The purpose of this study is to compare changes in attitudes of students about their study of biology in the classes thought by five biology teachers who experienced an Iowa Chautauqua workshop with and two non-Chautauqua teachers who had no experience with any professional development program. The results indicated that there are significant…

Science/Technology/Society (STS) as a reform effort has been active in Iowa for three decades. A program called Iowa Chautauqua has evolved over the four decades to promote K-12 STS teaching in Iowa's 300 school districts. This is a study of how teachers have become Teacher Leaders of the reforms and lead other teachers who enroll as new teachers…

The National Science Education Standards emphasize a goal that students should achieve scientific literacy, which is defined as the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts needed in daily living. Scientific literacy enables people to not only use scientific principles and processes in making personal decisions but also to participate in…

The study reports on an investigation of the impact of a Science-Technology-Society (STS) approach in promoting more positive student attitudes toward science that are recommended by current reform documents. A total of 609 students from grades six through nine were selected for a survey of attitudes in two class sections assigned as either…

The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the Iowa Chautauqua Professional Development Program in terms of changes in concept mastery, use of process skills, application of science concept and skills, student attitudes toward science, student creativity, and student perceptions regarding their science classrooms. Participants…

Students who solved problems individually or in small informal groups understand science and scientists better than those who solved the same problems (based on BSCS Blue Version) as a class group. (AA)

Discusses reasons why nutrition should be stressed in secondary school biology programs. (CS)

Predicts the effects of today's secondary science education curriculum on the competencies of students who have experienced it. (JG)

Describes Science/Technology/Society (STS) curriculum efforts in the United States which grew out of Project Synthesis. Discusses STS, biology, and life science education. (PR)

Defends the definition of science education as the interface of science and society, pointing out the fallacies of an alternative definition promulgated by Good, Herron, Lawson, and Renner who, in a previous article (SE 537 615) examined and rejected the science/society interface definition in favor of their own definition. (DH)

Based on the Project Synthesis findings presented in "What Research Says to the Science Teacher," (NSTA, 1981), seven priorities are listed for improving science education for the remainder of this century, including the need for a new rationale which takes into account our technologically oriented society. (JN)

A major study sponsored by the National Science Foundation says most science education is characterized by traditional teaching of the contents of textbooks. (Author)

A group of outstanding science teachers agreed that student motivation and interest soar when real-life issues are used as themes for study. Illustrates how the interdisciplinary approach works with the issue of smoking. (MLF)