Students' use of chemistry core ideas to explain the structure and stability of DNA

Abstract

Students tend to think of their science courses as isolated and unrelated to each other, making it difficult for them to see connections across disciplines. In addition, many existing science assessments target rote memorization and algorithmic problem‐solving skills. Here, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an activity aimed to help students integrate knowledge across introductory chemistry and biology courses. The activity design and evaluation of students' responses were guided by the Framework for K‐12 Science Education as the understanding of core ideas and crosscutting concepts and the development of scientific practices are essential for students at all levels. In this activity, students are asked to use their understanding of noncovalent interactions to explain (a) why the boiling point differs for two pure substances (chemistry phenomenon) and (b) why temperature and base pair composition affects the stability of DNA (biological phenomenon). The activity was implemented at two different institutions (N = 441) in both introductory chemistry and biology courses. Students' overall performance suggests that they can provide sophisticated responses that incorporate their understanding of noncovalent interactions and energy to explain the chemistry phenomenon, but have difficulties integrating the same knowledge to explain the biological phenomenon. Our findings reinforce the notion that students should be provided with opportunities in the classroom to purposefully practice and support the use and integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines. Students' evaluations of the activity indicated that they found it to be interesting and helpful for making connections across disciplines.

Impact of Ocean Acidification on Shelled Organisms: Supporting Integration of Chemistry and Biology Knowledge through Multidisciplinary Activities

“…In our Ocean Acidification activity, 93% were able to correctly predict the relationship between CO 2 and pH, with 43% of students further making the correct prediction regarding how changes in the pH of the ocean could affect shelled organism. These results are similar to the implementation and evaluation of previously developed multidisciplinary activities, where we found that in general (1) students found the activities useful to connect ideas and disciplines they would not have otherwise, and (2) while many students could provide sophisticated responses that incorporated their understanding of chemistry ideas to explain the chemistry phenomena, they had difficulties using the same ideas to explain biological phenomena. − Thus, previous − , and current work highlights the importance of supporting students through the use of knowledge by providing them with experiences similar to the one presented in this study. Even, if students struggle to make the desired connections, we need to provide them with such opportunities to grow and learn.…”

“…This Ocean Acidification activity is one of seven activities developed to support students with integrating and using chemistry core ideas to explain biological phenomena. − Among the faculty members at our institution, ocean acidification was identified as a phenomenon of high value from a list of biology topics that require chemistry ideas to be explained due to the coastal location of the university of interest in the Southeastern United States. In addition, previous research has revealed the low awareness and understanding of ocean acidification among biology, chemistry, and biochemistry students in comparison to other science students .…”

“…As part of a larger project, we have created a series of multidisciplinary activities that prompt students to use their chemistry knowledge to explain various biological phenomena. − This paper presents one of these activities developed to support students using their chemistry knowledge of change and stability of chemical systems to explain how ocean acidification can impact the formation of shelled organisms. The development for all of these multidisciplinary activities was guided by the three dimensions outlined in the Framework for K-12 Science Education : core ideas (what we want students to know), cross-cutting concepts (tools, lenses, or bridges that help students explain disciplinary ideas), and scientific practices (what we want students to do with their knowledge), referred to as Three-Dimensional Learning (3DL) .…”

Undergraduate Chemistry and Biology Students’ Use of Causal Mechanistic Reasoning to Explain and Predict Preferential Protein–Ligand Binding Activity

“…The importance of interdisciplinary learning at the undergraduate level has increased in science education discourse. These efforts include large projects (for example, the BRAID project), as well as smaller, single-activity research articles, such as those proposed by Underwood et al − While interdisciplinarity may focus on the integration of science with social and economic studies (for example, addressing climate change or sustainability issues), students should also be able to integrate ideas between their science courses, such as chemistry and biology, particularly prehealth students who need to leverage both disciplines in their future courses and careers. Students in undergraduate STEM majors frequently enroll in both chemistry and biology courses to meet their degree requirements.…”

Connecting Ideas across Courses

“…We are developing activities (Matz et al, 2019;Roche Allred et al, 2021) that provide opportunities for students to connect ideas across two disciplines at the undergraduate level: general chemistry and introductory cell and molecular biology. These disciplines are of interest for at least two reasons.…”