Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and affects the understanding of all
content areas. Students are successful readers when they are able to pull important information
from texts and connect the new information with previously stored schemata. In the science
content area, new information is very difficult to acquire because of the difficult concepts and
vocabulary. For students to connect previously learned materials with schemata, prior knowledge
must be activated. When prior knowledge is activated, students begin to prepare for reading.