AAAS Project 2061 Textbook Evaluations

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Biology by Miller and Levine. Prentice Hall, 1998

Matter and Energy Transformations: Instructional Analysis

I: Providing a Sense of Purpose

Conveying unit purpose

Rating = Fair
The material meets indicator 1 and somewhat meets indicators 2 and 4−6. Indicator 3 is not met.

Indicator 1: Met
The material presents chapter purposes to students but not unit purposes. At the beginning of each chapter, teacher notes suggest that teachers introduce students to the purpose of the chapter by posing a series of questions. For example, teacher notes for Chapter 6: Cell Energy: Photosynthesis and Respiration encourages teachers to:

Pose the following questions to students and have them record their responses. Point out that they will gain a better understanding of the key concepts if they read the chapter with these basic questions in mind....

• How do green plants obtain sunlight?
• How do green plants convert sunlight into usable energy?
• How do organisms store energy?
• How is glucose broken down to release energy?
• What is the role of oxygen in respiration?
• How can respiration take place without oxygen?

p. 112t

Similar instructions accompany the following questions at the beginning of Chapter 47: The Biosphere:

• How do organisms interact with each other and with the nonliving environment?
• How does a stable collection of plants and animals develop in an area?
• How do the land biomes of the Earth differ from one another?
• How do abiotic factors affect the kinds of organisms found in aquatic biomes?
• How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
• How are nutrients recycled in an ecosystem?
• How are plants and animals connected in feeding relationships?

p. 1006t

However, while teacher notes in the unit introductions provide the unit purposes to teachers (e.g., pp. 84t, 806t, 1004t), no suggestions are given to present these purposes to students.

Similarly, the student text provides chapter purposes (e.g., see pages 112s and 1006s) but not unit purposes.

Indicator 2: Somewhat met
Some of the questions noted above may be comprehensible to students, because they focus on things already familiar to students. For example, students have probably already heard of terms like “green plants,” “energy,” and “ecosystems.” However, terms like “respiration,” “glucose,” “biomes,” and “abiotic” may not be familiar. Furthermore, the questions are presented as abstractions rather than in the context of familiar phenomena. For example, students may have difficulty with abstractions like “obtain[ing] sunlight” or “convert[ing] sunlight into usable energy.” No suggestions are given that teachers should give examples of relevant phenomena or ask students to do so as they respond to the questions.

The student text also includes a photograph at the beginning of each chapter and the teacher’s guide suggests that teachers discuss the photograph with students. However, the link to the chapter purpose is still cast in terms of abstractions. For example, the photograph at the beginning of Chapter 6: Cell Energy: Photosynthesis and Respiration shows trees, plants, and grass (p. 112s). Teacher notes encourage teachers to ask students what they see happening in the picture and then to relate the photograph to the chapter purpose:

Explain to students that although this scene looks very serene and commonplace, there is a tremendous amount of unseen activity going on inside every leaf, stem, and blade of grass. It is this activity that produces the energy on which living things depend. Tell students that they will study two important biochemical pathways that make it possible for organisms to obtain, store, and transform the energy that they need. These pathways are photosynthesis and respiration.

p. 112t

Indicator 3: Not met
It will be difficult for students to become interested in or motivated by questions about abstractions.

Indicator 4: Somewhat met
The teacher’s notes suggest that students record responses to the questions. However, students are not given a chance to discuss why these are important questions to ask in the first place.

Indicator 5: Somewhat met
The text provides answers for most questions. However, students may find sections or parts of sections that appear unrelated to the questions. For example, Chapter 6 includes a section on Van Helmont’s and Priestley’s experiments that does not respond to the questions. And students may have a hard time seeing how sections titled “Requirements for Photosynthesis” (pp. 115−117s), “Photosynthesis: The Light and Dark Reactions” (pp. 118−123s), and “The Colors of Autumn” (p. 117s) relate to the questions.

Indicator 6: Somewhat met
The material partially returns to the stated purpose at the end of each chapter. The teacher’s guide encourages teachers to have students revisit the questions at the end of the chapter: “Upon completion of the chapter, pose the questions again. Ask students to compare their initial responses with those they have developed after reading the chapter” (pp. 112t, 854t, 1006t).

The material does not ask students, however, to specifically revisit the purpose stated in their chapter opening text (e.g., pp. 112s, 1006s).

Conveying lesson/activity purpose

Rating = Poor
The material fully meets one indicator and partially meets a second.

Indicator 1: Met
The material includes four features to convey lesson purposes to students. Each chapter begins with a Guide for Reading, which states what students will be able to do after reading each section of text. For example, chapter 6 provides the following Guide for Reading:

After you read the following sections, you will be able to

6−1 Photosynthesis: Capturing and Converting Energy

• Describe the experiments that contributed to the understanding of photosynthesis.
• Discuss the requirements for photosynthesis.

6−2 Photosynthesis: The Light and Dark Reactions

• Discuss the light reactions of photosynthesis.
• Relate the dark reactions of photosynthesis to the light reactions.

6−3 Glycolysis and Respiration

• Discuss the process of glycolysis.
• Describe respiration.
• Explain how breathing is related to respiration.

6−4 Fermentation

• Relate fermentation to glycolysis.
• Compare lactic acid fermentation and alcoholic fermentation.

p. 113s

Each text section recapitulates the stated objectives in the form of questions. For example, the Guide for Reading for section 6−1 presents the questions “What is photosynthesis?” and “What are the requirements for photosynthesis?” (p. 113s); and the Guide for Reading for section 6−2 presents the questions “What events occur during the light reactions of photosynthesis?” and “What is the relationship between the dark reactions of photosynthesis and the light reactions?” (p. 118s). Similar questions are used to introduce lab investigations. For example, the Laboratory Investigation at the end of chapter 6 begins with this Problem: “What is the relationship between the processes of photosynthesis and respiration?” (p. 132s).

In addition, each text section begins with a red-lettered title and introductory paragraphs that help to convey the lesson purposes.

Indicator 2: Not met
The questions and text are not stated in ways that are likely to be comprehensible to students. Nearly all use technical terms—for example, section titles and objectives include technical vocabulary—such as “photosynthesis,” “light reactions,” “dark reactions,” “glycolysis,” and “respiration”—that may not be comprehensible to students who have not already studied the topic.

Indicator 3: Not met
Students are not asked to think about the Guide for Reading questions. Sometimes the teacher’s guide encourages teachers to have students think about the Problem at the beginning of the lab investigation, but this occurs only once in the chapters relevant to matter and energy transformations. At the beginning of the lab investigation “Observing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration,” teacher notes encourage teachers to have students think about the question:

Write on the chalkboard the two basic equations for photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Have a student read aloud the Problem that is stated at the beginning of the investigation.

