Mental Rolodexing: Senior Chemistry Majors’ Understanding of Chemical and Physical Properties

Using a constructivist framework, eight senior chemistry majors were interviewed twice to determine: (i) structural inferences they are able to make from chemical and physical properties; and (ii) their ability to apply their inferences and understandings of these chemical and physical properties to solve tasks on the reactivity of organic compounds. The latter included predicting the behaviors of natural products under acidic, basic,...