Promotion Reasoning About Complex Chemical Systems: Consequences of an Exploring Agent-Based Computer Models

This study studied middle school students' learning of the gaseous phase in chemistry through an emergent complex systems perspective as compared with learning through a normative disciplinary view. We explore the students' progression in reasoning about complex chemical systems in terms of generic systems thinking components. Seventh grade students' understanding of Gas Laws and KMT was studied using pre- and post-test questionnaires and interviews. 47 experimental group students learned with a 12-lessons curriculum that includes exploration of agent-based modeling (ABM), based upon a complex systems approach. 45 comparison group students learned with a normative commonly-used 12-lessons curriculum. We have found strong advantage to the learning environment based on exploring agent-based computer models for promotion reasoning about complex chemical systems. Additionally, we have found a prevalent and coherent mental model for making sense of complex chemical phenomena that goes beyond the expert/novice divide, intermediate in sophistication to the two extreme poles. It is typified by thinking in levels but not stochastic behaviors and emergent structures of causality. Another finding of this study indicates that there is an interaction between learning chemistry as a field of knowledge and general system thinking. (מתוך המאמר‎)