Students often have difficulty with the concept of molarity in chemistry and instructors frequently attribute that difficulty to poor mathematical ability. This paper presents data that was collected as part of a larger interview protocol probing students' understandings of concentration (molarity). Students solved concentration related problems in two settings: domain-general and domain-specific (molarity). We analyzed students' solving strategies for patterns in the types of solving strategies students used to solve them. Overall, students in this study were successful problem solvers in the domain-general context where they were able to apply their knowledge of direct proportions to the context. Students utilized similar strategies in the domain-specific context where an inverse relationship was present. This paper will highlight the various strategies used in both contexts and will include a discussion of strategy use as a function of transfer and misapplied phenomenological primitives (p-prims).

Proportional reasoning strategies in mathematics and chemistry

247th National Meeting (2014)

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