Fundamental quantum chemistry concepts—quantization of energy, electronic structure, and light–matter interaction—are essential for understanding chemistry and spectroscopy, an important tool for studying molecules. However, very few studies have investigated how students learn and understand these concepts or how their learning can be supported. Drawing on the capacity of writing to support learning of difficult concepts, we designed an intervention that targeted quantum concepts in the context of the use of spectroscopy for identifying chemical composition of the Orion Nebula. A quasi-experimental design with a pre-post assessment on a control and treatment group was used to identify the gains associated with completing the WTL activity. Results from a three-tiered assessment show that WTL students significantly improved in their explanations of the concept of spectroscopic transitions and their overall confidence in their understanding. Analysis of their writing, follow-up interviews, and feedback served to explain the changes observed on the pre-post assessment.

中文翻译：

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调查写作教学在促进学生对光与物质相互作用的理解中的作用

基本的量子化学概念-能量，电子结构和光-物质相互作用的量化-对于理解化学和光谱学（研究分子的重要工具）至关重要。但是，很少有研究调查学生如何学习和理解这些概念或如何支持他们的学习。利用写作的能力来支持对困难概念的学习，我们设计了一种干预措施，在使用光谱法识别猎户座星云的化学成分的情况下针对量子概念。通过对对照组和治疗组进行事前评估的准实验设计来确定与完成WTL活动相关的收益。三级评估的结果表明，WTL学生对光谱过渡概念的解释和对理解的整体信心大大提高。对他们的写作，后续访谈和反馈的分析有助于解释岗前评估中观察到的变化。