CONCEPTUALIZING QUANTA: ILLUMINATING THE GROUND STATE OF STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF ATOMIC ORBITALS

Abstract

This paper presents and discusses data relating to student understanding of the orbital concept and related ideas at college level (i.e. between secondary and university level education). The data derives from in-depth research into the thinking of a small sample of U.K. students. Students enter this level of study having been explicitly taught a quantum theory of matter (i.e. the particle model), and implicitly introduced to the quantization of charge. The key principles of quantization of energy and angular momentum are important at the college level when students are taught about orbitals, energy levels and quantum numbers. Interview extracts provide insights into the students’ attempts to make sense of these unfamiliar and abstract ideas. It is suggested that this is an area where there is a genuine pedagogic problem: capable and motivated students struggle to learn from experienced and knowledgeable teachers. The present paper describes how students conceptualized these key aspects of the atomic model. A subsequent paper (“Compounding quanta: probing the frontiers of student understanding of molecular orbitals”) considers how the same group of students applied their thinking in the more complex context of molecular systems. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2002, 3, 145-158]