Establishing literacy in science is often linked to building knowledge about the Nature of Science (NOS). This paper describes and evaluates an inservice program designed to build elementary teachers' understanding of NOS and an awareness of how NOS impacts science classroom instruction. Data sources consisted of surveys, action research plan…

Seven current elementary science programs were compared on the basis of curriculum and instructional characteristics and practicality. The Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) was found to rank highest. (CP)

The author poses problems and suggestions for possible solutions encountered in curriculum installation. (CP)

Eighty first-grade students, randomly selected from eight elementary schools, participated in this study. Four of the schools were located within the city and four in the rural area surrounding the city. The assessment instrument was the Organisms Evaluation Supplement, designed to evaluate students' attitudes in science, students' perception of…

Discussed are two studies undertaken by the Commission: The Cost of Material Study and The Science-Mathematics S"udy. Early plans in The Cost of Material Study were to specifically tabulate costs of introducing and maintaining each of eight "new" science courses in elementary and junior high schools. This was abandoned in favor of…

Description of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) includes: nature of program psychological bases, learning environment, instructional materials, evaluation, and role of the teacher. Orients the reader to the SCIS program and reviews related literature and research. Bibliography. (BR)

This monograph describes a model for curriculum evaluation and reports data obtained from the application of this model to the assessment of Science - A Process Approach. Section 1 presents the assumptions underlying the theoretical framework upon which the model has been constructed. This is followed by a description of the translation of the…

Compared on classificatory ability were the performances of children in grades 2-4 who had been exposed to the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) program for two years and children who had not. No significant differences in performance either quantitatively or qualitatively were detected. It was concluded that the grouping and…

Student outcomes were assessed by quantitatively combining results of 57 reported evaluations of three major curriculum programs in elementary school science. Thirty-two percent of the comparisons were statistically significant, favoring activity-based programs; six percent favored control groups. (DH)

This study is one of three designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) program. The school study is essentially a discussion of the link between program dissemination and student experience, a discussion of the form taken by USMES in schools and classrooms. Part one is a statistical…

This study is one of three designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) program. The student study examined the program's impact on students' development of problem-solving abilities and on their attitudes. Conditions affecting the program's impact were identified, including the…

This study is one of three designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools (USMES) program. The team study examined the resource team program and the factors that influenced how effective selected teams were in disseminating and implementing USMES in their areas. This report begins with a…

This critical, analytical, and interpretive review of three National Science Foundation-supported studies of the state of precollege science education examines the implications that these studies may have for the science community. Areas discussed include student problems, teacher preservice and inservice education, curricular innovations and…

Presented is a bibliography that cites research studies and articles related to Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS), and provides a brief summary of these research studies and articles and some commentary within 5 categories. These 5 categories are: (1) SCIS and teachers, 8 studies or articles are reported within this category which are…