“…Even when students are able to make the link, past assessment research has shown that students’ misconceptions about concepts in the physical sciences, such as atomic–molecular theory and conservation of matter and energy, limit their ability to develop a coherent understanding of the molecular basis of biology (Anderson et al ., 1990). More recent assessment studies have shown that misconceptions related to these concepts are prevalent at both the middle and high school levels (Karatas¸ et al ., 2013; AAAS, 2015). Table 1 provides a list of the most commonly held misconceptions related to chemical reactions, conservation of mass, and biological growth and, when applicable, the percentage of students selecting distractors aligned to the misconceptions as their answer choices during the AAAS Project 2061 assessment study (DeBoer et al ., 2009; AAAS, 2015).…”