• Based on these equations, what do you think is the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration? (Possible answer: Respiration produces carbon dioxide, which is used in photosynthesis; photosynthesis produces oxygen, which is used in respiration.)

p. 132t

However, no suggestions are given to involve students in thinking about the Problem at the beginning of the lab investigation for chapter 39 (p. 876t) or the one for chapter 5 (p. 108t).

The Focus/Motivation features also do not encourage students to think about lesson purposes since these features are not well-linked to the purposes provided in the Guide for Reading questions or the section introductions (e.g., pp. 123t, 1021t).

Indicator 4: Somewhat met
Sometimes the Guide for Reading questions include questions listed at the beginning of chapters in the Guided Enquiry section, which could help students see the relationship between the chapter purpose and the material presented. For example, one of the four questions at the beginning of the Guide for Reading to Section 47−4: Energy and Nutrients: Building the Web of Life, “How does energy flow through an ecosystem?” (p. 1021s), is also on the list of questions at the beginning of the chapter (p. 1006t). And the first question in another section, “What are some abiotic factors that affect aquatic biomes?” (p. 1016s), is similar to one on the list of chapter questions. However, neither the text nor the teacher’s guide conveys to students how the lab investigation relates to the chapter purpose.

Indicator 5: Not met
The material does not engage students in thinking about what they have learned so far and what they need to learn next at appropriate points.

Justifying lesson/activity sequence

Rating = Fair
The material somewhat meets the first indicator but does not meet the second.

Indicator 1: Somewhat met
In its treatment of this topic, the text moves from presenting transformations of matter and energy at the molecular/cellular level (unit 1) to the organism level (unit 8) to the ecosystem level (unit 10). Given that students are most familiar with the human organism, the sequence of units makes little sense from a student’s point of view. While the teacher’s guide indicates that “the textbook’s 10 units are sufficiently self-contained to be taught in almost any order” (p. T11), the Alternative Approaches Grid does not include any sequences in which the suggested order of units is reversed (p. T7).

The sequence of chapters within each unit appears logical. For example, Unit 2: Cells: The Basic Unit of Life moves from presenting the structure and function of cells (chapter 5) to the processes that enable cells to carry out life functions—obtaining and using energy (chapter 6), making proteins according to specifications in the genetic code (chapter 7)—and reproduce themselves (chapter 8).

However, a logic is not evident in the sequence of sections within chapters. For example, why is photosynthesis presented before respiration and respiration before fermentation? The teacher’s guide indicates that Miller and Levine Biology “presents an evolutionary approach to the study of biology” (p. T7), yet the order in which the processes are thought to have evolved is not the sequence in which they are presented. Presenting photosynthesis before respiration could be justified by an ecological approach, which traces the energy from its ultimate source (sunlight), through successive transformations in living things, to its ultimate fate as heat. But this is not the approach taken in chapter 6. It is not clear why one sequence is used over others.

Indicator 2: Not met
The material does not convey a rationale for the sequence of units or chapters or for the sequence of readings or other activities within chapters. The statement in the teacher’s guide that “the textbook’s 10 units are sufficiently self-contained to be taught in almost any order” (p. T11) argues against there being a rationale for sequencing units. And no rationale is provided for the sequence of chapters within units or for sections within chapters.

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II: Taking Account of Student Ideas

Attending to prerequisite knowledge and skills

Rating = Poor
The material meets no indicators.

Indicator 1: Not met
The material does not alert the teacher to specific prerequisite ideas or skills that are needed for each unit. This is particularly troubling for a material that indicates that the sequence of units does not matter:

Miller and Levine Biology is organized to let you choose which chapters to teach and in which order to teach them. Though the authors suggest you teach the chapters in order, you will discover that the textbook’s 10 units are sufficiently self-contained to be taught in almost any order.

p. T11

Indicator 2: Not met
The material does not alert teachers to the specific ideas for which prerequisites are needed.

Indicator 3: Not met
The material does not alert students to prerequisite ideas or experiences that are being assumed.

Indicator 4: Minimally met
The material does not adequately address prerequisites in the same unit or in earlier units. The material treats one prerequisite idea, states another, but does not treat all the rest. The prerequisite given the most treatment is the idea that all matter is made up of atoms. The teacher’s guide suggests that teachers introduce the section Composition of Matter by stimulating students to think about how small a piece of chalk would still be chalk:

Break a piece of chalk in half.

• Is each piece still chalk? (Yes.)
  Break one of the pieces in half again and yet again if possible.
• Is each piece still chalk? (Yes.)
• Suppose I could continue breaking the chalk in half hundreds, even thousands, of times. Would each piece still be chalk? (Yes.)
• Do you think there would come a point where the chalk couldn’t be divided any more and still be chalk? (Accept all answers.)

p. 47t

After describing Democritus’ notion of atoms, the text states the prerequisite idea: “We now know that matter is indeed made up of small particles—not because it makes philosophical sense but because the evidence proves it” (p. 47s).

Another prerequisite idea is stated in Chapter 39: Nutrition and Digestion: “Food contains nutrients, or molecules that provide energy and material for growth” (p. 855s). However this definition of food comes 30 chapters after the special meaning of food is used (without defining it). In introducing the section on glycolysis and respiration, the text mentions that “autotrophs...produce glucose and other food molecules” and that “organisms—autotrophs and heterotrophs alike—must be...able to release energy by breaking down food molecules” (p. 123s).

However, none of the important prerequisites about energy transformation are even mentioned.

Indicator 5: Not met
The material does not make connections between key ideas and their prerequisites. For example, the text presents ideas about energy transformations in living things (pp. 113s, 116s, 118−121s) but makes no connection to examples of energy transformation in physical systems. Energy transfer and transformation in biological systems is less obvious than in physical systems, so relating more obvious examples of energy transformation like the transformation of sunlight to heat or of falling water to electricity might have been helpful. However, such connections were not made.

Alerting teachers to commonly held student ideas

Rating = Poor
The material meets no indicators.

