{"id":{"repo_id":"ohiolink","oai_identifier":"oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:miami1362754897"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/ohiolink/oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:miami1362754897","repository":{"repo_id":"ohiolink","name":"OhioLINK","base_url":"https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/oai/oai"},"display":{"title":"Atomic emission misconceptions as investigated through student interviews and measured by the Flame Test Concept Inventory","abstract":"One challenge of chemistry education arises from the limited experiences that students have with some abstract concepts first introduced during chemistry classes. The abstract concept of atomic emission is formally introduced during secondary education in the U.S. science curriculum. The topic is re-introduced in the first year of, and elaborated upon throughout, the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Current chemistry education literature does not address students’ understandings of atomic emission. This study addresses this gap in the literature.Through interviews, this study investigated students’ understandings of atomic emission using flame test demonstrations and energy level diagrams. In both open-ended and flame test questions, ideas related to enthalpy, ionization, and changes in states of matter were common reasoning patterns when students builded explanations for atomic emission. The misconceptions found in interviews allowed the development of the Flame Test Concept Inventory (FTCI). The FTCI was administered to high school and undergraduate chemistry students. The results of 459 high school students across the U.S and 362 undergraduate chemistry students from a predominantly undergraduate institution shed light into diverse categories of misconceptions at different levels of student chemistry expertise. While the focus of this dissertation was students’ understandings of atomic emission, additional work was completed in analytical chemistry. This work is presented in Appendix A- Flow injection analysis (FIA) and liquid chromatography (LC) for multifunctional chemical analysis (MCA) systems. The large class sizes of first year chemistry labs makes it challenging to provide students with hands-on access to instrumentation because the number of students typically far exceeds the number of research grade instruments available to collect data. MCA systems provide a viable alternative for large scale instruction while supporting a hands-on approach to more advanced instrumentation. This study describes how the capabilities of MCA systems were extended to introduce FIA and LC in undergraduate laboratories. Two MCA systems, Vernier and MeasureNet, were used in two unique experiments demonstrating the detection of salicylate in aspirin tablets by FIA and the LC separation of a mixture of riboflavin and fluorescein. Both instruments are rugged and inexpensive permitting student construction, if desired.","abstract_html":"One challenge of chemistry education arises from the limited experiences that students have with some abstract concepts first introduced during chemistry classes. The abstract concept of atomic emission is formally introduced during secondary education in the U.S. science curriculum. The topic is re-introduced in the first year of, and elaborated upon throughout, the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Current chemistry education literature does not address students’ understandings of atomic emission. This study addresses this gap in the literature.Through interviews, this study investigated students’ understandings of atomic emission using flame test demonstrations and energy level diagrams. In both open-ended and flame test questions, ideas related to enthalpy, ionization, and changes in states of matter were common reasoning patterns when students builded explanations for atomic emission. The misconceptions found in interviews allowed the development of the Flame Test Concept Inventory (FTCI). The FTCI was administered to high school and undergraduate chemistry students. The results of 459 high school students across the U.S and 362 undergraduate chemistry students from a predominantly undergraduate institution shed light into diverse categories of misconceptions at different levels of student chemistry expertise. While the focus of this dissertation was students’ understandings of atomic emission, additional work was completed in analytical chemistry. This work is presented in Appendix A- Flow injection analysis (FIA) and liquid chromatography (LC) for multifunctional chemical analysis (MCA) systems. The large class sizes of first year chemistry labs makes it challenging to provide students with hands-on access to instrumentation because the number of students typically far exceeds the number of research grade instruments available to collect data. MCA systems provide a viable alternative for large scale instruction while supporting a hands-on approach to more advanced instrumentation. This study describes how the capabilities of MCA systems were extended to introduce FIA and LC in undergraduate laboratories. Two MCA systems, Vernier and MeasureNet, were used in two unique experiments demonstrating the detection of salicylate in aspirin tablets by FIA and the LC separation of a mixture of riboflavin and fluorescein. Both instruments are rugged and inexpensive permitting student construction, if desired.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Mayo, Ana Veronica"],"institution":"Miami University","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"doctoral","degree_discipline":"Chemistry and Biochemistry","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Lowery Bretz, Stacey","Yezierski, Ellen"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2013,"date_issued":"2013-03-08","date_published":"2013-03-08","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:36:39Z","subjects":["Chemistry","Education","Atomic emission misconceptions","flame test demonstrations","energy level diagrams","mode-node framework","student interviews","mixed-method research design","development of a concept inventory"],"languages":["English"],"rights":["unrestricted","This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. 