Particulate Nature Of Matter Research Articles

The application and evaluation of a two-concept diagnostic instrument with students entering college general chemistry

The Particulate Nature of Matter and Chemical Bonding Diagnostic Instrument (Othman J., Treagust D. F. and Chandrasegaran A. L., (2008), Int. J. Sci. Educ., 30(11), 1531–1550) is used to investigate college students' understanding of two chemistry concepts: particulate nature of matter and chemical bonding. The instrument, originally developed for secondary school students, is a two-tier diagnostic test. In this study, the instrument was given as a paper and pencil test to college students enrolled in General Chemistry I during the second week of class in Spring 2010. General Chemistry I students were divided into three groups for analysis: (A) with preparatory chemistry, (B) repeating general chemistry (without preparatory chemistry); and (C) first time in general chemistry (without preparatory chemistry); Groups B and C are expected to have taken at least one year of secondary school chemistry. However, Group A had little or no exposure to high school chemistry. Regardless of their pathway into the course, students in General Chemistry I are expected to have a fair understanding of the two concepts. Furthermore, students' responses were used to think about the role of a preparatory chemistry course in promoting deep understanding of chemistry concepts. An ANCOVA analysis was performed. Preparatory Chemistry was found to have a statistically significant but small effect on students’ scores after controlling for prior math achievement. Confirmatory factor analysis and reliability studies were performed and are presented here. Analysis also revealed alternative conceptions.

Development and validation of an instrument to measure student knowledge gains for chemical and physical change for grades 6–8

Teachers tend to instruct topically, which requires the student to use multiple and interconnected concepts to succeed in each instructional unit. Therefore, it is beneficial to combine research on related concepts to form topic driven instruments to better assist teachers in assessing and instructing students. Chemical and physical change as a topic is often students' first introduction to chemical reactions; however, understanding the distinction is contingent upon a host of advanced ideas. As such, chemical and physical change is best evaluated with a strong emphasis on particle properties and behavior. To date, there was no instrument specifically designed for grades 6–8 (ages 11–14) that focused on the topic of chemical and physical change including its underlying conceptions such as the particulate nature of matter. By making use of well-designed and tested items from previously published research and item repositories, the chemical and physical change assessment (CPCA) was designed to translate findings from research to a practical and classroom-ready assessment. The CPCA went through two versions to result in a 19-item assessment that has generated valid and reliable data to date. Revisions to the assessment were driven by psychometric properties of the items as well as student validation interviews.

A view about the short histories of the mole and Avogadro’s number

The mole and Avogadro’s number are two important concepts of science that provide a link between the properties of individual atoms or molecules and the properties of bulk matter. It is clear that an early theorist of the idea of these two concepts was Avogadro. However, the research literature shows that there is a controversy about the subjects of when and by whom the mole concept was first introduced into science and when and by whom Avogadro’s number was first calculated. Based on this point, the following five matters are taken into consideration in this paper. First, in order to base the subject matter on a strong ground, the historical development of understanding the particulate nature of matter is presented. Second, in 1811, Amedeo Avogadro built the theoretical foundations of the mole concept and the number 6.022 × 1023 mol−1. Third, in 1865, Johann Josef Loschmidt first estimated the number of molecules in a cubic centimetre of a gas under normal conditions as 1.83 × 1018. Fourth, in 1881, August Horstmann first introduced the concept of gram-molecular weight in the sense of today’s mole concept into chemistry and, in 1900, Wilhelm Ostwald first used the term mole instead of the term ‘gram-molecular weight’. Lastly, in 1889, Karoly Than first determined the gram-molecular volume of gases under normal conditions as 22,330 cm3. Accordingly, the first value for Avogadro’s number in science history should be 4.09 × 1022 molecules/gram-molecular weight, which is calculated by multiplying Loschmidt’s 1.83 × 1018 molecules/cm3 by Than’s 22,330 cm3/gram-molecular weight. Hence, Avogadro is the originator of the ideas of the mole and the number 6.022 × 1023 mol−1, Horstmann first introduced the mole concept into science/chemistry, and Loschmidt and Than are the scientists who first calculated Avogadro’s number. However, in the science research literature, it is widely expressed that the mole concept was first introduced into chemistry by Ostwald in 1900 and that Avogadro’s number was first calculated by Jean Baptiste Perrin in 1908. As a result, in this study, it is particularly emphasised that Horstmann first introduced the mole concept into science/chemistry and the first value of Avogadro’s number in the history of science was 4.09 × 1022 molecules/gram-molecular weight and Loschmidt and Than together first calculated this number.

