This study explored the effects of an integrated video media curriculum enhancement on
students’ achievement and attitudes in a first-year general high school chemistry course within a multiculturally
diverse metropolitan school district. Through the use of a treatment-control experimental design,
approximately 450 students in Grades 9–12 were sampled on measures of chemistry achievement and attitude
over the period of 1 academic year. The results revealed significantly higher achievement scores on
standardized measures of achievement as well as on microunit researcher-designed, criterion-referenced
quizzes for the treatment students who experienced a general chemistry course enhanced with an integrated
use of a structured chemistry video series. Correlation of student achievement with logical thinking ability
revealed that students with high levels of logical thinking ability benefited most from the video-enhanced
curriculum. Treatment students also scored significantly higher than control students on the chemistry attitude
instrument. These results along with qualitative supportive evidence suggest that this integrated
video media curriculum intervention can positively affect student chemistry achievement and attitude
across ability levels and across a diverse multicultural population. Furthermore, the data suggest that educational
science video media in general, and the World of Chemistry video series in particular, are instructional
tools that can be used effectively to bring the often abstract, distant worlds of science into close
focus and within the personal meaningful realm of each individual student.