Examining the positioning of ideas in the disciplines

We present a qualitative analysis of a group of students working through a task designed to build connections between biology, chemistry, and physics. During the discussion, members of the group explicitly index some of the ideas being presented as coming from "chemistry" and from "physics." While there is evidence that students seek coherence between outside knowledge and in-class knowledge, the evidence of the group's progress in co-constructing these ideas is subtle. In this paper, we present evidence that the progress students make in addressing and coordinating each other's ideas can be understood through a positional lens. We examine how students position ideas as having value for the discussion.