Earth Science | Life Science | Physical Science |
1.About this Evaluation Report 2.Content Analysis 3.Instructional Analysis
Categories | |
I. | [Explanation] This category consists of criteria for determining whether the curriculum material attempts to make its purposes explicit and meaningful to students, either in the student text itself or through suggestions to the teacher. The sequence of lessons or activities is also important in accomplishing the stated purpose, since ideas often build on each other. |
II. | [Explanation] Fostering understanding in students requires taking time to attend to the ideas they already have, both ideas that are incorrect and ideas that can serve as a foundation for subsequent learning. This category consists of criteria for determining whether the curriculum material contains specific suggestions for identifying and addressing students’ ideas. |
III. | [Explanation] Much of the point of science is to explain phenomena in terms of a small number of principles or ideas. For students to appreciate this explanatory power, they need to have a sense of the range of phenomena that science can explain. The criteria in this category examine whether the curriculum material relates important scientific ideas to a range of relevant phenomena and provides either firsthand experiences with the phenomena or a vicarious sense of phenomena that are not presented firsthand. |
IV. | [Explanation] Science literacy requires that students understand the link between scientific ideas and the phenomena that they can explain. Furthermore, students should see the ideas as useful and become skillful at applying them. This category consists of criteria for determining whether the curriculum material expresses and develops the key ideas in ways that are accessible and intelligible to students, and that demonstrate the usefulness of the key ideas and provide practice in varied contexts. |
V. | [Explanation] Engaging students in experiences with phenomena (category III) and presenting them with scientific ideas (category IV) will not lead to effective learning unless students are given time, opportunities, and guidance to make sense of the experiences and ideas. This category consists of criteria for determining whether the curriculum material provides students with opportunities to express, think about, and reshape their ideas, as well as guidance on developing an understanding of what they experience. |
VI. | [Explanation] This category consists of criteria for evaluating whether the curriculum material includes a variety of aligned assessments that apply the key ideas taught in the material. |
VII. | [Explanation] The criteria in this category provide analysts with the opportunity to comment on features that enhance the use and implementation of the curriculum material by all students. |
References |
I. Providing a Sense of Purpose
Conveying
unit purpose (Rating = Poor) Most
lessons are consistent with the unit purposes stated
in the Teacher Wraparound Edition. However, students
are not asked to think about the unit purposes or to
return to them at the end of each unit. Chapter
purposes are not provided. For example, chapter 3-which
deals with the chemistry of life, transport across membranes,
energy-producing and -yielding processes, and biomass
fuels-begins with a paragraph on wilting and an activity
on osmosis (pp. 62-63s). Chapter 18-which deals with
biotic and abiotic factors, populations and communities,
energy flow and nutrient cycles in ecosystems, and the
costs and benefits of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone
National Park-starts with questions about how population
density affects individual organisms, including people
(p. 481s). Unfortunately, this issue is not related
to the section on wolf reintroduction at the end of
the chapter (pp. 502-504s).
Conveying lesson/activity
purpose (Rating = Poor) In
student readings, many paragraphs include a rhetorical
question that is answered subsequently. These questions
are comprehensible and frame the text nicely, although
students are not asked to think about them first. For
example, a discussion of leaf pigments begins with the
question, "Why aren't all the leaves of the trees in
Figure 12-3B green?" and proceeds to discuss leaf pigments
(p. 317s). Similarly, the section on photosynthesis
begins, "What do plants need besides light to make food?"
(p. 318s). Purposes
are typically provided for laboratory activities (e.g.,
pp. 313s, 316s, 481s, 490s) and sometimes for MiniLAB
activities (p. 318s), but not for teacher-led discussions
(e.g., pp. 79t, 315t, 317t). The purposes stated for
laboratory activities are not likely to be comprehensible-for
example: "Find out how water enters and leaves a plant,
and then you will be able to learn about plant processes
in the chapter that follows" (p. 313s); "How can the
use of carbon dioxide by plants be shown?" (p. 318s);
and "How do nitrogen-fixing bacteria affect plants?"
(p. 494s). Students are not encouraged to think about
the stated purpose, and the relationship between particular
activities and the purpose of the unit is not conveyed.
