"Potemkin schools" is used as the phrase to capture what a US science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) public speciality high school becomes as a result of its institutional branding. By way of an examination of the efforts of one teacher drawn into school branding through his "inquiry-based reform" of an Advanced Chemistry course,…

Two lengthy reviews are presented of a series of seven studies, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), on the subject of science education from 1950 to 1975. In "Science Education in the United States during the Third Quarter of the Twentieth Century", Rita Peterson provides an historical view of major events that occurred…

Argues that naturalistic research is appropriate for studying science education. Stages of naturalistic research are explained and illustrated with material from NSF-sponsored Case Studies in Science Education. Problems in traditional research methods are presented as justification for inductive models or models based on multiple methods,…

Findings from a five-year study of the use of Level I of the Intermediate Science Curriculum Study in a suburban Philadelphia school district are reported and discussed. (PB)

The Science and Engineering Technician (SET) Curriculum is a two-year post-secondary curriculum designed to prepare technicians to use the electronic instruments which became available in the early 1970's as a result of advances in different fields of electronics. It is an interdisciplinary program of study which integrates elements from the…