Next Generation Science Standards Evolution Unit Efficacy: Student Results From Multiple-Choice and Constructed-Response Items

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Methodological Innovations in Researching Science Learning

Abstract

We report on student pre/post multiple choice and constructed response assessment results from efficacy testing of a new seven-week, freely available unit that integrates heredity and evolution. Evolution: DNA and the Unity of Life supports students in building a coherent understanding of evolution through analysis and interpretation of skill-level-appropriate data about phenomena in published scientific research and the construction of evidence-based arguments. Ideas are framed through crosscutting concepts throughout the unit. Results from a nationwide RCT study with 38 teachers and their 2,269 students indicated that students who used the new curriculum showed significantly greater pre/post gain scores with a moderate effect size than students in the control condition (NGSS business-as-usual) in their understanding of evolution and their argument-writing competencies.

Authors

• Dina Drits-Esser, University of Utah

• Louisa A. Stark, University of Utah

• Joseph Hardcastle, American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Kristin M. Bass, Rockman et al

• Sheila Homburger, University of Utah

• Molly Malone

• Jo Ellen Roseman, American Association for the Advancement of Science

• George E. DeBoer, American Association for the Advancement of Science