This dissertation focuses on three manuscripts all related to bolstering science achievement through recommendations from the National Research Council (NRC) regarding the teaching and learning of science. The manuscripts address meeting the NRC's call to incorporate curriculum and assessment that lead to more in-depth knowledge that can be…

Contemporary evidence on the effectiveness of concrete and abstract representations in science education is based solely on studies conducted in college context. There it has been found that learning with abstract representations produces predominantly better outcomes than learning with concrete representations and combining the representations…