Students tend to think of their science courses as isolated and unrelated to each other, making it difficult for them to see connections across disciplines. In addition, many existing science assessments target rote memorization and algorithmic problem‐solving skills. Here, we describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an activity aimed to help students integrate knowledge across introductory chemistry and biology courses. The activity design and evaluation of students' responses were guided by the Framework for K‐12 Science Education as the understanding of core ideas and crosscutting concepts and the development of scientific practices are essential for students at all levels. In this activity, students are asked to use their understanding of noncovalent interactions to explain (a) why the boiling point differs for two pure substances (chemistry phenomenon) and (b) why temperature and base pair composition affects the stability of DNA (biological phenomenon). The activity was implemented at two different institutions (N = 441) in both introductory chemistry and biology courses. Students' overall performance suggests that they can provide sophisticated responses that incorporate their understanding of noncovalent interactions and energy to explain the chemistry phenomenon, but have difficulties integrating the same knowledge to explain the biological phenomenon. Our findings reinforce the notion that students should be provided with opportunities in the classroom to purposefully practice and support the use and integration of knowledge from multiple disciplines. Students' evaluations of the activity indicated that they found it to be interesting and helpful for making connections across disciplines.

中文翻译：

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学生运用化学核心思想解释DNA的结构和稳定性

学生往往认为他们的科学课程是孤立的，彼此无关，这让他们很难看到跨学科的联系。此外，许多现有的科学评估都针对死记硬背和算法问题解决技能。在这里，我们描述了一项旨在帮助学生整合化学和生物学入门课程知识的活动的开发、实施和评估。学生反应的活动设计和评估以 K-12 科学教育框架为指导，因为对核心思想和交叉概念的理解以及科学实践的发展对各级学生来说都是必不可少的。在这次活动中，要求学生利用他们对非共价相互作用的理解来解释 (a) 为什么两种纯物质的沸点不同（化学现象）和（b）为什么温度和碱基对组成会影响 DNA 的稳定性（生物现象）。该活动在两个不同的机构 (N = 441) 的化学和生物学入门课程中实施。学生的整体表现表明他们可以提供复杂的反应，结合他们对非共价相互作用和能量的理解来解释化学现象，但难以整合相同的知识来解释生物现象。我们的研究结果强化了这样一种观念，即应该为学生提供在课堂上有目的地练习和支持使用和整合来自多个学科的知识的机会。学生对活动的评价表明，他们发现它很有趣，有助于跨学科建立联系。