Indicator 1: Not met
The material does not present specific commonly held ideas that are relevant to the key ideas and have appeared in the scholarly publications. Teachers are not alerted to any of the following commonly held student ideas, identified in the research literature, that may interfere with students learning the key ideas:

1. Students think that food is whatever nutrients organisms must take in if they are to grow and survive rather than those substances from which organisms derive the energy they need to grow and the material of which they are made (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1993, pp. 120, 342; Driver, Squires, Rushworth, & Wood-Robinson, 1994, p. 27).
2. Students think that food is a requirement for growth rather than a source of matter for growth (AAAS, 1993, p. 343; Driver et al., 1994, p. 60).
3. Students think that plants get their food from the environment (mainly from the soil) rather than manufacture it themselves (AAAS, 1993, p. 342; Driver et al., 1994, p. 30).
4. Students think that plants have multiple sources of food rather than that plants make food from water and carbon dioxide in the air, and that this is their only source of food (AAAS, 1993, p. 342; Driver et al., 1994, pp. 31, 60).
5. Students may think that organisms and materials in the environment are very different types of matter and are not transformable into each other (AAAS, 1993, p. 342).
6. Students may not believe that a plant’s mass may increase mainly due to the incorporation of matter from carbon dioxide (a gas) (Driver et al., 1994, pp. 32, 39).
7. Students may think that plants do not respire, or that they respire only in the dark (Driver et al., 1994, p. 34).
8. Students tend to regard food that is eaten and used as a source of energy as belonging to a food chain, while the food that is incorporated into the body material of eaters is often seen as something different and is not recognized as the material that is the food at the next level (Driver et al., 1994, p. 35).
9. Students may think that dead organisms “rot away”; they do not realize that the matter from the dead organisms is converted into yet other materials (AAAS, 1993, p. 343).
10. Middle school students seem to know that some kind of cyclical process takes place in ecosystems. Some students see only chains of events and pay little attention to the matter involved in processes such as plant growth or animals eating plants. They think of the processes in terms of creating and destroying matter rather than in terms of transforming matter from one substance to another. Other students recognize one form of recycling through soil minerals but fail to incorporate water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide into matter cycles. Students may see no connection between the oxygen/carbon dioxide cycle and other processes involving the production, consumption, and use of food (AAAS, 1993, p. 343; Driver et al., 1994, p. 65).
11. Students may think that matter and energy are converted back and forth in everyday (non-nuclear) phenomena (Schneps & Sadler, 1988).

Indicator 2: Not met
No commonly held ideas were adequately explained.

Assisting teachers in identifying their students’ ideas

Rating = Poor
The material minimally meets indicators 1 and 2, and does not meet indicators 3, 4, and 5.

Indicator 1: Minimally met
While the material includes several features at the beginning of chapters or units that provide questions for students to answer, few of these questions are likely to help teachers identify their own students’ ideas relevant to the key ideas or anticipate common learning difficulties. The Guided Enquiry feature includes questions most relevant to the key ideas, but the questions focus on abstract ideas to be taught in the chapter rather than on eliciting student explanations of familiar phenomena. For example, the Guided Enquiry at the beginning of Chapter 6: Cell Energy: Photosynthesis and Respiration provides the following questions:

• How do green plants obtain sunlight?
• How do green plants convert sunlight into usable energy?
• How do organisms store energy?
• How is glucose broken down to release energy?
• What is the role of oxygen in respiration?
• How can respiration take place without oxygen?

p. 112t

And the Guided Enquiry at the beginning of Chapter 47: The Biosphere includes the following questions:

• How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
• How are nutrients recycled in an ecosystem?
• How are plants and animals connected in feeding relationships?

p. 1006t

Questions that relate more directly to student experiences are also included, but the questions don’t focus students on the matter and energy transformations involved. For example, the Focus/Motivation feature provides the following:

Display a light bulb, a flashlight battery, and a small green plant.

• What do these three objects have in common? (Accept all answers.)
• How are these objects different? (Accept all answers.)

p. 113t

Display a piece of leavened and a piece of unleavened bread.

• How are these two pieces of bread different? (One is flat while the other is not; one rose while it was baking while the other did not.)
• What caused the piece of leavened bread to rise? (Yeast in the bread dough.)
• Do you know why yeast makes bread rise? (Accept all answers.)

p. 130t

Write the word interdependent on the chalkboard. Then write or recite these famous lines by poet John Donne:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

• How does the word interdependent relate to the lines of this poem? (The poem is stating that people do not exist in isolation but are part of a greater whole. The word interdependent describes a relationship in which people or things rely on one another and need each other. The poem implies that people are interdependent.)

p. 1007t

These questions provide little help in probing all of the misconceptions students commonly have on this topic.

Indicator 2: Minimally met
The questions in the Guided Enquiry feature use language students will learn in the chapter but are not expected to know at the start of the chapter. Hence, the questions will not be comprehensible to students. Those questions that focus on experiences with phenomena are more likely to be comprehensible but are woefully insufficient to probe for all of the misconceptions students commonly have on the topic matter and energy transformations.

Indicator 3: Not met
The questions are not identified as serving the purpose of identifying students’ ideas. Furthermore, teachers are not encouraged to look at or think about the student responses. Instead, the Guided Enquiry questions are for students rather than for teachers, as indicated by the following teacher notes:

Pose the following questions to students and have them record their responses. Point out that they will gain a better understanding of the key concepts if they read the chapter with these basic questions in mind. Upon completion of the chapter, pose the questions again.

pp. 112t, 1006t

The Guided Enquiry provides you with a set of questions that you may want to ask students prior to reading the chapter. As such, it will key students into the main points they are to garner from the chapter and can be used as a pre-reading feature. When students have completed the chapter, have them answer the questions again and compare their new answers to their initial answers. In this way, the Guided Enquiry can be used for pre- and post-assessment.

p. T15

Although some teachers might interpret these notes as suggesting that Guided Enquiries be used to help teachers identify students’ ideas, this purpose is not explicitly stated.

Indicator 4: Not met
None of these questions ask students to give explanations and none ask students to make predictions.

Indicator 5: Not met
The material offers no suggestions for how teachers can probe beneath students’ initial responses to questions. And no suggestions are given that might help teachers interpret student responses in light of the published misconceptions.

Addressing commonly held ideas

Rating = Poor
The material minimally meets indicator 1, and does not meet indicators 2 and 3.

Indicator 1: Minimally met
Of the many commonly held ideas students have on the topic of matter and energy transformations only one is addressed in the material, and it is only minimally addressed. The text describes Van Helmont’s experiment and presents his conclusions:

Van Helmont carefully found the mass of a pot of dry soil and a small seedling. Then he planted the seedling in the pot of soil. He took care of it and watered it regularly for five years. At the end of five years, the seedling, which by then was a small tree, had gained about 75 kilograms. However, the mass of the soil was almost unchanged. Van Helmont concluded that most of the mass must have come from water because that was the only thing that he had added to the pot.

