2061 Connections
An electronic newsletter for the science education community

September/October 2008

Atlas of Science Literacy Translated into Chinese

Cover shot of the Chinese translation of <em>Atlas of Science Literacy</em>

Think it’s a challenge to keep track of all the connections among student learning goals on maps in your copy of Atlas? Try translating those maps into Chinese. Thanks to the dedicated work of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), in cooperation with China’s Popular Science Press, the entire first volume of Atlas of Science Literacy is now available in Chinese.

The new print edition of Atlas joins earlier translations by CAST of Project 2061’s Science for All Americans, Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Blueprints for Reform, and Designs for Science Literacy. While Project 2061 books have also been translated into Spanish and Japanese in recent years, the Chinese Atlas, Volume 1 is the first international edition of this popular resource. Atlas of Science Literacy is a two-volume collection of conceptual strand maps—and commentary on those maps—that show how students’ understanding of the ideas and skills that lead to literacy in science, mathematics, and technology might develop from kindergarten through 12th grade. More than 36,000 copies of Atlas 1 have been sold since its publication in 2001. Atlas 2, published in 2007, has sold more than 12,000 copies.

The

The "Natural Selection"
map in Chinese.

Click image to view larger.

The

The "Statistical Reasoning"
map in Chinese.

Click image to view larger.

CAST—a non-profit, non-governmental organization of Chinese scientific and technological workers—has a long-standing relationship with AAAS. In 2007, a delegation to Beijing led by AAAS Chief Executive Officer Alan I. Leshner signed agreements with Chinese science and technology organizations to collaborate on a range of publishing and education projects (see AAAS News coverage). For one of these projects, CAST is making resources from Project 2061’s Web site available in Chinese on CAST’s Web site.

George DeBoer and Diane Riendeau

George DeBoer and
Diane Riendeau

Project 2061 welcomes these opportunities to share our efforts to reform K-12 science education in the U.S. with science educators abroad. The next issue of Project 2061 Connections will report on AAAS’s participation in the 2008 Shanghai International Forum on Science Literacy of Precollege Students. Project 2061 Deputy Director George DeBoer and Illinois physics teacher Diane Riendeau, the 2008 winner of the AAAS Leadership in Science Education Prize for High School Teachers, represented AAAS at the October forum. 

Read more about Project 2061’s collaborations with Chinese science educators in “Chinese Educators, U.S. Publishers Look to Project 2061” (Project 2061 Connections, January/February 2008).

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For more information about Project 2061's publications, please contact:

Communications Director: Mary Koppal, (202) 326-6643



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