Atlas of Science Literacy, Volumes 1 and 2
Mapping K–12 science learning
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.
Atlas is part of a coordinated set of tools developed by Project 2061
to help educators understand and use specific goals for student learning. The maps in Atlas are
built from the K-12 learning goals presented in Project 2061’s Benchmarks
for Science Literacy. Benchmarks was derived from the recommendations
for adult science literacy proposed in Project 2061’s landmark report Science
for All Americans.
Volume 1 of Atlas
was published in 2001 and is joined now by a new second volume.
Together, Atlas 1 and Atlas 2 map all of the goals that are
recommended in Benchmarks as essential for every student to learn. Both
volumes of Atlas of Science Literacy are co-published by AAAS Project 2061
and the National Science Teachers Association.
Atlas 2 Completes Set of
Maps
With the publication of Atlas 2, the Atlas volumes
now include nearly 100
maps that chart all of the learning goals specified in Benchmarks. In
addition to contributing 44 new maps to Atlas chapters that were not fully
covered in Volume 1, Volume 2 also introduces maps for two chapters that were not covered
at all in the earlier volume. Chapter 10: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES introduces nine new
maps on important episodes of scientific discovery, and Chapter 12: HABITS OF MIND presents
six maps that deal with attitudes, skills, and values that are essential to science literacy.
The chapter organization of Atlas follows that used in both Science
for All Americans and Benchmarks. Each Atlas chapter
includes maps that correspond to the sections in the matching Benchmarks chapters.
To help readers find particular benchmarks, Atlas 2 includes
a useful index that can be used to locate benchmarks on maps in either volume.
Each Atlas map is accompanied by commentary on the facing
page. The commentary provides a general discussion of the map topic, the
content of the map and its major strands, and the focus of learning at each of the
four grade ranges. The commentary also includes notes pointing out aspects of the map
that may be of interest to readers and summaries of the relevant cognitive research,
drawn from Chapter 15: THE RESEARCH BASE in Benchmarks and elsewhere.
Using Atlas of Science Literacy
An Atlas strand map focuses on a core topic and
displays the K-12 benchmarks that are most relevant to understanding it, suggesting for
each benchmark along the way earlier benchmarks it builds on and later benchmarks it
supports. The Map Key explains
the different features of the new maps in Volume 2.
Educators working in a wide range of settings are making extensive use of Atlas maps
to:
Understand benchmarks and standards. By studying maps carefully, teachers
and other educators can get a better sense of the content and nature of the benchmarks
as specific learning goals.
Design curriculum. The information in the maps helps educators distribute
responsibilities for students’ science learning across different grades and subjects,
thus fostering K-12 coherence.
Plan instruction. Maps enable educators to develop instruction that is focused
on the specific ideas in a benchmark and to take account of the precursors these specific
ideas build on.
Develop or evaluate curriculum materials. Maps offer materials developers
a helpful perspective on which benchmarks to target and at what level of sophistication.
Construct and analyze assessment. Maps help answer questions about when it
is appropriate to assess particular ideas and skills, and why students might have had
trouble with a particular task.
Prepare teachers. Whether in a pre-service or in-service context, using maps
can sharpen teachers’ sense of what benchmarks mean and how to help students attain
them.
Organize resources. Maps are proving to be useful frameworks for organizing
education resources and linking them to particular ideas that are found in national and
state science standards.
The maps in Atlas 1 and Atlas 2 do not prescribe a particular
curriculum or instructional strategy. Instead, they present a framework meant to inspire
a variety of different ways to design and organize learning experiences suited to local
circumstances.
We hope the enduring message of Atlas will be that thinking carefully
about the growth of understanding from kindergarten through high-school graduation is
an essential part of planning what students can be expected to learn and how best they
can be helped to do so.
This work is supported by the National
Science Foundation under Grant
No. ESI-0103678. Any opinions, findings, and
conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation.
