A central practice within STEM fields is constructing explanations for chemical phenomena by appealing to core concepts such as atomic-molecular structure, electrical forces, and energy. In this report, we describe a qualitative study aimed at characterizing how undergraduate general chemistry students construct explanations for the energy changes that occur as atoms and molecules interact. Using semi-structured interviews and an online short-answer assessment, we examined students’ explanations for energy changes in three different contexts: interactions between helium atoms, hydrogen atoms, and water molecules. Here, we present a characterization of student’s explanations in terms of increasing sophistication and connectivity between the ideas of energy, force, and atomic-molecular structure. We discuss how this characterization may be used to assess the efficacy of instructional interventions aimed at improving students’ ability to construct a coherent understanding of energy ideas across contexts.

Characterizing students’ explanations of energy change at the atomic-molecular level

249th National Meeting (2015)

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