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- Title
Toward Interdisciplinary Perspectives: Using Osmotic Pressure as an Example for Analyzing Textbook Explanations.
- Authors
Shannon Sung; Ji Shen; Stanger-Hall, Kathrin F.; Wiegert, Craig; Wan-I Li; Robertson, Tom; Brown, Scott
- Abstract
We examined the definitions of osmotic pressure (Posm) in different well-circulated college science textbooks. Motivated by the discussion of a team of disciplinary experts from several disciplines, we examined 20 textbooks in biology, chemistry, physics, animal/plant physiology, biochemistry, and physical biochemistry. The analysis shows that the definitions or descriptions of Posm in these textbooks include five categories: three categories of conceptual definition (CD) of the term and two categories of quantitative measure (QM) of the variable. The three main categories of CD are: (a) Posm is the force that pulls/drives water across a selectively permeable membrane into a solution with a higher solute concentration; (b) Posm is the external pressure required to stop, prevent, or reverse osmosis; and (c) Posm is the internal pressure of a solution or substance that develops through osmosis under volume constraint. The two categories of QM are: (a) Posm is proportional to the solute (or water) concentration (gradient) across a selectively permeable membrane, and (b) Posm is measured through the additional pressure applied to stop osmosis. Connections and possible inconsistencies among these different definitions or descriptions across disciplines are discussed.
- Subjects
SCIENCE textbooks; TEXTBOOK evaluation; OSMOTIC pressure; DEFINITIONS; INTERDISCIPLINARY research
- Publication
Journal of College Science Teaching, 2015, Vol 44, Issue 4, p76
- ISSN
0047-231X
- Publication type
Article