2014 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education

Do you struggle to understand what your students are thinking about chemistry? Come learn about a powerful formative assessment technique called ‘cognitive interviewing’ and practice using this technique to make sense of student thinking around foundational ideas in chemistry that students rely upon to determine how to identify matter and differentiate between kinds of matter. You will learn about the stepping stones that middle school, high school and college students traverse as they gain conceptual sophistication, and how you can move your students toward more expert understanding of chemical identity (the idea that every substance is unique). The workshop will utilize the ‘GoKart Interview Protocol’, a tool co-developed by a team of Boston middle and high school teachers, university faculty, and graduate students. Participants will leave with copies of the protocol and a learning progression map derived from our research study that characterizes productive stepping stones along the progression.