Sensemaking [1], the process of making sense of real-life scenarios through formal knowledge, has attracted considerable attention in recent years [2–5]. It has been shown to assist students in generating new knowledge in addition to establishing connections between their existing ideas [6, 7]. It has also been associated with the ways disciplinary experts engage in knowledge construction [8, 9]. Given this significance, researchers have investigated task features and discourse markers that promote sensemaking. Vexing questions during interactions [10], blending modeland evidence-based arguments during classroom investigations [11], computational reasoning of physics scenarios [12], solving quantitative problems through conceptual insights and vice-versa [5], and reasoning about the physical features of systems through mathematical tools (such as graphs)[13] are a few such findings. The results from this study contribute to the literature on eliciting sensemaking, particularly through assessments.

In the rest of the paper, we demonstrate the viability of an approach to identify the task features that promote sensemaking. We achieve this objective by qualitatively analyzing a case study of an introductory physics student’s sensemaking through the framework of the sensemaking epistemic game [14]. By navigating through the transcript, we identify the student’s problem solving ‘moves’ associated with specific stages of the epistemic game. The moves include reasoning around a constructed representation and physically interpreting a numerical value. Recognition of such features takes us a step closer to purposefully elicit sensemaking in our classrooms, thereby strengthening the ‘pedagogical tool box’[14].