Abstract
Balancing chemical equations is often a challenging and unpopular topic for students. This study focused on freshman students' (N=11) ability to balance chemical equations using an interactive applet.
In addition to the chemical equations themselves as a symbolic notation, the applet offered submicroscopic models corresponding to the equation and an atom ratio representation. The students' progress in enumerating the equations in the applet was recorded using eye-tracking and then further explained through a retrospective interview.
The results highlight the fact that students balance chemical equations mainly on a symbolic level and are unable to use submicro support. At the same time, the ability of more than half of the students to balance chemical equations was found to not reach the standards required by high school chemistry textbooks.
The analysis of the procedures also revealed the most common difficulties that students encounter in balancing chemical equations. The research provides insight into how school practices transfer this topic into chemistry instruction.