Improving Students’ Performance in Naming and Writing Structural Formulae of Hydrocarbons Using the Ball-and-Stick Models

Abstract

Learning chemical concepts at the submicroscopic and symbolic levels has been identified as a difficult task for science students. Studies have shown that IUPAC nomenclature of organic compounds, which is at the symbolic level of learning chemical concepts, is a difficult concept when it comes to students’ learning. The current study involved a pre-service teacher and 60 high school students and investigated how students could improve upon their performance in naming and writing of structural formulae of hydrocarbons with the aid of ball-and-stick models. The pre-service teacher and the students were purposively selected to participate in the study. After seven weeks of teaching and learning of IUPAC naming and writing of structural formulae of hydrocarbons where the students physically manipulated the models, it was found that the students’ performance and attitude improved after the intervention. It is therefore recommended that science educators should continuously use already existing and newly developed models in teaching chemical concepts to help students to actively conceptualise such concepts at the symbolic level.