Exploring the Development of Chemistry Understanding from Concept Maps to SOCMEs

Systems thinking is vital to advance sustainable development and help students relate their chemistry knowledge to socio-environmental interactions. Concept maps and System-Oriented Concept Mapping Extension diagrams (SOCMEs) have expanded students’ chemistry and systems understanding and developed their systems thinking skills in Chemistry Education. The value of using these visualization tools with a scaffolded approach was investigated in a nonscience major course. Students created visualizations as part of their coursework that were analyzed for their demonstrated knowledge composition and structure as they expanded their concept maps to SOCMEs. Findings revealed that concept mapping and its expansion to SOCMEs implemented with a systems thinking approach were helpful learning tools that enabled multilevel thinking in chemistry and engagement with complexity on multiple scales. Overall, valuable learning gains have been made as students were able to engage with more complex connections over time and recognized chemistry as the backbone to real-world issues, suggesting that a systems thinking approach could enhance the learning of chemistry.