What’s in a structure?

The ability to predict molecular shape, reactivity and relative melting/boiling points is important for chemists, even at A-level, and is underpinned by structure-function relationships. Cooper and colleagues have developed a survey to probe understanding of the information conveyed by Lewis structures and how that information can be used to predict properties.

The introduction sheds light on why students struggle to recognise the implicit information in a Lewis structure. Students normally learn how to draw such structures at an early stage, typically following a set of rules unconnected to prior learning, and often without eluding to a future purpose. Later, when they are required to move beyond the Lewis structure to predict properties, many fail to make appropriate conceptual links and consequently resort to memorisation to organise their ideas.