Research shows that students have difficulty achieving deep understanding of many basic science concepts. Even when it appears that they have learned the scientific explanations, they often revert back to their initial ideas later. The Understandings of Consequence Project demonstrated that part of the problem arises from differences in how students and scientists think about cause and effect. Scientific explanations often require students to make a more complex set of assumptions about how causes and effects behave than students typically do.
This website contains a set of curriculum modules that are designed to help students learn to think about causality as scientists do in the context of the particular topic. Each unit identifies the difficulties that students tend to have in that topic and offers resources to address the difficulties. Causal concepts are introduced in the context of and in service to the science understandings, not vice versa. You can find detailed information about the research project that led to the development of these modules under the Resources & Curricula tab.
