The national curriculum in Japan is termed the Course of Study, the revised version of which was implemented in 2000 for kindergarten, or nursery schools, and since 2002 for elementary or primary schools. The Course of Study for Science specifies content only in broad terms, placing the greatest emphasis on process, learning to learn and…

Primary science in Scotland has got the wind in its sails. The Scottish science education initiative, "Improving Science Education" (ISE) 5-14, has invested millions in professional development (CPD) materials and experiences for science teachers, harnessing and developing their enthusiasm for effective learning and teaching in science.…

Lessons from a pilot introduction of environmental education into a teacher education programme designed to address pupil disengagement from school science, are discussed in this paper. Pre-service teachers discovered that environmental education can be a potent context for creativity and continuity in curriculum planning. Interpretation of the…

The reform of elementary and secondary school science education in the United States has received renewed attention with the publication of several science reform documents and the 1989 Education Summit sponsored by the nation's governors and President Bush. This digest reviews documents which focus on the reform of science education and projects…

Provides annotated list of 15 curriculum project newsletters currently being published. (PB)

Describes selected findings and discusses effects of an inservice program which focused on the skills and competencies of teacher participants. Factors studied include the effect of the respective ages of the participants on competency, the time of year when the program was taken, and prior knowledge of program implementation. (GS)

Fourteen basic experiments in mechanical engineering, intended for use at the sophomore level, are presented. The experiments are described as open-ended in order to give students the opportunity to discover the importance of stable operating conditions. The concept of experimentation is introduced and there is an interrelation between theory and…

Designed to introduce basic ecological relationships in a lake community, this investigation uses a Lake Erie food chain involving people and walleye as an example. The first activity is a board game in the form of a biomass pyramid; students begin with 1000 kilograms of algae and attempt to reach the "harvest" with at least a kilogram…

An attribute-treatment interaction study was conducted with two groups of teachers exhibiting contrasting natural teaching styles, teaching a Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) based biology course in a natural school setting. Annotated transcripts of lessons were analyzed to provide data for the validation and description of the…

Using a specially-constructed category system (CATS), biology lessons are analyzed for attribute-treatment interaction (ATI) and the data submitted to analysis. Relationships between fifteen individual predictors (general ability, four personality factors, two cognitive preferences, treatment, and seven first-order attribute-treatment…

This paper, designed to assess the degree of implementation of the important features of a curriculum innovation, was presented at the 1978 Bat-Sheva Seminar on Curriculum Implementation and its Relationship to Curriculum Development in Science, Rehovot-Jerusalem, Israel. It investigates the use of sub-interviews within the main interview to…

This publication is developed for grades K-6 as a curriculum guide for the Science/Social Studies Program. The introduction gives purpose and structure of program, format of each unit, sequence of each lesson and key to abbreviated organization or project titles. A map, which orders the units according to grade level and defines the skills, is…

Elementary Science Study (ESS) units were examined by elementary teachers on a science writing team to identify energy education concepts within the existing curriculum in Minnesota. The outline of energy education concepts is given here along with some energy education science activities for elementary students. The activities are structured into…

This looseleaf teacher's manual is designed to facilitate using Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) for energy education in elementary schools. It is intended to be used with the SCIS Teacher's Guide as a supplement. The format of this manual matches a main SCIS concept with a closely related energy concept. Matrices show matched concepts…

This is the final report of the Physical Science for Nonscience Students (PSNS) development project. The report includes five major topics and five appendices. The first section, the History of Organizational Activities, discusses the conferences in 1963-64 that initiated the planning of the course. The remaining sections include Administration,…