Van Helmont’s experiment accounts for the hydrate, or water, portion of the carbohydrate produced by photosynthesis. But where does the carbon of the carbo portion come from? Although Van Helmont did not realize it, carbon dioxide in the air made a major contribution to the mass of his tree. And it is the carbon in carbon dioxide that is used to make carbohydrates in photosynthesis. Even though Van Helmont had only part of the story, he had made a major contribution to science.

p. 114s

Reinforcement/Reteaching questions in the teacher’s guide focus students’ attention on the role of carbon dioxide:

• What one important ingredient in photosynthesis did none of these three scientists recognize? (Carbon dioxide.)
• Why is carbon dioxide essential in the process of photosynthesis? (It provides the carbon for carbohydrate.)

p. 114t

And the last Skills Development question asks students what inferences Van Helmont might have made if his findings had been different:

• What might Van Helmont have concluded about the material that makes up a tree’s mass if much of the soil in the pot had disappeared? (That a tree’s mass is made up of soil or something in soil.)

p. 115t

Some students might realize from the discussion that plants do not take in food from the soil. However, given the difficulties students have in distinguishing the scientific meaning of food (food is a source of fuel and building material) from their own common definition (food is anything an organism takes in from the outside), the discussion questions provided are likely to be insufficient to change their conception. Furthermore, since teachers are not alerted to this commonly held student idea, they are unlikely to extend this discussion to address it.

Lastly, no attempt is made to address other commonly held ideas reported in the research literature.

Indicator 2: Not met
The material does not include questions, tasks, or activities that are likely to help students progress from their initial ideas. For example, after reading about Van Helmont’s experiment, students are not encouraged to think about the experiment—for example, by making predictions about what they thought the final weight of the soil would be and comparing their predictions to Van Helmont’s findings or by comparing Van Helmont’s way of accounting for all the mass with the text explanation. Since teachers were not alerted to the misconception that plants get their food from the environment (mainly from the soil), it is unlikely that they will use the experiment to address this commonly held student idea.

Indicator 3: Not met
The material does not include suggestions to teachers about how to take into account their own students’ ideas.

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III: Engaging Students with Relevant Phenomena

Providing variety of phenomena

Rating = Poor
Since the rating scheme depends on how many phenomena meet both of the indicators, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

The material provides almost no phenomena to support the key ideas. With respect to matter transformation, the material includes a couple of relevant phenomena but relates only one to a key idea. For the idea that “Plants make sugar molecules from carbon dioxide (in the air) and water” (Idea a₁) the text presents Van Helmont’s experiment (first paragraph below) and relates it to the key idea (second paragraph):

Van Helmont carefully found the mass of a pot of dry soil and a small seedling. Then he planted the seedling in the pot of soil. He took care of it and watered it regularly for five years. At the end of five years, the seedling, which by then was a small tree, had gained about 75 kilograms. However, the mass of the soil was almost unchanged. Van Helmont concluded that most of the mass must have come from water because that was the only thing that he had added to the pot.

Van Helmont’s experiment accounts for the hydrate, or water, portion of the carbohydrate produced by photosynthesis. But where does the carbon of the carbo portion come from? Although Van Helmont did not realize it, carbon dioxide in the air made a major contribution to the mass of his tree. And it is the carbon in carbon dioxide that is used to make carbohydrates in photosynthesis. Even though Van Helmont had only part of the story, he had made a major contribution to science.

p. 114s

Priestley’s experiment (that a candle under a bell jar could be relighted in the presence of a living plant) is not related to the transformation of water to oxygen (p. 114s). And while the use of radioactive tracer molecules to show that water is the source of oxygen produced in photosynthesis is presented in a note to the teacher (p. 115t), no suggestion is made to present this experiment to students or to relate it to matter transformation in photosynthesis. The material does include a Laboratory Investigation at the end of each chapter. However, the Laboratory Investigation on photosynthesis and respiration emphasizes a comparison of the two processes—respiration gives off carbon dioxide whereas photosynthesis uses it—rather than the matter transformations involved in either process (pp. 132−133st). Similarly, the Laboratory Investigations that accompany other chapters relevant to the key ideas (pp. 876−877st, 1028−1029st) do not focus on them.

With respect to key ideas about energy transformation, almost no phenomena are used to make them credible. The brief description of Ingenhousz’s findings (that the presence of a plant will allow a candle under a glass jar to be relighted, but only if the plant is in the light) was used to show that light is needed for oxygen production but not that light is transformed into energy-rich sugars (p. 114s). While students read food labels to determine calorie content in fat, protein, and carbohydrate, there is no focus on energy transformation (e.g., no emphasis on more calories give more energy, including heat [pp. 860−861s]). And a note in the teacher’s guide is used to illustrate that food is an energy source but not that it is transformed:

In both children and adults, even mild protein deprivation—such as eating little or no protein for a day—can affect mental and physical performance. That is why a student who skips breakfast and lunch before taking an exam is not only depriving himself or herself of energy but of “brain food” as well.

p. 863t

Providing vivid experiences

Rating = Poor
Since the rating scheme depends on how many phenomena meet all of the indicators, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

The material meets no indicators. Even the phenomenon that is directly relevant to matter transformation—the text description of Van Helmont’s experiment—is neither first hand nor vicarious for students.

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IV: Developing and Using Scientific Ideas

Introducing terms meaningfully

Rating = Poor
The material meets no indicators.

Indicator 1: Not met
The material does not link new technical terms to relevant experiences. With few relevant phenomena, there seems to be little point to using the terms other than to have students learn their definitions. Only one term was introduced within the context of a relevant experience. The term “photosynthesis” was introduced just before students read about Van Helmont’s experiment (pp. 113−114s). Otherwise, terms are identified in bold and defined within the text but without further explanation or examples. Many definitions provided in the text are not likely to be comprehensible to students because new terms are defined using other new technical terms. For instance, the definition or explanation of the Krebs cycle is that “[t]he pyruvic acid produced during glycolysis travels from the cytoplasm to the mitochondrion. In the first reaction of respiration, pyruvic acid is broken down into carbon dioxide and a 2-carbon acetyl group, which is bound briefly to a large complex known as coenzyme A” (p. 125s, emphasis ours). Some representations include additional new terms (e.g., glycolysis on page 124s, respiration on page 125s, the nitrogen cycle on page 1024s), making it even less likely that they will help to clarify the new terms needed to communicate about the key ideas.

Indicator 2: Not met
The material does not restrict the use of technical terms to those needed to communicate intelligibly about the key ideas. Although the editors acknowledge that the textbook authors “did not want to write an encyclopedic biology tome that stressed memorization of terminology” (p. T6), many terms are included that go beyond those needed for science literacy. For the key ideas for flow of energy and transformation of matter, unnecessarily introduced terms include: “photosystem I” and “photosystem II,” “NADP⁺” and “NADPH,” “light reactions” and “dark reactions,” “Calvin Cycle,” “PGAL,” “FAD” and “FADH₂,” “GFP” and “GTP,” “pyruvic acid,” “lactic acid,” “nitrifrication” and “denitrification.”

Representing ideas effectively

Rating = Poor
Since the rating scheme depends on how many representations meet all of the indicators, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

Essentially no representations are accurate, comprehensible, and explicitly linked to the key idea being represented.

