Description
In this collection of 15 essays, educators describe successful programs they’ve developed to fulfill the National Science Education Standards’ vision for the reform of teaching, assessment, professional development, and content at the high school level. All the visions correspond with the Less Emphasis and More Emphasis conditions that conclude each section of the Standards, characterizing what most teachers and programs should do less of as well as describing the changes needed if real reform is to occur.
Essay titles reveal the range of programs—and creativity—this book encompasses. Among the titles are “Technology and Cooperative Learning: The IIT Model for Teaching Authentic Chemistry Curriculum,” “Modeling: Changes in Traditional Physics Instruction,” “Guided by the Standards: Inquiry and Assessment in Two Rural and Urban Schools,” and even “Sing and Dance Your Way to Science Success.”
The book ends with a summary chapter by editor Robert Yager on successes and continuing challenges in meeting the Standards’ visions for improving high school science. As Yager notes, “The exemplary programs described in this monograph give inspiration while also providing evidence that the new directions are feasible and worth the energy and effort needed for others to implement changes.
Ideas For Use
The authors hope that by reading this book, teachers will find new ideas to try and that they will want to share more stories of their successes, especially in terms of similar experiences with their own students.
Contents
Introduction:
Implementing the Changes in High School Programs
Envisioned in the National Science Education Standards:
Where Are We Nine Years Later?
Robert E. Yager
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 It’s the “Little Things” That Can Change the Way You Teach
David L. Brock
Chapter 2 Technology and Cooperative Learning: The IIT Model for
Teaching Authentic Chemistry Curriculum
Therese Forsythe and Gregory MacKinnon
Chapter 3 Inquiring Minds Want to Know All About Detergent Enzymes
Carolyn A. Hayes
Chapter 4 Teaching Ecology by Evolving and Revolving
Harry Hitchcock and Claudia Melear
Chapter 5 Biomedical Engineering and Your High School Science
Classroom: Challenge-Based Curriculum That Meets
the NSES Standards
Stacy Klein and Robert D. Sherwood
Chapter 6 RIP-ing Away Barriers to Science Education:
Inquiry Through the Research Investigation Process
Robert E. Landsman
Chapter 7 Modeling: Changes in Traditional Physics Instruction
Earl Legleiter
Chapter 8 Guided by the Standards: Inquiry and Assessment in Two
Rural and Urban Schools
Julie A. Luft, Teresa Potter, and Steve Fletcher
Chapter 9 The View From One Classroom
Carmela Rivera Minaya
Chapter 10 Sing and Dance Your Way to Science Success
Cindy Moss
Chapter 11 Student Inquiry at the Illinois Mathematics and
Science Academy
Judith A. Scheppler, Donald Dosch, Susan Styer, and Steven Rogg
Chapter 12 Teacher Action Research on Interactive Lectures:
Engaging All Students in Verbal Give-and-Take
Ruth Trimarchi and Brenda Capobianco
Chapter 13 Stop Talking, Start Listening: Turning Didactic Science
Teaching On Its Head
Peter Veronesi and Karl Biedlingmaier
Chapter 14 The Sky’s the Limit: A More Emphasis Approach to the Study of Meteorology
Eric A. Walters
Chapter 15 Bust That Castle Wall!
Vicki Wilson
Chapter 16 Successes and Continuing Challenges: Meeting the NSES
Visions for Improving Science in High Schools
Robert E. Yager
Appendix 1 Less Emphasis/More Emphasis Recommendations from the National Science Education Standards
Appendix 2 Contributors List
Index