The Effectiveness of Animated Videos in Secondary School Students’ Understanding of Molecular Processes: An Experimental Study

The use of educational animationsEducational animations, such as those created with PowtoonPowtoon, has established itself as an effective strategy for teaching complex scientific concepts in secondary education. In this study, the objective was to evaluate the effectivenessEffectiveness of these animations in improving students’ comprehension, motivation, and academic performance. The research was conducted with a sample of 26 tenth-grade students from the Josué Educational Unit in Ambato, Ecuador, selected through non-probabilistic sampling. The instructional design was based on the ADDIE model, integrating principles of the STEM approach in the development of the animated videos. To measure the impact of the intervention, a pretest–posttest design was applied, and the data were processed in SPSS v.27 using Student’s T-test for related samples. The results showed statistically significant differences between the pretest and posttest scores (p < 0.05), confirming an improvement in both the understanding of scientific concepts and academic performance. Likewise, an increase in students’ motivation and interest in learning science was observed. In conclusion, educational animationsEducational animations developed with PowtoonPowtoon are an effective teaching strategy for promoting more dynamic and meaningful learning in secondary education. However, their implementation requires teacher training and access to technological resources, factors that may limit their application in certain educational contexts. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.