A Teacher’s Thoughts

Skim over any state’s science standards and you are likely to see a long list of topics you may recall from various science classes in your past, from the elementary grades through college. Here in New Hampshire the list is much the same. Learning targets are set for different blocks of grade level spans. And at each grade span there are topics from life science, physical science, and earth science. So at first glance it would appear that science standards do emphasize science. In fact, with a recent rewrite of the New Hampshire Frameworks for Science Literacy, many of the standards span many grade levels with student proficiencies being set based on developmental milestones.

While the changes in these standards with the recent revision are good, they do not go nearly far enough. Science is still portrayed as a body of knowledge to be learned and known. The process of science is reduced to the scientific method, a central idea, but in reality a generalization that does not do just service to the efforts of achieving understanding and knowledge in science.

I have written before on the needs of 21st century science learners. The ideas I discussed are related tightly to ideas about 21st century literacy skills in general. The process of dealing with information and creating knowledge in science are similar. Curriculum focus needs to recognize that content outside of a context of process is just as meaningless as process without content. Standards need to emphasize active doing, kids collecting data (and there are ample sources online and through lab experiments), open ended investigations, questioning skills and creativity.

Influence “It gives kids different lenses on the world”