Justifying lesson/activity
sequence (Rating = Poor) Even
within sections, there are no explanations for the sequence
of topics. For example, in section 12-1, photosynthesis
is introduced before respiration. It is not clear why
the textbook presents a means for gas exchange before
establishing the need for getting reactants and products
of photosynthesis to where they are needed and from
where they are produced. Although photosynthesis and
respiration are discussed in an earlier chapter (pp.
78-81s), students are not reminded that plants need
carbon dioxide and water for photosynthesis. If the
point of the analogy used on page 314s between humans
and plants is that both need to exchange gases, why
not start with the process common to both-respiration?
II. Taking Account of Student Ideas
Attending to prerequisite
knowledge and skills (Rating = Poor) The
suggestions emphasize definitions of terms rather than
alerting teacher's to specific prerequisite ideas and
the key ideas for which they are needed. Yet the section
does point explicitly to prerequisite units. The
material attempts to address only one of the prerequisites
identified. For the prerequisite idea that all matter
is made up of atoms that can combine and recombine in
various ways, the text includes a Chemistry of Living
Things section. This section gives an overview of atoms,
elements, and energy in matter; the most common elements
in living things; and how atoms combine to form different
substances (pp. 64-70s). The section is positioned appropriately
before the Cell Transport section and the Energy in
Cells section, where prerequisite ideas about matter
and energy are needed. However, the information in the
Chemistry of Living Things section is dense, does not
clearly elaborate the important prerequisite ideas,
and goes beyond the science literacy required for middle
grades (for example, by going into how atoms combine
by sharing electrons). This textbook does not address
important prerequisite ideas about energy transformation,
such as the ideas that energy exists in different forms
(particularly that light is a form of energy) and that
energy changes from one form to another. Further, it
does not provide experiences tracing where energy comes
from through its various forms in physical systems before
students encounter energy transformations in living
systems in the (Energy in Cells section). In addition,
the term "food" is used in a discussion of producers,
consumers, and photosynthesis (p. 78s), but what exactly
is meant by the term is not clarified. Without understanding
that food provides both energy and materials for growth,
students are not likely to make sense of what they are
reading.
Review the definitions of producers,
consumers, and decomposers from chapter 3. Review the
definition of energy as the ability to do work. Solar
energy is transformed into chemical energy that is stored
in food. Through chemical changes in cells, this energy
is released for use by an organism. Review metabolism
from chapter 3. [p. 496t]
Alerting teachers to commonly
held student ideas (Rating = Poor)
Assisting teachers in identifying
their students’ ideas (Rating = Poor) Most of the suggestions made in the Tying to Previous
Knowledge feature are too general to be helpful-as,
for instance, in the following example: The
second of these examples is followed by this answer:
"Energy moves from one organism to another through a
series of interactions called a food web"-the answer
that most teachers will look for. However, none of the
questions engage students on their own terms, as would
be the case if the questions were comparable to the
following two hypothetical ones: (1) "Have you ever
put your hand into a pile of grass that has been sitting
for a while? Where do you think the heat in there comes
from?" or (2) "Let's look at an aquarium and think about
all the different organisms in there. What gets passed
around from one organism to another? Why do you think
so?"
Lead students in a discussion
that includes what they already know about plants. Many
students will be able to identify common plants by leaf,
seed, flower, or fruit. Then have students brainstorm
a list of products they use that originate from plants.
Be sure they identify nonfood items such as clothing
or building materials in their lists. [p. 257t]
Ask students to describe and
give examples of how energy flows through an ecosystem.
[p. 479t]
Addressing commonly held
ideas (Rating = Poor) No questions, tasks, or activities are provided to
help students progress from commonly reported misconceptions
in the literature, nor are any provided to build on
students’ potentially useful but incomplete initial
ideas.
III.
Engaging Students with Relevant Phenomena
Providing variety of phenomena
(Rating = Poor)
Providing vivid experiences
(Rating = Poor)
IV. Developing and Using Scientific Ideas
Introducing terms meaningfully
(Rating = Poor) The term "producers," however, is introduced only in the context of abstractions:
Producers
might have been introduced with a firsthand experience,
such as observing that a potted tree can increase greatly
in mass even though the soil in the pot loses very little
mass; or that if water and minerals are supplied, blueberry
plants grown in strong light produce more fruit than
those grown in low light. Photosynthesis
(pp. 78s, 314-323s) and respiration (p. 314s) also are
introduced solely in the context of abstractions. The
text does not restrict the use of technical terms to
those needed to communicate intelligibly about the key
ideas. Even though section introductions produce a few
new terms (e.g., "metabolism," "producer," "consumer"
[p. 78s]), the text itself uses many other terms (e.g.,
"chloroplasts," "mitochondria," "respiration," "photosynthesis,"
"metabolism," and "fermentation" [pp. 78-80s]; "stomata,"
"guard cells," "epidermis," and "palisade layer" [pp.
