The use of high stakes testing to improve educational outcomes falls short in many settings. Proposals for improvement include providing more opportunities for students to extend their thinking, gaining experience in the social nature of science, and learning how to interpret, explain, and justify results. This phenomenological qualitative project…

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…

Implementation of science curriculum materials has been a fundamental challenge in science education for decades. Policy researchers have argued that alignment of standards, curriculum, and assessment are the key to supporting implementation. This paper focuses on teachers' perceptions of curricular alignment and on curriculum implementation using…

Science education reform is an ongoing, forever changing process. The purpose of this booklet is to provide a brief overview of the players in science education reform, the similarities in their underlying beliefs, and the essential changes that need to be made in science education to ensure maximum use of resources that promote effective learning…

This report is intended as an information resource for teachers, scientists, and others involved in developing science curricula, science literacy materials for the public, or related information addressing issues of science education reform. The following sections are included: (1) Introduction; (2) The Big (Numbers) Picture: Selected Data; (3)…

Archaeology is the most integrated discipline that combines such diverse fields as anthropology, geology, biology, history, and art among others. Describes Project Archaeology's "Intrigue of the Past" teachers' activity guide, the objective of which is to educate students to take responsible and thoughtful actions towards their…

Introduces the project "Rekindling Traditions" which illustrates one modest way of addressing the underrepresentation of Aboriginal people in careers related to science, a situation that arises from a colonial type of science education. Integrates Western science content into a local community's Aboriginal Science. (Contains 85 references.)…

Surveys of curriculum changes of (n=163) colleges and universities offering 4-year undergraduate programs in geology found that 77% revised their major geology programs in the previous 3 years and 74% reported that the greatest incentive for change was concern about pedagogy. Includes survey. (MKR)

Believing that science could be used as a vehicle for increasing student achievement across the curriculum, seven science resource teachers in the South Carolina Lowcountry designed a professional development program funded through a Local Systemic Change grant from the National Science Foundation called Project Inquiry. Science notebooks, used in…

The goal of this report is to provide a summary of the evaluation of Project Symbiosis which focused on enhancing the teaching of science principles in high school agriculture courses. The project initially involved 15 teams of science and agriculture teachers and was characterized by an extensive evaluation component consisting of six formal…

For 37 states in the United States, Project Wild has become an officially sanctioned, distributed and funded "environemtnal and conservation education program." For those who are striving to implement focused, sequential, learning programs, as well as those who wish to promote harmony through a non-anthropocentric world view, Project…

Four approaches may be used to convert an existing textbook science program into a district science program. These include correlated resource, chapter, lesson, and generalized approaches, each approach using an adopted textbook series as a base (determining subject scope/sequence) into which local aims and resources may be integrated. (Author/JN)

Describes primary science education in Australia from the 1960s to the present. Suggests what changes should be made in the primary science curriculum and how these changes could be implemented. (DS)

Describes Project JUST (Join Underrepresented in Science and Technology), an initiative whose goal is to create an atmosphere of systemic change within an urban school district that results in minority students excelling in upper level math and science courses. Discusses leadership, governance, and management; a standards-based curriculum;…

Reports the results of a survey that assesses the breadth of implementation of environmental education in local public schools, the integration of environmental education within the existing school curriculum, and the impact environmental education has had on the school. (DDR)