Science education

As a result of a conference of thirty leading secondary and college educators in Florida, the National Education Association appointed a Committee of Ten in 1892, which had authority to organize future meetings and appoint subject matter committees of the major subjects taught in secondary schools.

[5] According to the Committee of Ten, the goal of high school was to prepare all students to do well in life, contributing to their well-being and the good of society.

Science is a universal subject that spans the branch of knowledge that examines the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

Additionally there is a large body of scientific literature that advocates the inclusion of teaching the Nature of Science, which is slowly being adopted into the national curricula.

The purpose is to enrich students' understanding of physics, and allow for more detail to be taught in subsequent high school biology and chemistry classes.

Chemistry education is characterized by the study of science that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and the transformations that they undergo.

The branch of science education known as "chemistry must be taught in a relevant context in order to promote full understanding of current sustainability issues.

[15] Biology itself is the study of living organisms, through different fields including morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.

In the United States, there is a growing emphasis on the ability to investigate and analyze biology related questions over an extended period of time.

In other words, he must be induced, with proper aid and guidance, to make some of the fundamental discoveries of science by himself, to experience in his own mind some of those flashes of insight which have lightened its path.

The traditional method of confronting the student not with the problem but with the finished solution, means depriving him of all excitement, [shutting] off the creative impulse, [reducing] the adventure of mankind to a dusty heap of theorems.Specific hands-on illustrations of this approach are available.

John D. Bransford, et al., summarized massive research into student thinking as having three key findings: Educational technologies are being refined to meet the specific needs of science teachers.

[39][40][41] As in England and Wales, science education in Australia is compulsory up until year 11, where students can choose to study one or more of the branches mentioned above.

Science education in China places great emphasis on memorization, and gives far less attention to problem solving, application of principles to novel situations, interpretations, and predictions.

It is generally taught as a single subject science until sixth form, then splits into subject-specific A levels (physics, chemistry and biology).

However, the government has since expressed its desire that those pupils who achieve well at the age of 14 should be offered the opportunity to study the three separate sciences from September 2008.

[49] Although at the college level American science education tends to be less regulated, it is actually more rigorous, with teachers and professors fitting more content into the same time period.

Its focus on inquiry-based science, based on the theory of constructivism rather than on direct instruction of facts and methods, remains controversial.

In recent years, business leaders such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates have called for more emphasis on science education, saying the United States risks losing its economic edge.

[55] To this end, Tapping America's Potential is an organization aimed at getting more students to graduate with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees.

[56] Public opinion surveys, however, indicate most U.S. parents are complacent about science education and that their level of concern has actually declined in recent years.

It emphasizes science educators to focus on a "limited number of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts, be designed so that students continually build on and revise their knowledge and abilities over multiple years, and support the integration of such knowledge and abilities with the practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering design.

Developed by 26 state governments and national organizations of scientists and science teachers, the guidelines, called the Next Generation Science Standards, are intended to "combat widespread scientific ignorance, to standardize teaching among states, and to raise the number of high school graduates who choose scientific and technical majors in college...." Included are guidelines for teaching students about topics such as climate change and evolution.

These standards were instituted in hopes that they would reform the past science education system, and foster higher student achievement through improved curriculum and teacher development.

The "crosscutting concepts" are themes that are consistently relevant throughout many different scientific disciplines, such as the flow of energy/matter, cause/effect, systems/system practices, patterns, the relationship between structure and function, and stability/change.

It is also outlined that students with disabilities must be properly accommodated for under Common Core standards via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

It is believed by many educators that laboratory work promotes their students' scientific thinking, problem solving skills, and cognitive development.

Since 1960, instructional strategies for science education have taken into account Jean Piaget's developmental model, and therefore started introducing concrete materials and laboratory settings, which required students to actively participate in their learning.

The use of computational tools, which have become extremely prevalent in STEM fields as a result of the advancement of technology, has been shown to support science learning.

This book makes valuable research accessible to those working in informal science: educators, museum professionals, university faculty, youth leaders, media specialists, publishers, broadcast journalists, and many others.