294-295s]).
Living things are divided into
two groups based on how they obtain their food energy.
These two groups are producers and consumers. Organisms
that make their own food, such as the plants pictured
in Figure 3-15, are called producers. [p. 78s]
Producers change light energy
into chemical energy in a process called photosynthesis.
During photosynthesis, the energy from sunlight is used
to make a sugar from carbon dioxide (CO2)
and water. [p. 78s]
Representing ideas effectively
(Rating = Poor) The chloroplast-mitochondrion diagram is accompanied
by the word and chemical equations for photosynthesis
and respiration. The fact that the products of one process
are exactly the reactants of the other and appear in
the same quantity may lead students even more to think
that the processes cancel one another out. Nowhere does
the material reveal that the rate of photosynthesis
is far greater than that of respiration and that this
difference is the reason plants produce enough food
(and oxygen) during photosynthesis both for their own
needs and for the needs of other organisms. Furthermore, the equations presented in this and other
representations indicate that energy is a reactant in
photosynthesis and a product in respiration, but there
is no indication that energy is stored in the sugar
in between these processes. This representation could
lead students to conclude that energy is turned into
matter in photosynthesis and is produced from matter
in respiration—or that energy can disappear.
Demonstrating use of knowledge
(Rating = Poor)
Providing practice (Rating
= Poor)
Have
students use the figure [Figure 12-4] to trace the pathway
of each of the reactants and products of photosynthesis
in a plant. [p. 319t, Visual Learning]
The
products of photosynthesis are:
a.
sugar and oxygen
b.
carbon dioxide and water
c.
chlorophyll and sugar
d.
carbon dioxide and oxygen.
[p.
336s, item 10]
How do the raw materials and end products of photosynthesis
and respiration compare? [p. 336s, item 12]
V. Promoting Students' Thinking about Phenomena, Experiences, and Knowledge
Encouraging students to
explain their ideas (Rating = Poor) However,
a few components could be used for this purpose, if
teachers were inclined to do so. For example, in the
Flex Your Brain activities on photosynthesis (p. 80t)
and on the cycling of matter (p. 500t), students are
to ask a question, guess an answer, pursue more information
on their own, and consider what they have learned about
the topic. Both sets of activities are recommended for
use during the assessment part of the material's learning
cycle. Bellringer activities also contain helpful statements
(e.g., p. 314t), but they are intended to be used to
elicit students' ideas before instruction, and
students are not asked then or later to clarify or justify
their ideas. Clearly,
other components are looking for the right answer rather
than the students' ideas (e.g., pp. 27-29t, Chapter
1 Review; p. 319t, Visual Learning; p. 319t, Discussion
Question; p. 323s, Section Wrap-up; p. 479t, Theme Connection;
p. 487t, Science Journal). In their present form, these
questions do not serve to routinely encourage students
to express their ideas. Although a few Science Journal
statements (pp. 257s, 321t) ask for students' ideas
explicitly and provide opportunities for each student
to express his or her ideas, students are not asked
to clarify or justify their ideas. Nor are suggestions
provided regarding how students can get feedback (other
than the right answer), or how teachers can use student
responses to diagnose errors.
Guiding student interpretation
and reasoning (Rating = Poor) Rarely are questions provided to guide student interpretation
of text readings. In the text treating the key life
science ideas, there is only one such question found
(accompanying a drawing of a mitochondrion), and it
calls for students to repeat what is stated in the text—the
products of respiration (p. 322s).
Encouraging students to
think about what they have learned (Rating = Poor) The Flex Your Brain work sheet gives students a chance
to revise their initial ideas based on what they have
learned. They are asked to record “What do I already
know?” as they begin their investigations, and,
at the end of their exploration, they are asked the
following two questions: “Do I think differently?”
and “What do I know now?” (p. 21s). Unfortunately, in the two instances in which the Flex
Your Brain activity is used relevant to the key ideas,
only topic headings are specified—photosynthesis
(p. 322t) and the cycling of matter (p. 500t). Although
these general topics encompass many of the key ideas,
specific questions are needed to ensure that students
will include ideas about the nature of food or matter
and energy transformation in their considerations.
Flex Your Brain provides students
with an opportunity to explore a topic in an organized,
self-checking way, and then identify how they arrived
at their responses during each step of their investigation.
The activity incorporates many of the skills of critical
thinking. It helps students to consider their own thinking
and learn about thinking from their peers. [p. 29T]
Instructions to students are given in the context of
explaining the importance of critical thinking skills:
“Flex Your Brain”
is an activity that will help you think about and examine
your way of thinking. It takes you through steps of
exploration from what you already know and believe,
to new conclusions and awareness. Then, it encourages
you to review and talk about the steps you took. [p.
20s]
Aligning assessment to
goals (Rating = Poor) In
addition, the material includes a few items that assess
students' familiarity with relevant technical terms.
For example, students complete the sentence "_____ break
down waste material and dead animals to get energy"
by choosing the appropriate word from the following:
consumers, decomposers, prey, and producers (Assessment:
Chapter and Unit Tests, p. 123, Chapter 18 Test);
the answer is "decomposer"). These items are judged
to be unaligned with the key ideas-in this case, the
idea that decomposers transform dead organisms
into simpler substances (part of Idea c4)-because
students do not have to know the key ideas in order
to answer the items correctly.
Testing for understanding
(Rating = Poor)
Using assessment to inform
instruction (Rating = Poor) This
material does not include suggestions about how to probe
beyond students' initial responses or how to modify
instruction according to students' responses. Most important
of all, it rarely includes quality questions that can
help well-informed teachers to diagnose students' remaining
difficulties with respect to the key life science ideas.
Very few questions are aligned to key ideas, and most
of the questions require standard responses from the
text. For example, to explain the difference between
producers and consumers (p. 81s), students need only
to copy from the text given three pages earlier. Students
also are asked to explain how the energy used by all
living things on Earth can be traced back to sunlight
(p. 81s); what would happen to the consumers in a lake
if all the producers died (the answer is simplistic-see
page 89st); why there might be more mitochondria in
muscle cells than in other types of cells (p. 88s); how the flow of energy through an ecosystem
compares with the cycling of matter (p. 501s); and why
decomposers are vital to the cycling of matter in an
ecosystem (p. 507s).
Providing teacher content
support (Minimal
support is provided.) The material rarely provides sufficiently detailed answers
to questions in the student text for teachers to understand
and interpret various student responses. Most answers
are brief and require further explanation (for example,
"The graph will be determined by the number of seeds
used in the experiment" [p. 491t, Do the Experiment,
item 3]); often, they emphasize a "right-answer" approach
(for example, "Phenol red changes to orange when carbon
dioxide is added" [p. 318t, MiniLAB, item 2]). The material provides minimal support in recommending
resources for improving the teacher's understanding
of key ideas. While the material lists references that
could help teachers improve their understanding of key
ideas (e.g., "Enger, Eldon and Bradley Smith. Environmental
Science: A Study of Interrelationships. Dubuque,
IA: W. C. Brown Publishing, 1991" [p. 61T]), the lists
lack annotations about what kinds of information the
references provide or how they may be helpful.
Encouraging curiosity
and questioning (Minimal
support is provided.) The material provides a few suggestions for how to
respect and value students’ ideas. Introductory
teacher’s notes about cooperative learning state
that students will “recognize…the strengths
of others’ [perspectives],” be presented
with “the idea that there is no one, ‘ready-made’
answer” (p. 24T), and “respect other people
and their ideas” (p. 46T). Introductory teacher’s
notes also state that student responses may vary in
concept mapping tasks. Teachers are thus instructed
to “[l]ook for the conceptual strength of student
responses, not absolute accuracy” (p. 30T). In
addition, Design Your Own Experiment activities are
structured to be open-ended, allowing students to pursue
a laboratory task in various ways. However, teacher
notes often give specific expected outcomes for these
activities that may limit their intended open-ended
nature (e.g., pp. 82–83t). 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.,
p. 83st, Do the Experiment, item 3; p. 318st, MiniLAB
Analysis, item 3). The material provides a few suggestions for how to
avoid dogmatism. Introductory teacher’s notes
state that “[s]cience is not just a collection
of facts for students to memorize” but is “a
process of applying those observations and intuitions
to situations and problems, formulating hypotheses,
and drawing conclusions” (p. 25T). The first chapter
portrays the nature of science as a human enterprise
that proceeds by trial and error and uses many skills
familiar to students (pp. 4–29st). However, most
of the text is generally presented in a static, authoritative
manner with little reference to the work of particular,
practicing scientists, and single specific responses
are expected 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 procedural directions for laboratories and cooperative
group activities (e.g., pp. 490–491st, Activity
18-2; p. 497t, Activity; Cooperative Learning in
the Science Classroom resource book, pp. 17–18).
Supporting all students
(Some
support is provided.) The
material provides some illustrations of the contributions of women and minorities
to science and as role models. While the introductory teacher's notes state
that, "No single culture has a monopoly on the development of scientific knowledge"
(p. 38T), most of the contributions of women and minorities appear in separate
sections entitled People and Science (e.g., p. 334st). In addition, Cultural
Diversity teacher notes highlight specific cultural contributions related
to chapter topics (e.g., p. 498t). A separate Multicultural Connections
resource book contains short readings and questions about individual scientists
or groups addressing text-related issues in many parts of the world. For example,
the book includes a reading activity about an African female marine biologist
studying the increase in the population of sea urchins in the Indian Ocean
along the Kenyan coast (e.g., Multicultural Connections, p. 39). 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, supplemental materials, and teacher notes. The
material suggests multiple formats for students to express
their ideas during instruction, including individual
investigations and journal writing (e.g., p. 313st,
Explore Activity), cooperative group activities (e.g.,
p. 497t, Activity), laboratory investigations (e.g.,
pp. 82-83st, Activity 3-2), whole class discussions
(e.g., p. 78t, Tying to Previous Knowledge), essay questions
(e.g., p. 323st, Section Wrap-up, item 2), and concept
mapping (e.g., p. 507st, item 24). In addition, multiple
formats are suggested for assessment, including oral
discussion (e.g., p. 83t, Assessment), essay (e.g.,
Assessment: Chapter and Unit Tests, p. 125, item
9), performance (e.g., p. 500t), and portfolio (e.g.,
p. 81t). However, the material does not usually provide
a variety of alternatives for the same task (except
in rare instances for special needs students). The
material does not routinely include specific suggestions
about how teachers can modify activities for students
with special needs. However, the Teacher Wraparound
Edition and supplemental Program Resources (including
reinforcement and enrichment work sheets, a study guide,
and activities with transparencies) provide additional
activities and resources for students of specific
ability levels. At the beginning of each chapter, teacher's
notes link the various chapter activities to different
learning styles (e.g., p. 480t, Learning Styles). Several
of the visual-spatial activities are also coded LEP
for students with limited English proficiency (e.g.,
p. 497t, Activity). For Spanish speakers, there are
English/Spanish audiocassettes, which summarize the
student text in both languages, and a Spanish Resources
book, which translates key ideas and activities for
each chapter. Teacher's notes about Meeting Individual
Needs at the beginning of the Teacher Wraparound
Edition highlight the importance of providing "all
students with a variety of ways to learn, apply, and
be assessed on the concepts" (p. 39T). However, the
placement of supplemental resources in individual booklets
separate from the main text may discourage their use,
and the special needs codes within chapters may discourage
teachers from using those activities with all students.
The
material provides some strategies to validate students' relevant personal
and social experiences with scientific ideas. Many text sections begin with
a brief reference to a specific personal experience students may have had
that relates to the presented scientific concepts (e.g., p. 314s). In addition,
some tasks ask students about particular, personal experiences they may have
had or suggest specific experiences they could have. For example, teacher's
notes ask students to use the periodic table to identify the elements in particular
foods and cleaning products (p. 64t, Tying to Previous Knowledge). However,
the material rarely encourages students to contribute relevant experiences
of their own choice to the science classroom and sometimes does not adequately
link the specified personal experiences to the scientific ideas being studied
(e.g., p. 500t, Community Connection). Overall, support is brief and localized.