Different contexts - different ideas

When asked to apply chemical concepts to new situations some students can become confused, putting forward different, often contradictory, ideas. To find out more about the effect of context on students' ideas Melonie Teichert, Lydia Tien, Seth Anthony and Dawn Rickey from Colorado State University investigated how they interpret two basic properties of aqueous solutions - conductivity and boiling point elevation.¹ 

The researchers interviewed 19 chemistry students, 11 of whom were from a community college and eight from a university. All the students had completed a module on what happens to compounds when they are added to water. The interviews were conducted in two parts both of which required the students to draw representations of what they thought was happening in the solutions on a particulate level.