<br/>In this study we looked at how General Chemistry (II) students responded to a question framed in the context of Biology. In chemistry, students had covered the concept of free energy, which is also covered in Biology. In addition to looking at students’ conceptual understanding of concepts such as entropy and energy change, our study probed the extent to which students integrated the context of Biology into their responses. Since students worked on groups to complete a worksheet, we also got a sense of group dynamics, and the state of process skills, in addition to how they used the academic language of chemistry and science in general. Our results indicate that in answering the prompts, most students took a chemistry perspective, giving little regard to the context (Biology). We also noticed algorithmic tendencies in students’ responses, showing a lack of conceptual understanding of associated chemistry concepts. Audio transcripts of the groups revealed that norms across the groups were not ideal. Students also struggled with using the appropriate academic language.

Conceptual understanding and context: Free energy

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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