How conceptual blends support sensemaking: A case study from introductory physics

When learning science, students must often make sense of complex and counterintuitive ideas. However, this process of sensemaking is difficult, and consequently students risk emerging from science courses with highly fragmented understandings. In this study, I examine the ways in which students create conceptual connections to resolve such difficulties and defragment their understandings. Using three intersecting theoretical frameworks-Knowledge in Pieces, sensemaking, and conceptual blends-I analyze a case study of two undergraduate physics students making sense of the concepts of voltage, electric potential, and electric potential energy. I show how the students move through the different stages of the sensemaking process and how a conceptual blend was constructed and productively applied to help them resolve their knowledge fragmentation. Based on this case, I argue that conceptual blends can serve as a cognitive mechanism for the sensemaking process.