Reproducibility and development of open source ICT projects for chemistry education: A case of spectrometer development

Abstract

Various open source ICT projects promise teachers and other educators means to build their own devices that help facilitate learning by promoting the accessibility, user-friendliness, low cost and high educational value of the projects. But at the same time, there's a lack of understanding of what skills are needed for ICT projects and solutions to be implemented in education. In this article, an open source fluorescence spectrometer was constructed as part of a chemistry pre-service teacher course. The planning and implementation of the device for teaching were done individually and following course guidelines, but the project took multiple shifts in focus. Initially, the project was to construct a UV-Vis spectrometer, but the project was reduced to a fluorescence spectrometer. The goal was to build and test an open source fluorescence spectrometer as a proof of concept to discuss its educational value in open source ICT and project-based learning.