Fulfilling the Promise Biology Education in the Nation's Schools (1990) / Chapter Skim
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3. Curricular Goals for the Near Future
3. Curricular Goals for the Near Future
Pages 13-26
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From page 13... ...
Knowledge about the natural world should become integrated with reading, writing, and mathematics. Examples of written science materials that could be incorporated into the normal languagearts lessons include stories about nature and organisms, travel, and how the universe operates.
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From page 14... ...
Local school districts should work together with local resource people to develop appropriate field trips and study sites that can be used routinely by classes. The same sites should be visited periodically throughout the school year to follow the annual weather cycle, thereby stressing continuity and change over time.
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From page 15... ...
In contrast, the departmentalized or rotating classroom model in place in most secondary schools makes the scheduling of field trips almost impossible. The enriching experience of the field trip is thus logically the domain of the elementary-school science curriculum.
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From page 16... ...
, an example of a testing program of a different sort, does not monitor specific students or even specific teachers, but attempts to monitor only the overall effectiveness of a schoolwide curriculum. The California Science Framework and Science Framework Addendum are statewide documents that attempt to define the educational approach and curricular emphases on which CAP testing is based (Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, 1984~.
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From page 17... ...
· State departments of education should not only make science a basic subject in elementary schools, but ensure that science instruction is
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From page 18... ...
· Industry, government agencies, universities, professional societies, and other organizations should assist school personnel and cooperating local resource people in identifying field sites and appropriate field trips to be used by elementary schools. For example, many members of conservation groups and birding clubs have extensive knowledge of local natural history.
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From page 19... ...
For the teacher, teaching biology means providing a curriculum that not only focuses on understanding oneself, but also increases human potential by developing responsible attitudes about the health of self and others, by reducing maladjustive behaviors (e.g., unhealthy eating and drinking, smoking, and the use of illegal drugs) , and by fostering respect for the environment and for the need to sustain a biosphere favorable for the survival of life.
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From page 20... ...
As new programs enter the classroom, we will need to know what is working for which socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural groups; whether a given program has paid sufficient attention to long-term aspects, such as inservice training, and to the development of appropriate testing materials; and what is needed to ensure not only high scientific quality in individual programs, but wide dissemination of the most successful ones. Unfortunately, the argument that good educational programs necessarily push out bad ones rings hollow.
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From page 21... ...
Specifically, we have suggested that the biology to which they were exposed in elementary school should have focused on natural history and that middle school should have helped them to understand themselves as living organisms. By the time they reach high school, teachers should be able to build successfully on that foundation.
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From page 22... ...
The role of cellular respiration should be developed by focusing on the essential chemistry, involving the stepwise oxidation of organic molecules to form CO2 and the concomitant reduction reactions in mitochondria in effect, the charging of a battery that in turn forms adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
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From page 23... ...
In general, chemical responses follow a unified pattern of signal transmission and reception over a time scale from milliseconds in the brain to months in hormonal control of pregnancy. The general pattern is important, but the biochemical details of the chemical responses are varied, often complex, and totally unnecessary to memorize for a student to understand the general .
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From page 24... ...
The study of evolution as a process will be most successful if students have acquired some feeling for biological diversity in earlier years through the study of natural history. The study of evolution does not require an extensive knowledge of classification, but knowledge of the evolutionary process provides a framework in which information about systematics will appeal to students.
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From page 25... ...
Skillful teachers will recognize the formula, and many will be able to offer more and better examples. For the most part, however, our schools have little experience in teaching scientific concepts, reasoning, and learning through inquiry; for a teaching force accustomed to lecturing, the demands are imposing: Verbal inculcation, however lucid, has very little effect in enhancing reasoning and concept formation.
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From page 26... ...
They should come to see that, although scientific understanding represents our best available analysis and is always subject to revision on the basis of new information, some knowledge is in fact secure and unlikely to change fundamentally, whereas other knowledge is tentative and certain to be refined in the near future. These goals are more simply stated than accomplished.
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