Jo Ellen Roseman

The purpose of this development project was to design and test a replacement unit for high school biology that focused on energy in physical and biological systems. Ideas about energy changes and conservation are fundamental to understanding physical and life science and are prominent in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Energy concepts, however, can be challenging for students as they are abstract and often counterintuitive, especially when they occur in the context of biologica...

 Research on learning indicates that students have difficulties understanding phenomena involving either living or non-living systems at the molecular level. Despite the well documented difficulties that students have in understanding many science ideas, particularly ideas related to chemical and biochemical change, currently available textbooks do little to help students overcome these difficulties. To address this need, the researchers will develop two instructional units focusing on chem...