Developing and Evaluating an Eighth Grade Curriculum Unit That Links Foundational Chemistry to Biological Growth. Paper #1: Selecting Core Ideas and Practices -- An Iterative Process

Researchers at AAAS and BSCS have developed a six-week unit that aims to help middle school students learn important chemistry ideas that can be used to explain growth and repair in animals and plants. By integrating core physical and life science ideas and engaging students in the science practices of modeling and constructing explanations, the unit is designed to address major recommendations in national standards documents, including the National Research Council's "A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (2012). In this paper, the authors focus on the iterative design process used to select and refine a set of learning goals for the unit that target the three dimensions of science learning identified in the "Framework"--science core ideas, science practices, and crosscutting concepts. The paper also describes the data on alignment, classroom implementation, and student and teacher learning that informed the revision of the learning goals through three iterations of the unit. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate the kinds of design issues that arose and how they were resolved to address the challenges inherent in taking a standards-based approach to curriculum design. (Contains 5 tables and 3 figures.)