Concerned by widespread scientific illiteracy and rapidly growing technological needs, college science departments are reinvigorating introductory science courses, often with private or federal funding. Courses target both science majors and nonmajors, are broader in scope, emphasize concepts over facts, and use new textbooks written for…

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has launched a project to find ways to teach science to nonscientists and to determine what constitutes a liberal-arts science education. The effort grew from a Holmes Group recommendation to improve the quality of teacher education. (MSE)