Although the material includes many colorful diagrams, none of them is likely to clarify the key ideas about matter and energy transformations. For example, diagrams show details of metabolic pathways of photosynthesis (pp. 119s, 121s), glycolysis (p. 124s), and the Krebs cycle (p. 126s) that are more likely to obscure rather than shed light on the basic ideas about matter transformations involved in these processes. Similarly, diagrams of the water, nitrogen, and carbon cycles do not clarify the combining and recombining of atoms in these processes (pp. 1024–1025s).

Most of the analogies used are not adequately explained and hence will likely be incomprehensible to students. For example, to illustrate the idea that compounds store energy, an analogy is drawn between a solar cell and a green plant cell:

What happens when sunlight is absorbed by matter? In some cases, the energy of sunlight is transferred to the electrons in matter, raising them to a higher energy level. In a modern solar cell, the high-energy electrons are then used to produce an electric current that can travel through a wire and power a calculator, charge a battery, or provide power for an electric utility. See Figure 6–5.

What happens when a green plant absorbs sunlight? As in a solar cell, electrons are raised to a higher energy level. In this case, the electrons belong to the pigment chlorophyll. The high-energy electrons do not travel along wires in green plants. Instead, the high-energy electrons are trapped in chemical bonds.

pp. 115–116s

For the analogy to be helpful, students would have to know something about high-energy electrons and what it means for high-energy electrons to be trapped in chemical bonds, which they probably do not.

Similarly, an analogy drawn between the burning of a tank of gasoline and cellular respiration provides insufficient explanation about the relationship between the analogy and the thing being represented to help students grasp the energy transformations involved:

Continue the Motivation discussion by explaining that just as the energy to power a car is stored in gasoline, the energy needed to power a living thing is stored in carbohydrate. Carbohydrate—particularly glucose—is the fuel that organisms need in order to live.

Refer once again to the gasoline can or pump and ask:

• Is it enough to get a car going just by having the gasoline here in the can or in the pump? (No.)
• Is it enough just to have the gasoline sitting in the tank of the car? (No.)
• What must happen to the gasoline in order for the car to run? (It must be burned—broken down to release energy.)

Explain that the same is true of carbohydrate—just storing it in cells does not give an organism energy. The carbohydrate must be broken down in order for energy to be released. This happens in a series of processes called cellular respiration.

p. 124t

As a result, little support is provided to clarify the key ideas for students.

Demonstrating use of knowledge

Rating = Poor
The material meets no indicators.

Indicator 1: Not met
The material does not consistently demonstrate the use of key ideas or suggest how teachers could do so. For example, the text does not return to Van Helmont’s findings (described on page 114s) after it presents the process of photosynthesis (pp. 118–123s) and use these ideas to explain where the mass came from. Nor does it use the idea that heat is always lost in an energy transformation to explain the shape of a pyramid of energy diagram (p. 1023s). No other phenomena are presented and explained by any of the key ideas.

Indicator 2: Not met
No performances are provided.

Indicator 3: Not met
No performances are identified as demonstrations of the use of knowledge.

Indicator 4: Not met
No running commentary that points to particular aspects of the demonstration is provided. Nor does the material provide criteria for judging the quality of a performance.

Providing practice

Rating = Poor
Since the rating scheme depends on how many practice tasks meet all of the indicators, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

Two kinds of questions and tasks were considered for this criterion. These included Chapter Review questions, and student tasks and questions within the chapter requiring application of ideas presented in the text. The material does not provide a sufficient number and variety of practice tasks for any of the key ideas. It provides a few questions that give students opportunities to practice using some of the key ideas on matter and energy transformations but not others. And the practice tasks provided use only parts of key ideas.

Two questions provide practice in using part of the idea that “At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat. Continual input of energy from sunlight keeps the process going” (Idea d₂):

Question: Explain why each trophic level in a food chain contains less energy than the level below it.

Suggested Response: Energy is lost between trophic levels because organisms convert only a fraction of their food into tissue mass. Organisms use the bulk of their food for their metabolism and other daily activities.

pp. 1031s and 1030t, Concept Mastery, question 2

Question: Why is it more energy efficient for people to eat plants instead of animals?

Suggested Response: Each trophic level contains a fraction of the energy that is available in the level below it. Consequently, more energy is available at the producer (plant) level than at the consumer (animal) levels.

pp. 1031s and 1030t, Concept Mastery, question 3

One question provides practice in using the breakdown part of the idea that “Other organisms break down the stored sugars or the body structures of the plants they eat (or animals they eat) into simpler substances, reassemble them into their own body structures, including some energy stores” (Idea c₁):

Question: Applying concepts Some desert animals such as the kangaroo rat never have to drink water. Explain how kangaroo rats can obtain the water they need to survive from the dry seeds they eat.

Suggested Response: Water is produced during the process of respiration, in which food (dry seeds) is broken down. The kangaroo rat is extremely efficient in conserving the water produced by metabolism.

p. 135st, Critical and Creative Thinking, question 3

One question provides practice in using the idea that “Plants transfer the energy from light into ‘energy-rich’ sugar molecules” (Idea a₂):

Question: Describe what happens to the light energy striking a cornfield.

Suggested Response: Photosynthesis converts the light energy into energy contained in the bonds of the corn plants.

pp. 1031s and 1030t, Concept Mastery, question 8

And one question provides practice in using the idea that “The chemical elements that make up the molecules of living things pass repeatedly through food webs and the environment, and are combined and recombined in different ways” (Idea d₁):

Question: Making predictions By burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, carbon dioxide is being added to the atmosphere. In addition, forests are being destroyed at a rapid rate. How do these actions affect the carbon cycle? The oxygen cycle?

Suggested Response: Plants use carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the environment during photosynthesis. The depletion of plant life added to the burning of fossil fuels would result in a buildup of carbon dioxide in the environment. Oxygen would also become depleted because the reduction of plant life would reduce the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere.

p. 1031st, Critical and Creative Thinking, question 2

However, no questions are provided for students to practice using the other key ideas. One question could give students a chance to practice using the ideas that “Plants make sugar molecules from carbon dioxide (in the air) and water” (Idea a₁), “Plants break down the sugar molecules that they have synthesized into carbon dioxide and water, use them as building materials, or store them for later use” (Idea b₁), and “Other organisms break down the stored sugars...into simpler substances....” (Idea c₁). However, the suggested response does not confirm that these ideas are to be used:

Question: Using the writing process You are a carbon atom. You have just returned to the air as carbon dioxide after being involved in the processes of photosynthesis and respiration. Describe what happened to you on your chemical journey. Where did you go? What other atoms (carbon and otherwise) did you find yourself bonded to? What molecules did you meet along the way, and what were they like?

