Theoretical Framework for the SAM Project Materials

Download the Science of Atoms and Molecules (SAM) Proposal in PDF format.

Because the atoms and molecules are central to much of physics, chemistry, and biology, they provide unifying, but currently missing, content for these subjects. The “Science of Atoms and Molecules: Enabling the New Secondary Science Curriculum” project, funded by NSF, developed four strands of materials that unify the secondary curriculum by focusing on atoms, molecules, and their interactions.

The project provides materials and professional development resources that allow high schools to implement a successful sequence of physics, chemistry, and biology as a unified and consistent progression. The curriculum materials were developed to provide a progressive understanding of the importance of atomic scale phenomena from fundamental atoms to complex biology. This approach is designed to guarantee better pedagogy, deeper learning, and longer retention.

Computational models of the atomic world can provide this content, allowing students to experience an otherwise inaccessible world and build mental models that can be used to understand and predict macroscopic phenomena. (Birk, 1997; Clark & Jorde, 2004; Hakerem, 1996; Tinker, 2001b). Student explorations of these models can lead to a good understanding of connections between atomic-scale events and those events that they can observe at the macroscopic scale. (Buckley et al., 2004; Tinker, Berenfeld, & Tinker, 1999, 2000). Students can learn the atomic and molecular concepts that have been recommended for unified science or PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) curricula (California Science Teachers Association, 2006; Lederman, 1998).

References cited here are available in the proposal PDF file.