This is a progress report of the Demonstration of an Improved Science Curriculum for Underachieving Students (DISCUS) project for 1968-69. This project is based on the premise that if underachieving junior high school youth are separated from their more successful peers, placed in a success-oriented environment, and provided with a series of…

This is the report of a study designed to test a model for determining the effectiveness of sets of instructional materials which can be considered hierarchical and to derive a mathematical relationship by which such measures can be quantified. The model tested requires that the instructional materials be hierarchical in character. The…

Investigated were the influence of teachers' and students' educational set and teachers' flexibility on student achievement in biology. The population consisted of thirty teachers and 1773 students studying the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) "Yellow Version." The Educational Set Scale was used to categorize teachers and…

This report presents the procedures, results, and conclusions of a study designed to compare the achievement in beginning college physics of students completing PSSC high school physics with students completing a traditional high school physics course. Factors of ability and achievement were held constant while scores on the criterion of marks in…

Scientific attitudes and interests of fifth form students who had had at least two years of experimental Nuffield O-Level courses in biology, physics, and chemistry were compared with those of equivalent students studying traditional courses. The author-developed tests contained Likert-type items measuring interests in science, attitudes to the…

This guide is intended to provide the teacher of secondary school physical science classes with a source of information about recent applications, discoveries, and innovations in aerospace. Each section of the guide is subdivided into parts in which objectives are listed, background information for the use of the teacher and/or the student is…

Reported is a study of the effect of having seventh grade science students make overt verbal responses in written form to questions of varying degrees of complexity following sequential segments of programed instruction on Newtonian mechanics. It was hypothesized that students responding to more complex questions would have significantly higher…

The science curriculum reforms of the 1960's have not been effective in increasing student interest in science nor in forming an appreciation of how science relates to the intellectual progress of mankind. The goals of science education need now be reexamined so that science teaching in the 1970's may go "beyond the restrictive context of special…

Included is a collection of earth science laboratory activities, which may provide the junior or senior high school science teacher with ideas for activities in his program. The included 48 experiments are grouped into these areas: properties of matter; evaporation; atmospheric moisture and condensation; precipitation; moving water, subsurface…

This is a progress report of an independent study program in chemistry at a senior high school. Currently in its fourth year of operation, the program is designed to provide students with individualized, self-paced instruction in college-preparatory chemistry. The author discusses the rationale for the program, the initial phases, the problems…

This is a critical account of the introduction of a new science curriculum in New South Wales, Australia. The introduction of the new courses is contrasted with methods used to update science courses in other countries and in other Australian States. Reactions from teachers, students, and the public are reported. Statements by the curriculum…

Studied were attitude changes as results of instructional procedures for success in problem solving by 350 eighth grade students in two school systems during the 1968-69 school year. Mimeographed instructional materials and techniques incorporating five levels of problem solving difficulty were developed. Procedures for student success…

Two articles describe the impact of BSCS biology on college biology curricula, one a general review and the other a specific example. BSCS has affected college biology teaching to an extent ranging from a decision not to change the existing courses to extensive curricula revisions exemplified by the West Virginia University. Other articles…

This study measured the effects of teacher-directed and self-directed problem solving techniques on junior high school students' expressed attitudes about science and scientists, their achievement of understandings of science facts and principles, and the rate at which they mastered understandings of the conceptualizations of science necessary to…

Provided are 45 experiments in chemistry which have been used successfully by students in secondary school chemistry classrooms. Additional investigations directed at further inquiry on the part of the student are included. The experiments are directed at the development of science process skills and many of the concepts and generalizations which…