Suggested Response: Student descriptions should be well-written and convey the facts and concepts presented in the chapter in a logical manner.

p. 135st, Critical and Creative Thinking, question 6

And the only other question relevant to the key ideas requires simpler versions of them—that plants need light (rather than transfer the energy from light into “energy-rich” sugar molecules) and that plants make food (rather than sugar molecules):

Question: Making inferences Some scientists think that the dinosaurs may have become extinct because an asteroid struck the Earth and sent large amounts of dust into the upper atmosphere. The dust remained in the atmosphere a long time. Explain how this would have resulted in the dinosaurs dying off.

Suggested Response: Without adequate sunlight, plants could not perform photosynthesis, and herbivores, such as plant-eating dinosaurs, could not obtain enough food to survive. In turn, carnivores that ate herbivores and other carnivores died off from a lack of food.

p. 135st, Critical and Creative Thinking, question 4

The material provides some novel tasks/questions for some ideas but not for others. Some of the questions provided in the Chapter Review Concept Mastery (e.g., p. 1031s, question 3) and Critical and Creative Thinking components (e.g., p. 135s, question 3; p. 1031s, question 2) were considered novel. More typically, the review questions at the end of each chapter and section asked students to relate abstract ideas or repeat information presented in the text. For example, the following question asks students to compare abstract processes: “How are photosynthesis and respiration related to each other?” (p. 135s, Concept Mastery, question 5).

The material does not provide a sequence of questions or tasks in which the complexity is progressively increased.

The material does not provide students first with opportunities for guided practice with feedback and then with practice in which the amount of support is gradually decreased.

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V: Promoting Students’ Thinking about Phenomena, Experiences, and Knowledge

Encouraging students to explain their ideas

Rating = Poor
The material meets no indicators.

Indicator 1: Not met
The material provides almost no opportunities for students to express their own ideas about matter and energy transformations. The teacher’s guide provides answers to all Section Review and Chapter Review questions in the student text (as noted for Category IV, Providing Practice criterion) and to questions posed in the teacher’s guide in Content Development (e.g., pp. 113–114t, 1024t) and Reinforcement/Reteaching sections (e.g., pp. 860−861t). The intention of these questions is clearly to see if students have learned the correct answer rather than to stimulate their thinking about the key ideas. Occasionally, the teacher’s guide provides a more open-ended task that could give students a chance to express their ideas about matter and energy transformations. For example, students might express their ideas about the ideas that “Plants make sugar molecules from carbon dioxide (in the air) and water” (Idea a₁) and “Plants transfer the energy from light into ‘energy-rich’ sugar molecules” (Idea a₂) in the following activities:

Divide the class into three groups. Challenge each group to create and present to the class a “mixed-media review” of one of the following topics: Historical Experiments in Photosynthesis; Photosynthesis and Its Requirements; ATP—Structure and Function.

p. 117t, Closure

Ask students to think of something that they ate today, and have them make a diagram of the energy flow that was required to make the food available to them. Remind them that all energy flows should begin with the sun.

p. 129t, Multicultural Strategy

However, teacher notes that accompany the tasks do not focus on the key ideas. Teacher notes accompanying the former task indicate that student presentations “should include as many different methods of presentation as possible” and notes accompanying the latter task indicate that “This may be a good opportunity to speak about meals as they traditionally occur in other cultures.”

Indicator 2: Not met
Students are not encouraged to clarify, justify, or represent their ideas about matter and energy transformations.

Indicator 3: Not met
The material does not provide opportunities for each student to express his or her ideas. The tasks noted for indicator 1 involve group presentations or oral discussions.

Indicator 4: Not met
The material does not include specific suggestions to help the teacher provide explicit feedback to students nor does the text provide feedback.

Indicator 5: Not met
The material does not include suggestions on how to diagnose student errors, explanations about how these errors may be corrected, or recommendations for how students’ ideas may be further developed.

Guiding student interpretation and reasoning

Rating = Poor
The material partially meets the first indicator.

Indicator 1: Somewhat met
The material includes a few specific questions to guide student interpretation of readings and laboratory investigations. Section Review questions in the student text typically ask students to repeat factual information:

Define photosynthesis.

p. 117s, 6–1 Section Review, question 1

How are water, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen recycled in the environment?

p. 1027s, 47–4 Section Review, question 3

However, most of the questions do not focus on the key ideas:

What is NADP⁺? ATP?

p. 117s, 6–1 Section Review, question 3

Where in the cell do the light reactions take place? The dark reactions?

p. 123s, 6–2 Section Review, question 2

Describe the Calvin cycle. Why are the light reactions important to the Calvin cycle?

p. 123s, 6–2 Section Review, question 3

One of the Laboratory Investigations in the student text contains questions—mainly questions 1 and 5 below—that relate to the key ideas (as indicated by suggested responses in the teacher’s guide, given in parentheses below):

1. What substance was released into the bromthymol blue solution when you exhaled into it? How is this substance produced? (Carbon dioxide is produced during the process of respiration, in which food molecules are combined with oxygen to produce water, carbon dioxide, and energy.)
2. Explain why the color of the bromthymol blue solution changed after you exhaled into it. (Exhaled carbon dioxide reacts with bromthymol blue, causing it to turn yellow.)
3. Why was Elodea placed in both flasks? (To ensure that conditions in both flasks were the same, except for the experimental variable (light/photosynthesis).)
4. Which flask is the control? Describe additional controls that you might use for this experiment. (The control was the flask placed in the dark. Student answers will vary but may include controls for temperature and the presence of Elodea.)
5. Why are the results for the two flasks different? (Photosynthesis used up the carbon dioxide, which occurred in the flask that was placed in the light. This caused the bromthymol blue solution to return to its original color.)
6. How are photosynthesis and respiration related? (Photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide; respiration produces carbon dioxide.)

pp. 132s, 133t, Analysis and Conclusions

The teacher’s guide includes a few questions in Content Development and Reinforcement/Reteaching sections that focus on the key ideas:

• What one important ingredient in photosynthesis did none of these three scientists recognize? (Carbon dioxide.)
• Why is carbon dioxide essential in the process of photosynthesis? (It provides the carbon for carbohydrate.)

p. 114t, Reinforcement/Reteaching

But as with the Section Review questions in the student text, most questions do not focus on the key ideas.

The total number of questions that relate to the key ideas are insufficient to guide student interpretation and reasoning about them.

Indicator 2: Not met
None of the questions noted above have helpful characteristics such as framing important issues, helping students make connections between their own ideas and the presented scientific ideas, or anticipating common student misconceptions.

