Our findings indicate students have challenges activating and productively using all resources when conjugation is involved. The student's textbook outlined the relationship between hybridization and conjugation in the first chapter. The course instructors also explicitly provide instruction that couples the concepts. Therefore, while additional instruction 550 may be beneficial in providing students support for identifying and productive use of resources, more targeted activities may be a better strategy for instruction. Namely, formative and summative assessment items may be worded so that students can correctly determine the trend even though resources are unproductively applied. This was observed with each of the three prompts analyzed in the study. To better align expectations, one strategy would be to give Using a similar approach as described by Stowe and Cooper , assessments, using pairedmultiple-choice items probing specific trends coupled with a second question that probes reasoning would likewise provide opportunities for students to consider a wider array of resources -that extends beyond activation from benchmark structures. Regardless of how these activities are implemented, providing opportunities for students to see when resources are unproductive is central to promoting the development of problem-solving skills.