This project, composed of three related studies, seeks to build a model of student understanding of visual representations in biochemistry. Two studies focus on probing student understanding of monosaccharides and proteins. Students are interviewed as they explain how to translate 2D images of simple sugars into the 3D images that many biochemists use in their classrooms. The interviews expose the rules and cues that students use to successfully complete these translations. Students are also being interviewed about protein structure and function while viewing 3D computer images that can be rotated and manipulated. Results from this research will foster the development of new and revised models of how undergraduate science students learn. The third is focusing on how visual representations including molecular images, graphs, tables, etc. are used in an undergraduate biochemistry classroom across a semester. This study will add to the body of knowledge about effective practices in science classrooms because it captures what takes place in a real classroom for an extended period of time. The overall project is placed in the field of biochemistry, with an opportunity to build connections among and between researchers in chemical education and those engaged in similar or related issues in biochemistry, molecular biology, and biology education.
