various available data sources are drawn upon to provide evidence to determine the modelling abilities of three students who are referred to as Narelle, Alistair and Leanne. In a previous paper (Chittleborough et al., 2005), we discussed the profiles about each of the volunteer students’ (n=19) modelling abilities and their understanding of chemical concepts using the six dimensions of the role of ideas, the use of symbols, the role of the modeller, communication, testing and multiplicity, which were assessed based on observations of each students’ work in the laboratory, responses on their written laboratory reports, the worksheets and interviews. In this paper, the three students were selected because they have different backgrounds and provide different perspectives about their modelling abilities and their understanding of the sub-microscopic level of representation