Although undergraduates have long held a role as teaching assistants for introductory science courses at liberal arts colleges and universities, educational institutions often do not provide these students with opportunities to explore science teaching and pedagogy. At Brandeis University, we designed an internship course to help increase the…

Biology in Context ("bik") is a project that aims to improve biology teaching in lower secondary schools in Germany. Based on a theoretical framework derived from the National Educational Standards, four competence areas should be fostered in biology education: subject knowledge; inquiry acquisition; subject-related communication; and…

The content, instructional methods, and exams, as well as justification for the adoption of the science program, are presented. (CP)

Lists changes which have been made in the program and explains the philosophy upon which the alterations were based. (CP)

The first of two short articles describes the American Association for the Advancement of Science elementary school program; the other describes an experimental school-based testing program for the assessment of biology students in England for the award of certificate offered by an external examinations' board. (AL)

Describes how adaptation projects are used to produce BSCS materials specifically designed for the local flora, fauna, educational system, biological problems and culture of other countries. (BR)

Three elementary school science curriculum projects, Elementary Science Study (ESS), Science - A Process Approach (S-APA), and Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), are compared concerning the biologic content each project contains. The reviewer found a lack of activities designed to represent functions at the cellular level. Two projects…

Compares curriculum project adoption figures derived from examination entries with figures derived from questionnaires in an attempt to place the questionnaire returns in perspective and give an indication of the confidence which may be placed in them. (GS)

Presents views on the Australian version of American biological science materials developed as a part of the science course improvement project movement. The article serves as an introduction to the collection of papers, contained in this journal issue, from a seminar on biology and its place in school education. (PB)

Describes the origin of "The Web of Life," as an Australian adaptation of the BSCS materials. Reviews various aspects of the influence of these materials on Australian secondary school biology since 1964. (CS)

Reports results of a survey designed to compare the extent that BSCS biology was being used in Kansas secondary schools in 1977-78 to its utilization in 1967-68. (CS)

Introduces biology teachers to the central ideas of Piaget's theory of intellectual development. Also presents a scheme of biology instruction and classroom procedures based on a Piaget-related theory of learning. (PEB)

Discusses formative evaluation (those evaluation activities carried out while a curriculum is still being developed) and relates this to the development of the Individualized Science (IS) program at the University of Pittsburgh. (PEB)

This newsletter presents some insight into the program, the Human Sciences, prepared for sixth-grade students with emphasis on the module, Behavior. This module focuses on aspects of the study of interaction between organisms and their environment. Other modules included in the program are: (1) Survival, (2) Sense or Nonsense, (3) The Learning…