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Showing the Bonds-A Subtle but Important Difference in Figure Design that May Alleviate Student Confusion about ATP
Crystal Uminski1, Shreya Sujith1, Aneesh Nallani1
1Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, United States.
None:
A misconception among biology students is that breaking bonds in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) releases energy. This misconception may be related to imprecise representations of chemical bonding in common diagrams of ATP hydrolysis. We interviewed 33 undergraduate students and randomly assigned them to interpret a figure of ATP hydrolysis that either emphasized bond breaking in the reactants or the formation of new bonds in the products. Students who saw the figure emphasizing bond breaking were more likely to incorrectly classify ATP hydrolysis as endergonic, while students who saw the figure explicitly illustrating bond formation were more likely to use chemically-sound reasoning to describe the reaction.
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