Identifying Chemistry Students' Baseline Systems Thinking Skills When Constructing System Maps for a Topic on Climate...

Area of Science:

• Chemistry Education
• Systems Thinking (ST)
• Climate Change Education

Background:

• Educators need resources to implement systems thinking (ST) in chemistry.
• Assessing ST skills in chemistry contexts is not well understood.
• A proposed set of ST skills exists, but their application in chemistry needs investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate ST skills students employ when creating system maps for climate change topics.
• Identify how undergraduate chemistry students engage with ST tasks.
• Develop an adaptable ST rubric for assessing ST skills in chemistry.

Main Methods:

• Eighteen undergraduate chemistry students participated in a ST intervention.
• Students individually and collaboratively completed three ST tasks, including constructing system maps.
• Analysis focused on 11 ST skills aligned with five ST characteristics.

Main Results:

• Participants demonstrated most ST skills, with notable nuances.
• System maps lacked submicroscopic concepts/connections and causal reasoning.
• Maps showed broad connections but few circular loops and limited human/chemistry links.

Conclusions:

• Chemistry educators should emphasize submicroscopic levels and causal reasoning when teaching ST.
• The study provides insights for guiding ST learning activities and assessments in chemistry.
• An adaptable ST rubric was developed to aid in assessing ST skills in chemistry education.