This study investigates the students’ ideas about an atom by asking them to describe an atom on a paper and pencil questionnaire. Students’ understanding of the structure of an atom, its constituents and their approximate locations, the size of an atom, and energy released by an atom are investigated. Analysis of responses was based on the phenomenographic method. The study does not attempt to develop a catalog of students' "misconceptions" of atoms. It explores how students describe atoms when they are presented with an open-ended question.

The presentation of sophisticated atomic theory (quantum mechanics) in secondary chemistry texts is not accompanied by sufficient evidence or applications to promote its rational acceptance as determined by a model of conceptual change. Eight secondary chemistry texts were analyzed for four elements associated with a conceptual change model: dissatisfaction, intelligibility, plausibility, and fruitfulness.

Materials developed by the Visual Quantum Mechanics project teach some basic ideas of quantum mechanics to high school and introductory college students by integrating hands-on activities and computer visualization. During field tests of the materials we obtained data concerning student understanding of some quantum concepts including potential energy diagrams, energy levels and spectra in atoms, energy bands in solids, wave functions and probability, and quantum tunneling. Data were collected from written responses of students structured interviews and a concept map.

(abstract and paper still missing)

In this paper, one student's learning process in a course on quantum atomic physics in grade 13 of a German gymnasium (secondary school) is described. The course lasted 16 weeks for a total of approximately 80 lessons. The aim of the present study is to elaborate the student's cognitive system for atomic physics as a hypothetical pragmatic model to describe, analyse and explain his thinking and learning sequence of several meta-stable conceptions of the atom, starting from a planetary model.

(abstract and paper still missing)

(entire thesis written in Norwegian)

(conclusions section:)

We present a new research-based course on quantum mechanics in which the conceptual issues of quantum mechanics are taught at an introductory level. In the context of virtual laboratories, the students discover from the very beginning how quantum phenomena deviate from our classical everyday experience. The results of the evaluation of the course show that most of the students acquired appropriate quantum mechanical conceptions, and that many of the common misconceptions encountered in traditional instruction have been avoided.