Assessing Secondary and College Students’ Implicit Assumptions about the Particulate Nature of Matter: Development and Validation of the Structure and Motion of Matter Survey

Development of learning progressions has been at the forefront of science education for several years. While understanding students' conceptual development toward big ideas in science is extremely valuable for researchers, science teachers can also benefit from assessment tools that diagnose their students' trajectories along the learning progressions. In this paper, we describe the develop- ment and validation of a teacher-friendly survey, the Structure and Motion of Matter (SAMM) survey, designed to measure students' trajectories along aspects of a research-based learning progression on the particulate nature of matter. Specifically, the survey assesses students' implicit assumptions about four concepts: the structure of solute and solvent substances in a gas solution, the origin of motion of gaseous solute particles, and their trajectories. The process to ensure the translation validity (face and content validity) of the survey is described. Criterion validity study results indicate that the SAMM survey is well grounded in theory, and the testretest study results indicate that the survey is also reliable. Finally, the development of an Excel-based scoring scheme associated with the SAMM survey is also described. Inter-rater reliability studies indicate that the scoring scheme can be used reliably.

The development of an open-ended drawing tool: an alternative diagnostic tool for assessing students' understanding of the particulate nature of matter

Many studies in the chemical education literature report students' alternative conceptions in chemistry and the difficulty they present for future learning. In this paper, we review existing diagnostic tools used to uncover students' alternative conceptions in chemistry and suggest that there are two fundamental issues with such instruments, namely, the breadth of topics and concepts assessed and the reliance on forced choice responses. We argue that while existing instruments provide a way to assess students' overall understanding of chemical concepts, they cannot assess depth of understanding of any single concept, such as the particulate nature of matter – one of the central, organizing ideas in chemistry. Instead, we propose using qualitative approaches that utilize drawing tasks as an alternative diagnostic tool to uncover students' underlying struggles with fundamental chemistry concepts. Using this approach, we investigated college students' ability to balance chemical equations and draw appropriate particulate representations of those reactions. Emerging categories from students' particulate drawings were coded into several subcategories and revealed a number of underlying issues, such as lack of understanding of appropriate relationships between reacting species in solution, oxidation numbers, states and valences of species, the characteristics and nature of ions in solids and differences between ionic and covalent bonds. We describe these findings and consider the implications of qualitative-based diagnostics for instruction and science learning as a formative assessment tool.

Effect of animation enhanced conceptual change texts on 6th grade students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter and transformation during phase changes

In this study, the effect of animation enhanced conceptual change texts (CCT–CA) on grade 6 students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) and transformation during the phase changes was investigated. A quasi-experimental design and one control group (CG, N = 25) and one experimental group (EG, N = 26) were used. While the control group taught traditional instruction, the experimental group received CCT–CA instruction. Two different tests, The Particulate Nature of Matter Concept Test ( ParNoMaC) and The Transformation of Matter Statement Test ( ToMaSaT), were administered as pretest, posttest and delayed test to collect data. Results indicate that while there is no statistically significant difference between groups in pretest, performance of EG students is greater than the CG ones in posttest and delayed test. And also, the EG students are better in remediating their alternative conceptions related to the PNM and transformations during the phase changes. Based on the study, it is concluded that CCT–CA combination may be effective way to improve students’ understanding of basic science and chemical concepts.

“The Coat Traps All Your Body Heat”: Heterogeneity as Fundamental to Learning

This article explores heterogeneity as fundamental to learning. Inspired by Bakhtin's notion of heteroglossia, a design team consisting of an experienced classroom teacher and 2 researchers investigated how a class of 3rd and 4th graders came to understand disciplinary points of view on heat, heat transfer, and the particulate nature of matter. Through a series of planned and unplanned encounters, official versions of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the particulate view of matter were juxtaposed with varied domains of experience of heat transfer and phase change in water. We analyze the children's discourse to examine how they populated these phenomena with meaning and what they learned in the process. We conclude by describing key principles and a conundrum that emerged from this research.

Adventures in the subatomic universe: An exploratory study of a scientist–museum physics education project

Quarked!™ is a collaborative education project between physicists, museum educators and designers that was developed to introduce youth to concepts of scale and the particulate nature of matter through hands-on museum programs and a website with animated videos, games and lesson plans. A pilot study was carried out to assess the project’s success in presenting these concepts in a fun and engaging way for an elementary and middle school aged audience, to investigate its relevance to teachers, and to explore children’s awareness of things that they cannot directly see. We found that children as young as second grade are aware of microscopic entities that can be studied indirectly. Our study also suggests that concepts of scale and matter can be presented in a way that is engaging and accessible to youth, and that teachers consider relevant to existing curricula.

