotheses. A quasi-experimental design of the pre-test and post-test was adopted for the study. The study population consist of all SSII secondary school students and the sample consist of 80 students in intact class of 40 for experimental and 40 for control groups. Purposive sampling was used to select the sample schools in Gusau, Educational Zone. The instruments used for data collection was a structured questionnaire on a 4-likert scale, and a Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT) with the reliability indexes of 0.72 and 0.82, respectively, using Cronbach alpha and PPMC with Spearman Brown prophecy formulas. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. The hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics. The result revealed that students have gained much awareness that knowledge of industrial chemistry contents is paramount in insecticide production. The findings show that there is a significant difference in the performance and skills acquired by the experimental group that were exposed to the practical production of insecticides while the male students’ performance supersedes that of female students. It was recommended that the government, nongovernmental organizations, and school administrators to encourage the students in transforming industrial chemistry content knowledge for insecticide production for entrepreneurial skills.