What we emphasize and reward on assessments signals to students what matters to us. Accordingly, a great deal of scholarship in chemistry education has focused on defining the sorts of performances worth assessing. Here, we unpack observations we made while analyzing what "success" meant across three large-enrollment general chemistry…

Despite the number of university students who take courses in multiple science disciplines, little is known about how they connect concepts between disciplines. Energy is a concept that underlies all scientific phenomena and, as such, provides an appropriate context in which to investigate student connections and misconnections across disciplines.…

Widespread adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has created a need to carefully consider how chemistry curricula should support students in understanding the world in terms of atomic/molecular behavior. We argue that Standards-aligned coursework should be "core-ideas centered" due to evidence that curricula embedded…

Connecting the behavior of invisible (to the naked eye) particles governed by the principles of quantum mechanics to the world we can see and touch requires a host of inferences, almost none of which can be extrapolated from experience. Molecular-level sensemaking thus relies upon intellectual resources that must be developed in large part by…

The ability to use representations of molecular structure to predict the macroscopic properties of a substance is central to the development of a robust understanding of chemistry. Intermolecular forces (IMFs) play an important role in this process because they provide a mechanism for how and why molecules interact. In this study, we investigate…

Intermolecular forces (IMFs), or more broadly, noncovalent interactions either within or between molecules, are central to an understanding of a wide range of chemical and biological phenomena. In this study, we present a multiyear, multi-institutional, longitudinal comparison of how students enrolled in traditional general chemistry courses and…

Understanding the energy changes that occur as atoms and molecules interact forms the foundation for understanding the macroscopic energy changes that accompany chemical processes. In order to identify ways to scaffold students' understanding of the connections between atomic-molecular and macroscopic energy perspectives, we conducted a…

The ability to use a chemical structure to predict and explain phenomenon is essential to a robust understanding of chemistry; however, previous research has shown that students find it difficult to make the connection between structure and properties. In this study we examine how student recognition of the connections between structure and…

Many introductory biology courses amount to superficial surveys of disconnected topics. Often, foundational observations and the concepts derived from them and students' ability to use these ideas appropriately are overlooked, leading to unrealistic expectations and unrecognized learning obstacles. The result can be a focus on memorization at the…

Lewis structures are a simplified two dimensional "cartoon" of molecular structure that allow a knowledgeable user to predict the types of properties a particular substance may exhibit. However, prior research shows that many students fail to recognize these structure-property connections and are unable to decode the information…

The connection between the molecular-level structure of a substance and its macroscopic properties is a fundamental concept in chemistry. Students in college-level general and organic chemistry courses were interviewed to investigate how they used structure-property relationships to predict properties such as melting and boiling points. Although…

Previously, we found that: (i) many students were unable to construct representations of simple molecular structures; (ii) a majority of students fail to make the important connection between these representations and macroscopic properties of the material; and (iii) they were unable to decode the information contained in such representations.…

Because Lewis structures provide a direct connection between molecular structure and properties, the ability to construct and use them is an integral component of many chemistry courses. Although a great deal of time and effort has been dedicated to development of "foolproof" rules, students still have problems with the skill. What is more, many…