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It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1362754897"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["One challenge of chemistry education arises from the limited experiences that students have with some abstract concepts first introduced during chemistry classes. The abstract concept of atomic emission is formally introduced during secondary education in the U.S. science curriculum. The topic is re-introduced in the first year of, and elaborated upon throughout, the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Current chemistry education literature does not address students’ understandings of atomic emission. This study addresses this gap in the literature.Through interviews, this study investigated students’ understandings of atomic emission using flame test demonstrations and energy level diagrams. In both open-ended and flame test questions, ideas related to enthalpy, ionization, and changes in states of matter were common reasoning patterns when students builded explanations for atomic emission. The misconceptions found in interviews allowed the development of the Flame Test Concept Inventory (FTCI). The FTCI was administered to high school and undergraduate chemistry students. The results of 459 high school students across the U.S and 362 undergraduate chemistry students from a predominantly undergraduate institution shed light into diverse categories of misconceptions at different levels of student chemistry expertise. While the focus of this dissertation was students’ understandings of atomic emission, additional work was completed in analytical chemistry. This work is presented in Appendix A- Flow injection analysis (FIA) and liquid chromatography (LC) for multifunctional chemical analysis (MCA) systems. The large class sizes of first year chemistry labs makes it challenging to provide students with hands-on access to instrumentation because the number of students typically far exceeds the number of research grade instruments available to collect data. MCA systems provide a viable alternative for large scale instruction while supporting a hands-on approach to more advanced instrumentation. This study describes how the capabilities of MCA systems were extended to introduce FIA and LC in undergraduate laboratories. Two MCA systems, Vernier and MeasureNet, were used in two unique experiments demonstrating the detection of salicylate in aspirin tablets by FIA and the LC separation of a mixture of riboflavin and fluorescein. Both instruments are rugged and inexpensive permitting student construction, if desired."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf","p.262","5.99 MB"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Atomic emission misconceptions as investigated through student interviews and measured by the Flame Test Concept Inventory"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Lowery Bretz, Stacey","Yezierski, Ellen"],"dc:creator":["Mayo, Ana Veronica"],"dc:date":["2013-03-08"],"dc:description":["One challenge of chemistry education arises from the limited experiences that students have with some abstract concepts first introduced during chemistry classes. The abstract concept of atomic emission is formally introduced during secondary education in the U.S. science curriculum. The topic is re-introduced in the first year of, and elaborated upon throughout, the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Current chemistry education literature does not address students’ understandings of atomic emission. This study addresses this gap in the literature.Through interviews, this study investigated students’ understandings of atomic emission using flame test demonstrations and energy level diagrams. In both open-ended and flame test questions, ideas related to enthalpy, ionization, and changes in states of matter were common reasoning patterns when students builded explanations for atomic emission. The misconceptions found in interviews allowed the development of the Flame Test Concept Inventory (FTCI). The FTCI was administered to high school and undergraduate chemistry students. The results of 459 high school students across the U.S and 362 undergraduate chemistry students from a predominantly undergraduate institution shed light into diverse categories of misconceptions at different levels of student chemistry expertise. While the focus of this dissertation was students’ understandings of atomic emission, additional work was completed in analytical chemistry. This work is presented in Appendix A- Flow injection analysis (FIA) and liquid chromatography (LC) for multifunctional chemical analysis (MCA) systems. The large class sizes of first year chemistry labs makes it challenging to provide students with hands-on access to instrumentation because the number of students typically far exceeds the number of research grade instruments available to collect data. MCA systems provide a viable alternative for large scale instruction while supporting a hands-on approach to more advanced instrumentation. This study describes how the capabilities of MCA systems were extended to introduce FIA and LC in undergraduate laboratories. Two MCA systems, Vernier and MeasureNet, were used in two unique experiments demonstrating the detection of salicylate in aspirin tablets by FIA and the LC separation of a mixture of riboflavin and fluorescein. Both instruments are rugged and inexpensive permitting student construction, if desired."],"dc:format":["application/pdf","p.262","5.99 MB"],"dc:identifier":["http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1362754897"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:publisher":["Miami University / OhioLINK"],"dc:rights":["unrestricted","This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws."],"dc:subject":["Chemistry","Education","Atomic emission misconceptions","flame test demonstrations","energy level diagrams","mode-node framework","student interviews","mixed-method research design","development of a concept inventory"],"dc:title":["Atomic emission misconceptions as investigated through student interviews and measured by the Flame Test Concept Inventory"],"dc:type":["Electronic Thesis or Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Chemistry and Biochemistry"],"thesis:degree_level":["doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["Miami University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:36:39Z"}