This study presents a description and analysis of a ninth-grade integrated science curriculum developed and implemented by teachers within a high school science department and subsequently sustained for over 25 years. The Integrated Science Program (ISP) at Lakeside Southwest High School depicted here offers a unique example of longitudinal…

Recent arguments in science education have proposed that school science should pay more attention to teaching the nature of science and its social practices. However, unlike the content of science, for which there is well-established consensus, there would appear to be much less unanimity within the academic community about which…

Analyzed and classified were Individualized Science Instruction System (ISIS) minicourse performance objectives and criterion-referenced test items according to Bloom's cognitive "Taxonomy" to determine levels of cognition emphasized. The findings indicate that ISIS minicourse test objectives are written primarily at the knowledge and…

This study continues research previously conducted by a nine-university collaborative, the Salish I Research Project, by exploring science teachers' beliefs and practices with regard to inquiry-oriented instruction. In this study, we analyzed the relationship among secondary science teachers' preparation, their beliefs, and their classroom…

Discussed is the issue of the appropriateness of applied science approaches to evaluation in environmental education. The relationships between characteristics of applied science approaches to evaluation and the special characteristics of environmental education are explored. (Author/YP)

Examines science textbook language and determines some characteristics of them: distant authorial voice, concern for precision, limited context, limited syntax, and rhetorical model. Suggests three further researcher needs. (YP)

This study examined the impact of a biology course emphasizing computer simulation on student achievement and student attitudes toward science. The students in the experimental group were placed in a class limited to 16 students to have 2 students to each computer. (YP)

This study was undertaken to determine whether a biology preparatory course given at an urban community college was helping students to develop the proper skills and background necessary to successfully complete follow-up courses in biology. Data indicated a mathematics score was the main discriminator between pass/fail groups of the preparatory…

Describes and examines the effects of the eight-week Summer Science Training Program at the University of Iowa. There was no significant differences between students who had completed high school physics and those who had not on the final course examination, course grade, and attitudes toward physics. (Author/YP)

Examined are the global issues of population growth, world hunger, air quality and atmosphere, and water resources in 10 middle school science textbooks. Less than two percent of text pages were devoted to these issues and no significant differences were found between textbook series. (Author/YP)

Investigates the manner and the degree to which science teachers consider the nature of the subject matter in their decision making when they plan and deliver instructional tasks. Considerations for student development, curriculum guide objectives, and pressures of accountability dominated decision making. (Author/YP)

Examines 11 elementary science texts in terms of conceptual structure and reasoning demands using concept maps. Reports that (1) the conceptual structures vary widely across texts; (2) most of the structures are well defined; and (3) the reasoning demands are above the developmental capabilities of most of primary-level children. (Author/YP)

Examined is the effectiveness of a smoking-prevention program in modifying high school students' attitudes and values in such categories as health, peer pressure, and social image as related to smoking. The intervention lasted four to six weeks within the framework of ninth- and tenth-grade biology classes. (Author/YP)

Examines the influence of both locus of control and three instructional strategies to foster an understanding of the nature of science. Reports that the nature of science was most predictable for a separate process/content/teaching methods and logical thinking ability was the best predictor of the nature of science. (Author/YP)

Teacher identity development and change is shaped by the interrelationship between personal biography and experience and professional knowledge linked to the teaching environment, students, subject matter, and culture of the school. Working from this framework, this study examines how beginning teacher interns who are part of an alternative route…