Atom and molecule: upper secondary school French students ...

A. Cokelez and A. Dumon 134
Appendix. Summaries of the students’ descriptions of the atom and the water molecule
The tables below show, the keywords picked from the written descriptions and classified into
different categories. A description of one student may contain more than one keyword. So the total
number of the key-words is greater than the total number of students' answers (in parentheses), and
the total of percentage is greater than 100%.
Attribut
ion
Table 1. Summary of the students’ descriptions of the atom.
DESCRIPTIONS
Beginning of
grade 10
Beginning of
grade 11
Beginning of
grade 12
Nb. %
(172)
Nb. %
(364)
Nb. %
(167)
Colour 12 7 18 5 16 10
Form 20 12 26 7 16 10
Total 32 19 44 12 32 19
Symbol 12 7 15 12 4 2
Mass 6 4 7 2 7 4
Charge 12 7 27 7 6 4
Size 13 8 5 1 1 1
Place in the periodic table 4 2 - 1 1
Empty space in the atom 1 1 3 1 1 1
Characteristics
Total 48 28 57 16 20 12
GR (electrons revolve around nucleus) 22 13 88 24 32 19
N e - total = Z 9 5 167 46 79 47
Composition
Confusio
ns
Electron pairs/ bonding
Electrons
Nucleus
N e - total ≠ Z 32 19 13 4 2 1
N valence e - correct 8 2 2 1
N e - on shells K and L correct 36 10 21 13
e- on shells K,L,M et N e - > Z 17 5 2 1
Z protons 3 2 79 22 22 13
Z protons and Z neutrons 6 4 48 13 24 14
Incorrect composition 8 2 3 2
Total 50 29 376 103 155 93
Atom / molecule 14 8 14 4 9 5
Other 11 6 6 2 3 2
Total 25 15 20 6 12 7
It can give two bond/two bonded
electron pairs
Octet rule/ 4 bonds or bonded electron
pairs / 4 electron pairs
21 6 24 14
18 5 14 8
2 or 3 electron pairs 6 2 1 1
6 electron pairs / bonds 2 1
Total 47 13
Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 2005, 6 (3), 119-135
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry