This instrumental case study examines how secondary biology teachers in a professional learning community (PLC) negotiated the meaning of the "Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") in a year-long process of redesigning their curriculum. The PLC consisted of six biology teachers, five females and one male, who co-planned…

This article presents an empirical study on an initial learning progression of energy, a concept of central importance to the understanding of science. Learning progressions have been suggested as one vehicle to support the systematic and successful teaching of core science concepts. Ideally, a learning progression will provide teachers with a…

Determined if modifying Bloom's mastery strategy improves science achievement during a six week human physiology unit. Findings indicate only a small degree of improvement in achievement of 185 students. Suggests that the approach employed in this study would be impractical for the biology classroom. (DS)

This investigation explores how underrepresented urban students made sense of their first experience with high school science. The study sought to identify how students' assimilation into the science classroom reflected their interpretation of science itself in relation to their academic identities. The primary objectives were to examine students'…

Compares the effectiveness of an Extended Discretion (ED) laboratory approach (exercising independent judgment) to a BSCS Green Version laboratory program. Results from 10 classes taught by five teachers, each teaching one experimental and one control group, favor the ED approach on a number of measures. (Author/JN)

Examined is the effectiveness of a smoking-prevention program in modifying high school students' attitudes and values in such categories as health, peer pressure, and social image as related to smoking. The intervention lasted four to six weeks within the framework of ninth- and tenth-grade biology classes. (Author/YP)