Elementary Children's Shifting Views of Models and the Nature of Matter

This exploratory qualitative study focuses on one Grade 5 (ages 10–11) class who participated in an instructional sequence designed to scaffold their abilities to think critically about models and then to use various models to help them understand the particle nature of matter. Data showed that the extent to which the children exhibited a naive or evolving understanding of models varied with the features of the model under consideration, as did their understanding of the particle nature of matter.

Exploring Grade 11 students' conceptual pathways of the particulate nature of matter in the context of multirepresentational instruction

AbstractThis study investigated the conceptual pathways of 19 Grade 11 introductory chemistry students (age 16–17) as they participated in a multirepresentational instruction on the particulate nature of matter (PNM). This study was grounded in contemporary conceptual change theory, in particular, research on students' conceptual pathways that focuses on the interaction between students' existing conceptions and instruction, which might give rise to observing multiple paths. This mixed method study combined a quantitative research design with qualitative data collection and analysis methods. Data were collected through open‐ended questionnaires, interviews, and document analysis to portray the patterns of students' conceptual pathways of the PNM from pre to postinstruction to 3 months after the instruction. An interpretive analysis of the qualitative data revealed six different conceptual pathways varying between radical progress and no additional progress (stable) after the multirepresentational instruction and between stable (no change) and full decay over a 3‐month period following the instruction. The identified patterns of conceptual pathways provide information about the manner in which conceptual change occurred, as well as suggest potential implications for instructional practices. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 1004–1035, 2010

Secondary Science Teachers' Awareness and Perceptions of Students' Misconceptions about the Particulate Nature of Matter

Identifying students' misconceptions by teachers is the primary step in using constructivist teaching strategies. We investigated how secondary science teachers were aware of students' misconceptions about the particulate nature of matter and analyzed the total number of differences of predicted misconceptions by their background variables. We also investigated how they addressed students' misconceptions in their instruction, and how necessary they thought it was to identify students' misconceptions for teaching science concepts. A survey was administered to 87 science teachers at 28 middle schools in Seoul. Teachers' predictions were compared with the misconceptions of 240 seventh-grade students. The teachers, as a group, identified almost all the misconceptions held by the students. However, they were unable to predict which types of misconceptions were more frequent. The total number of misconceptions predicted by the teachers who had careers of less than 10 years, possessed Master's degrees, or majored in chemical education was significantly higher. Although most teachers stated that knowing students' misconceptions was needed for their instruction, they rarely and simply addressed them in their instructions. Many techers faced misconceptions in classroom activities, and only few teachers found them through publications relating to students' misconceptions, teacher preparation courses and/or in-service training programs. Educational implications are discussed.

On Cognitive Constraints and Learning Progressions: The case of “structure of matter”

Based on the analysis of available research on students’ alternative conceptions about the particulate nature of matter, we identified basic implicit assumptions that seem to constrain students’ ideas and reasoning on this topic at various learning stages. Although many of these assumptions are interrelated, some of them seem to change or lose/gain strength independently from one another. Overlapping or competing presuppositions about the structure, properties, and dynamics of matter may be able to coexist at any given level, particularly at intermediate stages of expertise. Our results allowed us to suggest common paths in the transition from naïve through novice to expert along relevant dimensions related to the structure and properties of chemical substances. The identification of these cognitive constraints provides a useful framework that educators can use to better understand and even predict many of their students’ learning difficulties. It can also assist in the design and organisation of learning experiences and assessment tools that recognise and take advantage of the most likely trajectories towards expertise (learning progressions) followed by many students.

Impacts of Multi‐representational Instruction on High School Students’ Conceptual Understandings of the Particulate Nature of Matter

This quasi‐experimental study examined 42 high school introductory chemistry students’ conceptual understandings of the particulate nature of matter (PNM) before and immediately after instruction. Two groups of students, who were taught by the same teacher, received one of two possible instructional interventions: Reform‐Based Teaching (RBT) or Reform‐Based Teaching with Multiple Representations (RBTw/MR). The RBTw/MR instruction differed from the RBT instruction in terms of the frequency of using multiple representations (visual, textual, oral) in relationship to the macroscopic phenomenon and the likely actions occurring at the submicroscopic level. Qualitative research methods, including open‐ended questionnaires and interviews, were used to investigate and describe participants’ conceptual understandings of the PNM over time. The findings indicated that before instruction all participants held a range of alternative conceptions about the aspects of the PNM. Post‐instruction findings indicate that the RBTw/MR instruction was more efficacious in promoting a scientific understanding of the PNM than was the instruction without multiple representations.

