We discuss how to reduce the incongruence between the outcomes (both cognitive and affective) of the conventional secondary chemistry curriculum and what is to be attained: the meaningful connection of students' learning to daily life and societal issues. This problem is addressed by a design study with one curriculum unit about "Water Quality". With several research cycles using developmental research, we developed an emergent understanding about an instructional framework for curriculum units that embodies a coherent "need-to-know" principle and is based on authentic practices. Using this framework we show with some other examples how a context-based chemistry curriculum can be constructed based on the developed "need-to-know" principle.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.