Lab components of undergraduate science courses typically have students complete highly directed cookbook-like laboratory activities. These experiences rarely engage students in a meaningful manner and do not accurately convey what the work of science entails. With funding from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), we have created more…

In this invited autobiography, the author describes the impact that educational gaming and simulation has had on his professional career. He begins by reviewing his early life and education in Aberdeen and his subsequent work as a research scientist, schoolteacher, and physics lecturer. He then shows how he changed disciplines from physics to…

The purpose of this study was to survey the Nuffield Science Teaching Projects' adoption and diffusion into British secondary schools. This report presents a narrative of the three-phase research strategy. The first year was of an exploratory nature aimed at elucidating the various forms that adoption and rejection of innovations could take, the…

This report is the first of three volumes which summarize the results of a comprehensive evaluation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Local Course Improvement (LOCI) program. Included are college teacher perceived needs of course improvement, profile of applicants for LOCI awards, appropriateness of program guidelines, and outcomes of LOCI…

This report is the second of three volumes describing the results of the evaluation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Local Course Improvement (LOCI) program. This volume describes the quantitative results of the program. Evaluation of the LOCI program involved answering questions in the areas of the need for science course improvement as…

The successful implementation of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) program in a school district through the use of science curriculum leaders is described. The leaders were classroom teachers in the district. The role of the curriculum leaders is detailed. (CP)

Described are the efforts of generating and implementing a generic model for program development at a kindergarten through sixth-grade elementary school in order to satisfy identified needs for program improvements in science. The implementation of the program involved a steering committee, the teaching staff, community members and external…

Presents courses, projects and teaching styles relating to different areas of science that are used in British schools. School science for the education of all, chemistry-O level syllabus, and teaching styles in the Nuffield A-level Physics course are examples of information presented. (HM)

Discussed is the history of school science curriculum reform from the Sputnik era to 1990. The relationship between the crisis in the 1950s and 1990 is addressed. A list of curriculum development programs for all levels and special needs students is included. (KR)

This report is the third of three volumes describing the results of the evaluation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Local Course Improvement (LOCI) program. This volume describes 12 project case studies undertaken as part of that evaluation. Three projects were designed to increase individualization of college science teaching; two…

The authors discuss the joining of 12 Virginia community colleges from the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia with Radford University to form the Regional Technology Education Consortium (RTEC), a three-year project funded by the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education program and designed to develop articulation…

Teams of teachers from four middle/junior high schools, in collaboration with faculty from the University of New Hampshire and consultants from the New Hampshire State Department of Education, implemented systemic changes in the teaching of mathematics and science. The curriculum goal was to design, adapt, implement, and evaluate hands-on,…