“Like They Are Everyday Substances, You Like See Them, Hold Them, Use Them Every Day”: Students’ Understanding of Big Ideas and Macro and Submicro Chemistry Phenomena in the Context of Computer-Based Models

This study examined high school chemistry students’ understandings of big ideas—matter and energy, how these understandings are related to macro and submicro representations and fine-grained distinguishing characteristics of students’ explanations. The study was conducted in the context of computer-based models and model-based assessments. Qualitative analysis, descriptive statistics and a stepwise Regression model was run to examine students’ explanations to assessment questions and their relationship to quantitative measures of students’ understandings of big ideas. Students’ explanations revealed consistent level 1 and 2 understandings for each big idea. When we examined the relationship between explanations and students’ understandings of big ideas, the step-wise regression model was statistically significant for matter and energy. At the fine-grained level, students’ explanations revealed distinct clusters—knowledge components that students used to construct descriptive and explanatory explanations for each level of understanding. These findings have implications for effective instructional approaches, targeted enactment of computer-based models and understandings of the range of novice chemistry understanding.