Primary Teachers’ Particle Ideas and Explanations of Physical Phenomena: Effect of an in‐service training course

This paper presents a study concerning Greek primary school teachers’ (n = 162) ideas about the particulate nature of matter and their explanations of physical phenomena. The study took place during an in‐service training course where the effectiveness of a specially designed intervention was tested. A key feature was an approach based on the concept of a substance and its states rather than “solids, liquids, and gases”. Pre‐intervention, the teachers held misconceptions similar to those of pupils. Also, there seemed to be some relationship between the teachers’ particle model ideas and their explanations of phenomena. Post‐intervention, the teachers’ descriptions and explanations were found to be significantly improved, with almost zero correlation between pre‐ and post‐intervention scores. Implications for science education are discussed.

Student Misapplication of a Gas‐like Model to Explain Particle Movement in Heated Solids: Implications for curriculum and instruction towards students’ creation and revision of accurate explanatory models

Understanding the particulate nature of matter (PNM) is vital for participating in many areas of science. We assessed 11 students’ atomic/molecular‐level explanations of real‐world phenomena after their participation in a modelling‐based PNM unit. All 11 students offered a scientifically acceptable model regarding atomic/molecular behaviour in non‐heated solids. Yet, 10 of 11 students expressed the view that, in response to added heat energy, atoms/molecules in a solid increase in movement to a degree beyond what is scientifically accepted. These students attributed a gas‐like model of atomic/molecular movement to situations involving a heated solid. Of the students who held two conflicting models of atomic/molecular movement in solids, almost all provided justification for doing so, indicating their holding of the conflicting models was unproblematic. These findings can be interpreted to mean that students may drop constraints of certain scientific representations and apply, assess, or revise models when explaining unfamiliar phenomena. In fact, we believe students may develop conflicting causal models as a result of misperceptions they acquire, in part, during classroom instruction regarding atomic/molecular movement. However, our findings may also be interpreted as an incidence of student model development that may later aid their understanding of a more complex model, one that involves substantial sub‐atomic electron movement to account for heat transfer in solids. Whether or not this is the case remains to be seen. Implications for student learning and instruction are discussed.

Materials Science as a High School Capstone Course for the Physics First Curriculum

AbstractBy changing the high school science curriculum from Freshman Science, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (BCP); to Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (PCB), we have an opportunity to create a new Senior level science elective. The entire high school science core curriculum has been reviewed and parts rewritten to create a coherent, integrated program based on common themes such as energy, particulate nature of matter, and forces. Nanoconcepts including size and scale and surface area to volume ratio are integrated where appropriate. In our school, we began PCB during the 2008-2009 academic year. In anticipation of these students becoming upperclassmen, a capstone elective course of Materials Science has been developed based on scientific models and literacies shaped in the PCB course sequence. Deployment of this new model centered course is set for the 2010-2011 school year.

Exploring chemistry teacher candidates’ profile characteristics, teaching attitudes and beliefs, and chemistry conceptions

The curricula of teacher education need periodic revisions to respond to the evolution of educational objectives. Teachers’ beliefs, as well as their characteristics, teaching attitudes and competency in their subject matter play a decisive role in the success of any reform. In this study, a cross-sectional survey was conducted across years 1-5 of a teacher training program at a university in a metropolitan area in Turkey, seeking to outline prospective chemistry teachers’ profile and understand their teaching beliefs and attitudes toward teaching as a profession. As a second facet, an investigation of prospective teachers’ understanding of fundamental chemistry concepts was conducted, including the concepts of element, compound, the particulate nature of matter and chemical bonding. One hundred and forty chemistry teacher candidates (more women than men) responded to the beliefs and attitudes surveys. Chemistry concept probes were answered by group combinations of first, fourth and fifth year students. The results highlight positive attitudes and intentions of the participants about having teaching as a profession. Final year students appear to hold less traditional teaching beliefs than their year 3 and 4 peers, most likely because of their participation in courses on chemistry methods. Insufficient levels of understanding of fundamental chemistry concepts and common alternative conceptions were uncovered. Suggestions are made in regards to restructuring teacher preparation curricula and courses to allow for confrontation of beliefs and to be more conceptually challenging as well as practice based.

