Science Coming soon
Chemistry Path
A diagnostic that will find where each student’s understanding of matter and its interactions breaks down, and build the path forward.
The problem
Where chemistry understanding breaks down
Chemistry depends on ideas that build tightly: atomic structure, bonding, reactions and the math that connects them. A student lost in stoichiometry might be missing ratios or the idea of a mole.
- A low quiz score doesn’t show whether the gap is chemistry or math.
- Students can apply a memorized rule and still misunderstand what is happening to particles.
- Gaps in early units make every later unit harder.
Inside the Path
What the Chemistry Path covers
The Chemistry Path will cover the NGSS physical science standards that shape a chemistry course: atomic structure and the periodic table, bonding and the properties of substances, chemical reactions and conservation of mass, reaction rates and equilibrium, and the energy changes that go with them.
Where students get stuck
Students often picture atoms as tiny pieces of the substance itself, think mass is lost when a gas is given off, read a chemical equation as a list rather than a ratio, and treat a mole as a weight instead of a count. Some of these are chemistry gaps; others are proportional reasoning gaps in a chemistry setting.
What it does for you
What this Path will do
For teachers
Will separate chemistry gaps from math gaps, and tag each wrong answer to the misconception behind it.
More for teachersFor school leaders
Will give Chemistry students a skill path that starts at their own gap.
More for school leadersFor districts
Will extend one diagnostic method across science courses, built on NGSS.
More for districtsHow it works
How the Path will work
Diagnose
An adaptive diagnostic will move across the physical science standards, choosing each question from the answers so far.
Trace
Answers will be traced back through chemistry ideas, and the math they depend on, to the point where understanding breaks down.
Rebuild
Students will get a skill path that starts at their gap.
Standards
Will be built on published standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
The Chemistry Path will be built on the Next Generation Science Standards.
The science
The method behind every Path
Item Response Theory
Each student’s ability is estimated from their answers, and each next question is the one expected to tell the most.
Prerequisite maps
Standards are mapped as a graph of which skills build on which, so a gap can be traced to where it starts.
Misconception tagging
Wrong answer choices are written to reveal specific misconceptions, from a controlled catalog.
Research
The research behind this Path
These published studies are about how students learn, not about SubjectPath itself.
Posner and colleagues’ model of conceptual change proposes that students give up an existing idea when they become dissatisfied with it and a new idea seems understandable, plausible and able to explain more.
Posner et al. (1982)Nakhleh’s review of chemical misconceptions describes how students’ ideas about core topics such as the particle nature of matter often differ from accepted chemistry, and what that means for teaching.
Nakhleh (1992)
Help shape the Chemistry Path
Tell us about your courses and students, and which of your classes the Chemistry Path would serve. We’d like to hear what it should do first.
Tell us you’re interestedFrequently asked questions
- Will it include the math chemistry depends on?
- Yes. The Chemistry Path will trace gaps into the math skills chemistry relies on, like ratios and proportional reasoning.
- When will it be available?
- We don’t publish dates. Tell us about your timeline and we’ll talk it through.
- Can we help shape it?
- Yes. Tell us about your courses and students. We’d like to hear what you need from it.
Talk to us about the Chemistry Path
See Algebra Readiness in a demo today, and tell us what you need from this Path.