This article reports on our work of developing a learning progression focusing on K-12 students' performances of using energy concept in their accounts of carbon-transforming processes in socio-ecological systems. Carbon-transforming processes--the ecological carbon cycle and the combustion of biomass and fossil fuels--provide all of the energy…

We use a construct-based assessment approach to measure learning progression of energy concepts across physical, life, and earth science contexts in middle school grades. We model the knowledge integration construct in six levels in terms of the numbers of ideas and links used in student-generated explanations. For this study, we selected 10 items…

This document provides a review of the nine-week, secondary or college level Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) unit entitled "Energy and Society: Investigations in Decision Making." Included is a reprint of the unit's last chapter which presents possible scenarios for future investigations and a report of evaluations made of…

Provides lists of instructional strategies for elementary school science focusing on: (1) the biological sciences; (2) forces, movement, and energy, and (3) the physical sciences. (JN)