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The "Next Generation Science Standards" identifies argumentation as a central practice, and, subsequently, energizes teachers to develop students' capacity to write well-reasoned arguments and support their claims with relevant evidence. These skills now expected in the science classroom have long been central to instruction in English-language arts. This article overviews the design and delivery of a first-time interdisciplinary collaboration between three teachers, representing English language arts, science, and a teacher-librarian. Their integrated unit was based on principles of scientific argumentation. Recounting the experience from the perspectives of the teachers, and informed by observations and interviews conducted, discussion centers on the practical aspects of unit delivery and meeting intended goals. This article thematically explores qualitative data collected from the teachers, including individual reflections and a focus group interview, as well as classroom observation and student post-unit survey data. Drawing on the experience from the inaugural implementation, we discuss considerations for future efforts and implications for the broader audience.

In this activity, science education and modern technology are bridged to teach students at the high school and undergraduate levels about protein folding and to strengthen their model building skills. Students are guided from a textbook picture of a protein as a rigid crystal structure to a more realistic view: proteins are highly dynamic biological molecules in the heterogeneous environment inside the living cell. Simple mechanical models and computer simulations that evolve in their complexity as the instruction progresses are at the core of this lesson. Methods of statistics and physical chemistry (thermodynamics and kinetics) are employed to investigate a flexible version of a peptide that can sample various conformations within the folded ensemble and ultimately unfold into a random coil.