Available Tools, Option D:
Features of Science for All Americans
and Benchmarks for Science Literacy
Estimated Time: 30 minutes.
List of Materials
Sample Presentation
Presenter: This option is designed to help participants understand
the organization of Science for All Americans and Benchmarks
for Science Literacy, identify the major features of these tools, and
counter some common misconceptions about them.
TRANSPARENCY: Cartoon: Goals.
Presenter: Remember that Science for All Americans
sets clear goals for us; this book tells us what we want all Americans
to know when they graduate from high school.
TRANSPARENCY: Science
for All Americans - Table of Contents.
Presenter: It will be valuable for us to review the content
of SFAA. What does it define as necessary for adult science literacy?
Understanding this is essential as we use both SFAA and Benchmarks
to shape frameworks and curricula. As we move through this workshop, we
should clarify in our discussions the hard choices that framing curricula
around SFAA and Benchmarks will demand.
-
Chapters 1-3 focus on the nature of science, mathematics, and technology
as human enterprises, how they differ, and how they are alike—their reliance
on evidence, their use of hypotheses and theories, the kinds of logic they
use, and their attempt to identify and avoid bias.
-
Chapter 10 (Historical Episodes) illustrates the scientific enterprise
with 10 concrete examples. They are of exceptional significance to our
cultural heritage—the planetary earth, universal gravitation, relativity,
geologic time, plate tectonics, the conservation of matter, radioactivity
and nuclear fission, the evolution of species, the nature of disease, and
the industrial revolution.
-
Chapters 4-9 present a scientific view of the world—a common core of
knowledge that can serve as tools for thinking about phenomena. Included
are The Physical Setting, which describes basic knowledge about the overall
structure of the universe and the physical principles on which it seems
to run, emphasizing the earth and the solar system; The Living Environment,
which gives basic knowledge about how living things function and how they
interact with one another and their environment; The Human Organism as
a species that is in some ways like other living things and in some ways
unique; Human Society in terms of individual and group behavior, social
organizations, and the process of social change; The Designed World, that
is, the world shaped and controlled largely through the use of technology—
agriculture, materials, and manufacturing, energy sources and use, communication
and information processing, and health technology; The Mathematical World,
which gives basic mathematical ideas, especially those with practical application,
that together play a key role in almost all human endeavors.
-
Chapter 11 presents Common Themes that cut across disciplines and can
serve as tools for thinking for areas as diverse as ancient civilization,
the human body, or a comet.
-
Chapter 12 presents recommendations about values, attitudes, and skills—mathematical,
manipulation and observation, communication, and critical response skills—in
the context of science education—Habits of Mind.
Which chapter do you (or do you believe you would) find especially interesting?
Using think-pair-share, explain your reasoning
to your partner.
Have some responses shared with the whole group.
TRANSPARENCY: Possible Misconceptions.
Presenter: One of the things we want to do throughout this
workshop is to identify and correct misconceptions about Science for
All Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy that have come
to the attention of Project staff.
Discuss some of the misconceptions briefly, particularly any that have
been expressed by participants.
TRANSPARENCY: Principles of
Effective Learning and Teaching.
Chapter 13 lays out the principles of effective learning and teaching
that underlie all Project 2061 tools. Chapters 1 through 12 recommend what
students should learn; Chapter 13 recognizes that how science is taught
is equally important.
TRANSPARENCY: Cartoon: Teaching
Dog To Whistle.
Presenter: Chapter 13 reminds us that learning is not necessarily
an outcome of teaching.
TRANSPARENCY: Making Changes
in the Classroom.
Presenter: Since SFAA was published, educators have
been using its recommendations to stimulate thought and discussion about
changes in the classroom; for example:
-
Finding out how students already think about every major topic.
-
Giving students enough evidence and time to change their inappropriate
ideas.
-
Shifting classwork toward ideas and thinking and away from vocabulary
and predetermined answers.
-
Expecting and rewarding clear and accurate reports, both written and
oral, of students’ thinking and activities.
-
Increasing the use of team approaches that allow more active participation
by every student.
-
Making sure that girls, minority students, and students with disabilities
are fully engaged in all class activities in science, mathematics, and
technology.
We will use some of these principles of teaching and learning during
this workshop.
States, school districts, and teacher education programs have been
using SFAA to rethink their curricula. As school district teams
struggled with the challenge of sketching out alternative K-12 curricula
around the SFAA literacy goals, Project staff realized that curriculum
planners needed smaller chunks around which they could develop very different
sorts of learning experiences for students of different ages. And so, the
Project sought to describe some intermediate steps toward adult science
literacy. Out of four years of effort, Benchmarks for Science Literacy
emerged.
TRANSPARENCY: SFAA/Benchmarks
Correspondence.
Presenter: Each of the 70 or so SFAA sections has a
corresponding section in Benchmarks that describes the progress
students should make towards a particular learning goal by the end of grades
2, 5, 8, and 12.
TRANSPARENCY: Benchmarks
Features
Presenter: For each section you will find the following features:
-
lists of benchmarks--statements of what students should know or be able
to do by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12;
-
Introductory and grade-level essays that describe difficulties students
may have with the benchmark topic and suggestions for helping students
achieve it;
-
References to research summaries on the topic;
-
Cross references to related benchmarks in other Benchmarks chapters.
TRANSPARENCY:
Benchmarks
5E Also See Box.
TRANSPARENCY: Benchmarks
for Science Literacy (Table of Contents).
Benchmarks has some chapters not found in SFAA.
-
About Benchmarks, which gives the underlying principles of Project
2061 and states what Benchmarks is and is not;
-
Chapter 13, The Origin of Benchmarks, which describes the important
role school-district teams played in developing Benchmarks and the
thinking behind it;
-
Chapter 14, Issues and Language, which discusses issues that arose during
Benchmarks’ development and attempts to define the words we use;
-
Chapter 15, The Research Base, which summarizes and cites the research
pertaining to the substance and grade-level placement of benchmarks;
-
Chapter 16, Beyond Benchmarks, which describes where Project
2061 is headed;
-
Benchmarks also contains an invitation to respond on the back cover,
which requests comments based on use of this edition of Benchmarks;
these comments will affect future revisions.
Take questions from the audience.