The world faces two converging crises, a lack of biological literacy and a rapid increase in environmental degradation. In order to insure a secure and safe environment for future generations of organisms, all humans must be taught the basic biological and physical processes that sustain life. This project seeks to fill the chasm in the general…

This report presents the State of South Carolina's vision and plan for coordinating special programs in mathematics and science education. The report is divided into two sections. The first section identifies four critical needs and lists systemic responses to those needs. The second section presents the criteria recommended for the State Plan for…

The Comprehensive Instructional Management System (CIMS)-Science program is designed to support teachers in teaching the "New York State Elementary Science Syllabus." The curriculum emphasizes a hands-on inquiry approach to learning and includes an assessment component comprised of written tests and performance-based tests, designed to…

To determine the current status of science education within special education school programs for students with mild disabilities, survey data were collected from over 300 teachers. Analyses focused on whether science was in fact being taught and, if so, the amount of instructional time devoted to it, the curricular basis and teaching approaches…

This paper deals with one aspect of technical change in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): the production of scientific and technical knowledge. Part I presents a quantitative view of the scientific output in SSA based on data from the Science Citation Index that provides information on scientific publications and citations by field and by country. Science…

This document contains materials for a 10-day teaching unit on solid waste recycling for grades K-6. Included are: (1) "The Scrap Map," which shows recycling cycles for metals and paper, and a cryptic word puzzle; (2) three pamphlets on recycling paper, nonferrous scrap metals, and scrap iron and steel; (3) a list of the chapters of the Institute…

This supplement to the Chicago public schools' science curriculum guide is for use with Vietnamese-speaking students and is designed to help students make the transition to science learning in English. English-Vietnamese vocabulary lists, independent learning activities (in Vietnamese), and teaching aids (cultural activities such as songs,…

As a major part of their science methods course, preservice elementary teachers start with a tested science unit and assemble a box of related manipulatives, audio visuals, worksheets, vocabulary cards, and other materials to be used in implementing the unit. The unit is then (ideally) used in practice teaching. (SD)

This paper reviews design teaching at a total of 15 chemical engineering departments across Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The emphasis is on the capstone Design Project, which can be viewed as a major transition subject for students as they move into the workplace. The study shows that this subject has evolved to act as an…

This curriculum program for grades 7-12 was developed to increase awareness of the hazardous materials problem on local, state, national, and global levels. This curriculum material highlights an important science-technology-society issue and are applicable to the science, health, social studies, and language arts disciplines. Units include: (1)…

This guide for environmental science is intended to make students aware of the problems they will be facing in their environment, and of alternative measures to solve these problems. The course is designed to use scientific principles to study the processes of the environment; examine changes within the environment from a broad perspective;…

This paper describes the development of a sixth-grade "Matter and Molecules" unit using a new curriculum development model based on conceptual change research, the field testing of this unit in 15 classrooms and the field test results. The development process and the resulting unit are contrasted with the unit's predecessor, the "Models of Matter"…

The purpose of this study was to determine if a 7-hour "Project Learning Tree" (PLT) workshop had a positive effect on pre-service teachers' attitudes toward teaching environmental education. The subjects of the study were 140 pre-service teachers enrolled in an elementary science education course in Pennsylvania. Attitude was measured…

The purpose of this survey was to examine science education in the state of New Jersey. It is the sixth in a series of secondary school surveys which began in 1968-69. In this survey, 205 schools (38%) responded to the survey which contained over 150 questions. To facilitate comparisons, results have been summarized as percentages wherever…

Common educational curricula have been suggested to be advantageous in enhancing the stability of the community of nations. This paper describes a multinational curriculum design effort by four Pacific rim nations (Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States) which has created a common curriculum program. This joint venture resulted in…