Utility of creative exercises as an assessment tool for revealing student conceptions in organic chemistry†

Creative exercises (CEs) consist of open-ended prompts to which students provide a series of relevant, distinct, and accurate statements, thus requiring that students make connections between concepts. In this study, CEs were incorporated into a one-semester Survey of Organic Chemistry course to identify what connections between chemistry concepts students made and what incorrect conceptions or misconceptions about chemistry students held. Students (N = 79) enrolled in the course first completed a practice CE as an in-class group activity followed by individually responding to a CE bonus problem on each of their four course exams. The number of different concepts students addressed for each CE increased over the semester, indicating that students made increasing content connections about course material; however, misconceptions about early concepts, such as nomenclature and assigning configurations, remained consistent throughout the semester. Furthermore, the CEs were found to be instrumental in shedding light on misconceptions and knowledge structures of students across varying performance levels. Overall, students reported that they viewed the CEs favorably and would like to see CEs incorporated in future courses.