Actual Molecule of Benzene and its Resonance Structures: An Explanation Using the Analogy of a Macro Entity and Its Sketches

Confusion about basic concepts is common among many students in the early stages of education in all areas, which later diminished as they gained more advance knowledge of their subject. This study focuses on the most important fundamental concept in chemistry i.e., namely “Molecular Resonance Phenomena” to explain the benzene molecular structure and its canonical forms. Enormous literature available on the subject; However, chemistry students still find it difficult to understand the difference between a real molecular entity and its proposed sketch or model early in their learning. To solve this problem macro entities and their sketch analogies were used in front of students and found to be more effective. A tough or difficult topic in the lecture can be simplified by a suitable analogy with minimal resources.