Education in organic chemistry is highly reliant on molecular representations. Students abstract information from representations to make sense of submicroscopic interactions. This study investigates relationships between differing representations: bond-line structures, ball-and-stick, or electrostatic potential maps (EPMs), and predicting partial…

Biochemistry students at the introductory level easily comprehend the importance of energy-yielding oxidation and reduction biochemical processes, but nevertheless, they fight with words "oxidation" and "reduction" (and with the corresponding adjectives, "oxidized" and "reduced") applied in biochemistry…

Magnetic molecular models help students explore molecular structures and interactions. In this study, we investigated how pairs of students used magnetic models to explore hydrogen bonding and the 6-fold symmetry of snowflakes. Fourteen first-year students enrolled in a chemistry unit participated in pairs. Students' interactions with the magnetic…

Resonance is a fundamental chemistry concept first introduced to students in General Chemistry I, reintroduced in Organic Chemistry I, and then utilized throughout other higher-level chemistry courses. A molecule or ion can be said to exhibit resonance when it can be represented by two or more chemical structures (i.e., Lewis structures) that…

Recent studies have reported a growing trend of using student-generated diagrams for assessment in science teaching and research. However, many educators tend to use diagrams to explore students' perceptions of scientists and their work rather than explore conceptual understanding of abstract concepts. In this study, we used diagrams to…

We present an approach to the question of the educational relations between chemistry and physics based on the one hand, on an inferentialist account of scientific representation (Suárez M., (2024), "Inference and Representation. A Study in Modelling Science," Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press). On the other, we have…

Understanding the general ideas and methods of detecting molecular structures is essential in high school chemistry. However, there is a need for more practical activities in teaching. A hands-on activity was designed in this study, which uses flexible foam balls and long sticks such as knitting needles to imitate how scientists construct the 3D…

A deep understanding of organic chemistry requires a learner to understand many concepts and have fluency with multiple skills. This understanding is particularly necessary for constructing and using mechanisms to explain chemical reactions. Electrophilicity and nucleophilicity are two fundamental concepts to learning and understanding reaction…

This review describes a computational chemistry exercise aimed at enhancing the understanding of upper-division undergraduates in organic chemistry and physical chemistry regarding the structures and aromaticities of cyclobutadiene and cyclooctatetraene. This exercise exposes students to chemical problems that require computational methods as a…

The fundamental mechanism of biochemistry lies on the reaction kinetics, which is determined by the reaction pathways. Interestingly, the reaction pathway is a challenging concept for undergraduate students. Experimentally, it is difficult to observe, and theoretically, it requires some degree of physics knowledge, namely statistical and quantum…

Why do we need to pour less water in an egg steamer to prepare more eggs to the same degree of 'doneness'? We discuss the physical processes at work in the electric egg steamer and resolve this seeming paradox. We demonstrate that the main heat transfer mechanism from steam to egg is due to latent heat through condensation. This not only explains…

The main difficulty in studying molecular symmetry is the mental manipulation of molecules when searching for symmetry. Numerous methods of teaching molecular symmetry require students to identify symmetry elements of objects or molecules. As an alternative, we propose activity that identifies symmetry using elements outside the objects, together…

Being able to move between different representations levels (macroscopic, submicroscopic, and symbolic) is important to understand a chemical phenomenon meaningfully. The current study investigated how pre-service science teachers moved from symbolic representation to sub-microscopic representation. A total of 205 pre-service science teachers,…

The focus of the present study is the learning processes of concepts related to hydrogen bonds, which were developed using a didactic sequence (DS). Based on the perspective of Imre Lakatos, it was observed whether the explanatory models created by upper-secondary students form progressive transition sequences, which are similar to what Lakatos,…

Australia-wide consensus was reached on seven core concepts of physiology. The "movement of substances" core concept with the descriptor "the movement of substances (ions or molecules) is a fundamental process that occurs at all levels of organization in the organism" was unpacked by a team of three Australian physiology…