This study investgated the challenges students face when learning chemical reactons in a frst-year chemistry course and the efectveness of a curriculum and sofware implementaton that was used to teach and assess student understanding of chemical reactons and equatons. This study took place over a two year period in a public suburban high-school, in southwestern USA. Two advanced placement (AP) chemistry classes partcipated, referred to here as study group A (year 1), N = 14; and study group B (year 2), N = 21. | Journal of Technology and Science Education USE OF CHEMISTRY SOFTWARE TO TEACH AND ASSESS MODEL-BASED REACTION AND EQUATION KNOWLEDGE Kevin Pyat School of Educaton Regis University USA kpyat@ Abstract This study investgated the challenges students face when learning chemical reactons in a frst-year chemistry course and the efectveness of a curriculum and sofware implementaton that was used to teach and assess student understanding of chemical reactons and equatons. This study took place over a two year period in a public suburban high-school, in southwestern USA. Two advanced placement (AP) chemistry classes partcipated, referred to here as study group A (year 1), N = 14; and study group B (year 2), N = 21. The curriculum for a frst-year chemistry course (group A) was revised to include instructon on reacton-types. The second year of the study involved the creaton and implementaton of a sofware soluton which promoted mastery learning of reacton-types. Students in both groups benefted from the reacton-type curriculum and achieved profciency in chemical reactons and equatons. The fndings suggest there was an added learning beneft to using the reacton-type sofware soluton. This study also found that reacton knowledge was a moderate to strong predictor of chemistry achievement. Based on regression analysis, reacton knowledge signifcantly predicted chemistry achievement for both groups. Keywords – chemistry, reactons, chemistry teaching, reacton-types, reacton master ---------- 1 INTRODUCTION Chemical reactons and the equatons which describe them have long been one of the keystones of chemistry. Our understanding of them has largely been associated with the very laboratory setngs in which they were discovered. Consequently, their signifcance to the laboratory has made it so that treatment of chemical reactons in frst-year chemistry courses has historically been piecemeal (Cassen & DuBois, 1982). In fact, most frst-year texts typically devote litle space to .
