From Outside In: Stretching Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Molecular Symmetry with 2D and 3D Manipulatives

The main difficulty in studying molecular symmetry is the mental manipulation of molecules when searching for symmetry. Numerous methods of teaching molecular symmetry require students to identify symmetry elements of objects or molecules. As an alternative, we propose activity that identifies symmetry using elements outside the objects, together with accompanying worksheets containing guiding questions to help them distinguish between transforming symmetrical and asymmetrical objects across/around these elements. This novel activity can be used as a supplement to molecular symmetry instruction at the tertiary level.