Indicator 3: Not met
None of the questions noted above involve scaffolded sequences of questions, which could guide students from phenomena or their own ideas about phenomena to the scientific ideas. Instead, Section Reviews, Laboratory Investigations, and questions in the teacher’s guide provide only individual questions on a particular idea.

Encouraging students to think about what they have learned

Rating = Poor
The material minimally meets indicators 1 and 2, and does not meet indicator 3.

Indicator 1: Minimally met
The material provides minimal opportunity for students to revise their initial ideas about the key ideas. Teacher notes at the beginning of each chapter include questions about the information to be learned in the chapter. For example, teacher notes for Chapter 6: Cell Energy: Photosynthesis and Respiration encourage teachers to:

Pose the following questions to students and have them record their responses. Point out that they will gain a better understanding of the key concepts if they read the chapter with these basic questions in mind. Upon completion of the chapter, pose the questions again. Ask students to compare their initial responses with those they have developed after reading the chapter.

• How do green plants obtain sunlight?
• How do green plants convert sunlight into usable energy?
• How do organisms store energy?
• How is glucose broken down to release energy?
• What is the role of oxygen in respiration?
• How can respiration take place without oxygen?

p. 112t

Similar instructions accompany the following questions at the beginning of Chapter 47: The Biosphere:

• How do organisms interact with each other and with the nonliving environment?
• How does a stable collection of plants and animals develop in an area?
• How do the land biomes of the Earth differ from one another?
• How do abiotic factors affect the kinds of organisms found in aquatic biomes?
• How does energy flow through an ecosystem?
• How are nutrients recycled in an ecosystem?
• How are plants and animals connected in feeding relationships?

p. 1006t

However, the questions are not likely to serve the purpose of having students revise their initial ideas. First, the questions ask for factual information unlikely to be known by students before they read the chapter. (For example, students are not asked to explain phenomena before and after studying the key ideas.) Second, informing students that the answers will be found in the chapter will not encourage them to get their own ideas out on the table. Third, none of the questions address the key ideas analyzed.

Indicator 2: Minimally met
To some extent, the material engages students in monitoring how their ideas have changed. Guided Enquiry instructions suggest that students “compare their initial responses with those they have developed after reading the chapter” (e.g., pp. 112t, 1006t), but the instructions do not explicitly ask students to monitor how their ideas have changed. In addition, very few of the questions address the key ideas analyzed.

Indicator 3: Not met
The material does not engage (or provide specific suggestions for teachers to engage) students in monitoring how their ideas have changed periodically in the unit.

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VI: Assessing Progress

To assess students’ understanding of concepts at the end of instruction, Biology by Miller and Levine provides a test for each chapter in a separate Assessment Resources book and CD-ROM. Question categories include multiple choice, true or false, completions, using science skills, and critical thinking and application. Tests for chapters 6, 39, and 47, the chapters that treat the matter and energy transformations key ideas most extensively, were examined for the first two assessment criteria.

Aligning assessment to goals

Rating = Poor
Since the rating scheme depends on how many assessment tasks meet both of the indicators, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

Biology by Miller and Levine provides five questions relevant to the key ideas, which is far from sufficient. One question assesses students’ ability to apply the idea that “At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat....” (Idea d₂):

Question: Would you receive more energy from corn by eating it directly or by eating the same amount of beef from a bull that had been fed on corn? Explain your reasoning.

Suggested Response: You would receive more energy by eating corn directly. Plants, such as corn, store about one half of the energy they receive from the sun in their tissues. Animals that eat these plants obtain this energy. However, because animals must use much of this energy to carry on their life activities, they store a much smaller amount....At each successive trophic level, less energy is available to an organism. Thus, by eating an animal that has fed on corn, you will receive less energy than if you had eaten corn of the same mass directly.

Assessment Resources, pp. 502 and 616, question 3900

Another question assesses students’ ability to contrast the same key idea with the idea that matter is conserved:

Question: Energy is said to flow through an ecosystem, but nutrients are described by cycles. Explain this differentiation.

Suggested Response: Plants absorb energy directly from the sun. Approximately one half of this energy is used immediately. The rest is stored in plant tissues. Animals that eat the plants obtain this energy. Animals use much of this energy to carry on their life activities and store very little. Energy cannot be recycled or used again. Thus energy is [in] an ecosystem is referred to as a flow rather than a cycle. Nutrients, however, are recycled through an ecosystem. When an animal dies, for example, its matter does not disappear. Rather, it decomposes and eventually gets used by another organism.

Assessment Resources, pp. 502 and 615, question 3893

To provide the suggested response, students will need to understand the idea that “At each link in a food web, some energy is stored in newly made structures but much is dissipated into the environment as heat....” (Idea d₂) and be able to give an example of the idea that “matter is conserved”—a prerequisite to the idea that “The chemical elements that make up the molecules of living things pass repeatedly through food webs and the environment, and are combined and recombined in different ways” (Idea d₁).

Two other questions—one true or false and one completion—relate to the key idea that “Plants transfer the energy from light into ‘energy-rich’ sugar molecules” (Idea a₂) but emphasize use of technical terms rather than knowledge of the energy transformations involved:

In photosynthesis, plants first convert sunlight into the energy of chemical bonds. (True/False)

Assessment Resources, pp. 65 and 536, question 448

Green plants capture sunlight and change its energy into chemical energy.

Assessment Resources, pp. 66 and 536, question 464

The only other relevant item assesses knowledge outside the scope of the key ideas:

Question: Describe the nitrogen cycle.

Suggested Response: The nitrogen cycle describes the movement of nitrogen through the biosphere. All organisms require nitrogen to build proteins. Nitrogen is found in the atmosphere, in the wastes of many organisms, and in dead and decaying organisms. However, most living things cannot use these forms of nitrogen directly. Certain bacteria change free nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that can be used....Plants then use the nitrogen compounds to make plant proteins. Animals then eat the plants and use the plant proteins to make animal proteins. When the plants and animals die, the nitrogen compounds are returned to the soil....

Assessment Resources, pp. 502 and 615, question 3894

Students only need to know that the chemical elements are recycled; they do not need to be able to describe particular cycles.

Testing for understanding

Rating = Poor
Since few assessment tasks were aligned to the key ideas, the report for this criterion is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

Of the relevant assessment items described under the previous criterion, only two require understanding of any key ideas on matter and energy transformations. These items (questions 3900 and 3893) are both novel. However, providing two items on a single idea is clearly not sufficient to assess students’ understanding of the set of key ideas on this topic.

Using assessment to inform instruction

Rating = Poor
Since the material provides no tasks for this criterion, this report is organized to reflect the overall rating rather than each indicator judgment.

Biology by Miller and Levine does not make any claims about assessing students throughout instruction to diagnose difficulties students are having with the concepts and then modify instruction accordingly.

