Because textbooks have the potential to be powerful catalysts for improving science teaching and learning, having reliable methods for analyzing important textbook features, such as their coherence, is essential. This study reports on the development of a method in which trained reviewers, following a set of guidelines defining the ideas to be learned and connections among those ideas drawn from relevant maps published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in the Atlas of Science Literacy (2001), were able to analyze the degree to which four widely used high school biology textbooks provided students and teachers with a coherent account of the important topic of matter and energy transformations in living systems. The study method was found to produce consistent results across reviewers and textbooks and can serve those who evaluate, design, and use science curriculum materials. This work represents an important first step in meeting the need for methods to measure, characterize, and, ultimately, to improve textbook coherence. ß
Studies have shown that students struggle to understand basic chemical concepts and have trouble applying these concepts to biological phenomena. This article describes the development and evaluation of a unit to help middle school students connect core ideas about chemical reactions to the phenomenon of growth in animals and plants.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.