Promoting Inquiry Through Science Reflective Journal Writing

The purpose of this research paper is to detail how reflective journal writing can be used to facilitate science students’ curiosity and engagement in laboratory work. This study advocates reflective journal writing as an instructional tool and a student-created learning resource that can serve additional formative assessment purposes. The researchers tracked a single teacher and his class over a period of five weeks and documented the changes that occurred when reflective journal writing was used to supplement the teaching and learning of specific curriculum items (the usage of scientific equipment and the particulate nature of matter). Findings presented show that the number and quality of students’ questions rose over time. While the number of research studies carried out with inquiry as the focus is plentiful, this paper outlines a generative strategy to enhance questioning which constitutes the essential first step in any inquiry process for any particular science content area.

기원론적 접근법에 따라 개발한 과학사 프로그램이 학생들의 입자론적 물질관 및 과학의 본성에 대한 이해에 미치는 영향

In this study, science history program was developed to enhance student's concepts toward the particulate nature of matter and the understanding about the nature of science. And the effects of its application was investigated in the lesson of ‘Composition of Matter' in middle school science class. This science history program was based on genetic approach and included the contents from the old Greek natural philosophers to Avogadro. Before instruction, the test of understanding about nature of science was administered, and the science scores of the previous course were obtained, which were used as covariates. During 24 class hours, this study was conducted with two classes(experimental and comparison group) in a middle school in Seoul. The experimental group was received lessons by science history programs and the comparison group was received traditional lessons. After instruction, the scientific concept test, the test of understanding about nature of science were administered. The result of this study indicates that the scientific concept scores of experimental group were significantly higher than comparison group at p

Numerosity versus mass

The particulate nature of matter was not evident for a long time in early history. Demokritos (460–370 BC) is mostly credited with the concept of particulate matter, probably based on philosophical grounds. But it was centuries later before the concept was really established by the systematic scientific work of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794), John Dalton (1766–1844), Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779– 1848), and others. It is no wonder that an ‘‘amount’’ of matter was measured (determined in common parlance) as mass, especially since a simple instrument—a balance—and a property of any material—its ‘‘mass’’—made it easy to perform the desired measurement, i.e. compare an unknown mass to a known mass, agreed by convention to be the measurement unit for mass measurements. The property of mass was easy to understand, even after the term ‘‘inertia’’ was introduced as a more adequate formulation of it. Paradoxically, an intelligent use of the balance—and therefore of the property of ‘‘inertia’’—enabled the above-quoted chemists to discover that other property of matter known as ‘‘numerosity’’, using it to uncover the principle that chemical interactions of atoms and molecules could be described in terms of simple ratios of integer numbers of interacting particles, using the concept of ‘‘atomic weight’’. The particulate nature of matter was now coming to light very directly and could be described in simple number ratios. Fully consistent with that, chemists then insisted that an amount of matter involved in chemical interactions (the very essence of chemistry), could be expressed simply by a number of particles (general name: ‘‘entities’’). Eventually, this was to give rise to a new base quantity in the SI: ‘‘amount-of-substance’’ and a corresponding base unit, the mole (symbol: mol). This new insight was agreed by both IUPAP and IUPAC, and ‘‘cast in stone’’ by the International Conference for Weights and Measures, CGPM, in 1971. Now the chemists had ‘‘their’’ unit. But no sooner did they have it, or interest in it declined in practice, with the possible exception of clinical chemistry where it was applied rather consistently. The reasons for such a decline still require investigation. Was it the shift to more instrumental (spectrometric) measurement methods rather than wet chemistry with its requirements for stoichiometric substances? Or was it the automation of instrumental analysis, which loosens the link between analyst and principles of the measurement method? The very notion of ‘‘amount’’ being a base quantity (like time, length, mass, electric current, etc.) was based on this other property of matter known as ‘‘numerosity’’. Numerosity is independent of gravity and enables the simplest form of measurement: counting. It is also far more selective than mass. It requires the substance to be specified, i.e. when counting, the counted particles must be identical and specified. The fact that it is very difficult to handle (or count) very large numbers of entities (typically in the range of 10– 10) is overcome by not choosing the most natural unit for amount-of-substance, i.e. one entity, symbol ‘‘1’’, but rather a large number of entities: 6.02214 · 10 and call that the unit for amount measurements, i.e. the mole. In fact, this large number is just a known and fixed multiple of the natural unit: 1 entity. This notion is important for modern analytical instrumentation intended to measure ratios, R, of large numbers of neutral entities (e.g. in the comparison of P. De Bievre (&) Duineneind 9, 2460 Kasterlee, Belgium e-mail: paul.de.bievre@skynet.be