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VII: Enhancing the Science Learning Environment

Providing teacher content support

Rating = Minimal support is provided.

The material provides minimal support in alerting teachers to how ideas have been simplified for students to comprehend and what the more sophisticated versions are. Content background notes usually summarize the student text (e.g., pp. 1022–1023t, Content Development), briefly elaborate on one or a few student text concepts (e.g., p. 124t, Background Information), briefly explain peripheral information (e.g., p. 1026t, Background Information), or offer tidbits of questionable relevance (e.g., p. 870t, Facts and Figures). Overall, the teacher content support is brief, localized, and fragmented.

The material does not usually provide sufficiently detailed answers to questions in the student book for teachers to understand and interpret various student responses. While most answers include expected scientific responses, little, if any, additional information is provided to help teachers field potential student questions or difficulties (e.g., p. 116t, Section Review 6-1, answers 1–2; p. 1026t, Section Review 47-4, answer 3). In addition, some answers are brief and require further explanation (e.g., "Accept all reasonable answers. Have students write out their ideas in the form of a hypothesis" [p. 132t, Pre-Lab Discussion, answer 6]). Some questions go unanswered (e.g., p. 854t, Guided Enquiry).

The material provides minimal support in recommending resources for improving the teacher's understanding of key ideas. While the material lists references in the "Teacher Resources" section at the beginning of most chapters that could help teachers improve their understanding of the key ideas (e.g., "Energy for Life: Photosynthesis and Respiration. Sound. The Center for Humanities, Inc." [p. 112Bt]), the lists lack annotations about what kinds of information the references provide or how they may be helpful.

Encouraging curiosity and questioning

Rating = Minimal support is provided.

The material provides no suggestions for how to encourage students' questions and guide their search for answers.

The material provides a few suggestions for how to respect and value students' ideas. Teacher notes state that multiple student answers should be acceptable for some questions (e.g., p. 112t, Using the Visuals). Journal Activities ask students to discuss their own ideas about particular concepts and issues (e.g., p. 113st). In addition, an enrichment activity asks students to design their own experiment to study the effect of temperature on photosynthesis (e.g., p. 133t, Going Further: Enrichment).

The material provides a few suggestions for how to raise questions such as "How do we know? What is the evidence?" and "Are there alternative explanations or other ways of solving the problem that could be better?" However, it does not encourage students to pose such questions themselves. Specifically, the material includes a few tasks that ask students to provide evidence or reasons in their responses (e.g., pp. 132s, 133t, Analysis and Conclusions, items 2 and 5).

The material provides a few suggestions for how to avoid dogmatism. The first chapter portrays the nature of science as a durable yet dynamic human enterprise in which all people can participate (e.g., pp. 11s, 15–18s). The material also describes developments in scientific thinking about photosynthesis (pp. 113–114s) and illustrates processes of particular experiments (p. 122s, Science, Technology, and Society Breakthrough and pp. 120–121t, Historical Notes). In addition, at the end of each unit, one of the authors writes a personal essay to the students describing his views on the material presented (e.g., p. 1077, From the Authors). However, the material also contributes to dogmatism by presenting most of the text in a static, authoritative manner with little reference to the work of particular, practicing scientists and expecting single, specific responses for most student tasks.

The material does not provide examples of classroom interactions (e.g., dialogue boxes, vignettes, or video clips) that illustrate appropriate ways to respond to student questions or ideas. However, a limited sense of desirable student-student interactions may be gained from general guidelines (pp. T17–T18, Cooperative Learning) and particular directions for cooperative group activities (e.g., p. 113t, Cooperative Learning).

Supporting all students

Rating = Some support is provided.

The material generally avoids stereotypes or language that might be offensive to a particular group. For example, photographs include a diverse cultural mix of students and adults (e.g., pp. 18s, 129s, 1076s), but the number of photographs that include people throughout the material are few.

The material provides some illustrations of the contributions of women and minorities to science and as role models. Most of the contributions of women and minority scientists, however, appear in separate sections entitled Science, Technology, and Society within each chapter. For example, one Science, Technology, and Society Issue discusses the contributions of Cuban doctor, Carlos Finlay, who hypothesized that yellow fever was spread by mosquitoes (p. 39s). The material also includes related features entitled Careers in Biology and Multicultural Strategies. The Careers in Biology feature briefly describes scientific occupations related to the unit content, provides information on how students can learn more about the careers, and includes photographs of scientists, some of whom are women or minorities (e.g., p. 1002s). Multicultural Strategies provide suggestions related to the chapter content in which students often research particular characteristics of a cultural group (e.g., p. 129t). All of these sections highlighting cultural contributions are interesting and informative, but may not be seen by students as central to the material because they are presented in sidebars and teacher notes.

The material suggests multiple formats for students to express their ideas during instruction and assessment, including individual journal writing (e.g., p. 855s, Journal Activity), cooperative group activities (e.g., p. 113t, Cooperative Learning), laboratory investigations (e.g., p. 132s), whole class discussions (e.g., p. 867t, Focus/Motivation), essay questions (e.g., pp. 134t, 135st, Critical and Creative Thinking, items 2–6; Assessment Resources, pp. 502 and 615, item 3893), and multimedia (e.g., p. 117t, Closure). However, the material does not usually provide a variety of alternatives for the same task in either instruction or assessment.

The material does not routinely include specific suggestions about how teachers can modify activities for students with special needs. However, the Teacher's Edition gives general suggestions in introductory notes (p. T10, Teaching "Special" Students) and provides additional activities and resources for students of specific ability levels. Each chapter in the Teacher's Edition includes ESL Strategies, Reinforcement/Reteaching activities, Enrichment activities, and Going Further: Enrichment activities. ESL Strategies provide ESL students with additional content or tasks often emphasizing vocabulary related to a chapter topic (e.g., p. 857t). Reinforcement/Reteaching activities are additional teaching suggestions to help students having difficulties with particular chapter sections (e.g., p. 114t). Enrich and Going Further: Enrichment activities allow interested students to further study a specified topic from the chapter (e.g., pp. 865t and 133t). In addition, supplemental program resources provide further additional activities and resources for students (for a description, see pp. T4–T5).

The material provides some strategies to validate students' relevant personal and social experiences with scientific ideas. Some Teaching Strategies ask students about specific personal experiences students may have had that relate to the presented scientific concepts (e.g., pp. 123–124t, Teaching Strategy 6-3). In addition, some student tasks—including Journal Activities (e.g., p. 855s) and Multicultural Strategies (e.g., p. 129t)—ask about particular personal experiences students may have had or suggest specific experiences they could have. However, the material rarely encourages students to contribute relevant experiences of their own choice to the science classroom. Overall, support is brief and localized.

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