How do teachers and schools create meaningful learning experiences for students with diverse skills, abilities, and cultures? How can teachers authentically assess the learning of their students and build on their strengths and interests in ways that enrich the larger community? How can schools become places where everyone is learning from each…

Secularism is controversial in today's political debates, championed by some and vilified by others. So when Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., opened a center for the study of secularism in September 2005, some people worried that it could become a source of friction on campus--yet another battleground in the culture wars that are wreaking havoc…

The study analyses the extent to which the sociological message transmitted by the teachers' pedagogic practice recontextualizes the official pedagogic discourse of the natural sciences curriculum for a Portuguese middle school. Theoretically, the study is based on theories of psychology (e.g. Vygotsky), epistemology (e.g. Ziman) and sociology,…

An interdisciplinary team of science and education faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago and several Chicago-area community colleges developed and implemented a series of four integrated, inquiry-based science courses for preservice elementary school teachers. All four courses are based on guiding principles taken from the rich…

In September, 1971, an environmental elective pilot program was introduced in Lincoln High School, Yonkers, New York. This was a blueprint for future environmental responsibilities for heterogeneous groups of juniors and seniors. The multi-discipline, one semester elective included the disciplines of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and…

Describes a postgraduate, interdisciplinary, 2-year course in Human Ecology that covers 400 lessons, laboratory demonstrations and experiments, and field practices. The first year focuses on the ecology and natural sciences concepts of water, atmosphere, and soil. The second year focuses on human systems, social, economic, medical, political and…

During the academic year 1972-1973, an Introductory Interdisciplinary Course in Natural Sciences, Natural Sciences 101-102, was offered as a voluntary alternative to the traditional separate courses in physics, biology, and chemistry, for a group of 60 students. The method of selection of the students, the organization of the course, and the…

The development of a population studies program is described. Questions indicating the content of the program are listed; these relate to human population, human needs, the environment, and problems raised by the interrelationships of these factors. Preparation of materials was undertaken by curriculum specialists in natural sciences and social…

Reports on the background philosophy, theoretical course structure, and the changing patterns of student choices evident in a course at the interface between natural science and social sciences. Based on observations of the first trimester. (DDR)

The overall objective of the curriculum development project is to develop a general high school level interdisciplinary course on environment studies. This potential five to ten month course is outlined as follows: ecology, water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, population, socioeconomic implications, and resource management. The general…

Included are two sections contributing to understanding of the model: (1) Orientation; and (2) Content Specifications. The model is intended to provide the user with a frame of reference within which to formulate and plan environmental education and training products which: (1) develop grade K-9 natural science teachers' understanding of…

Population science, a combination of natural science, social science, and management science, deals with the phenomena associated with the human population size. Subjects include the rates of change of the sizes of the various subsets of the human population, the causes and results of those changes, the societal pressures for control of population…

This workshop provided a meeting place for 35 secondary-school educators and resource leaders to share concerns, ideas, methodologies, and content in the teaching of global studies. The purpose was to bring together teachers from the social science and natural science departments to develop plans to integrate their respective departments for the…

This working paper is an intermediary stage in the development of a new telecurriculum for the To Educate the People Consortium. Section 1 is an introduction to the process. Section 2 contains the outlines of 18 courses in the telecurriculum based on concept papers submitted by teams from the consortium. Each course is in the format of six 1-hour…

In a 3-year, federally-funded program, faculty at St. Olaf College (Minnesota) have developed a series of behavioral and natural science courses in which students with at least the fourth semester of foreign language do a portion of the course readings in the second language and meet once a week to discuss them in that language with the regular…