This study aimed to obtain the characteristics of students' mental models and the difficulties experienced by students while studying in schools in developing the ability of creative imagination. The number of samples involved in this study was 89 students of grade 11. The instrument used to achieve that goal were a test mental
models in the form of essay and interview guides. Results of the research show that (1) The majority of high school students still have an understanding of chemistry at the macro level, the ability of reasoning is only able to produce a very simple mental model that is still in the low category. (2) Students have difficulty in interpreting the chemical phenomena to develop their mental models. One implication of these findings is learning chemistry in senior high school need to be
designed with a strategy that is able to optimize the ability of the creative imagination of students in an effort to improve the ability to reason, interpret and represent chemical phenomena in problem-solving.
Keywords: Atomic Structure; Chemistry Students; Mental Models

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching