We think so.
At a time when key problems like climate change and vaccine hesitancy call for more citizens to be scientifically literate, we need to change the way science is taught in American schools. Influential national science education standards called the Next Generation Science Standards (the NGSS) can be improved to better meet the needs of young people in a democratic society.
In a discussion white paper on this website we identify four areas in which we believe national science education standards for grades K-12 can and should be improved:
- Include scientific misinformation as a topic for students to study;
- Teach about the key role of scientific institutions in science (e.g., the CDC, the IPCC, the FDA);
- Broaden the view of “scientific literacy” embodied in the standards; and,
- Provide more information for teachers about key principles of teaching and learning.
Read the white paper about important “missing pieces” in the Next Generation Science Standards, and how the standards can be improved, then join the conversation on our blog. On the blog page you can request emails to notify you whenever there is a new post.
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An important report from Stanford
We are encouraged by publication of a new report from Stanford University, Science Education in an Age of Misinformation. Authors reached the same conclusion we have: national and state science education standards need to be revised in order to teach students to distinguish between real science and junk science. Continue reading
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Revising the NGSS
In this post we sketch changes to the NGSS to make it much better. We are joined by Rodger Bybee, a member of the NGSS Writing Leadership Team, and Professor John Rudolph, author of How We Teach Science, a history of American science education. Continue reading
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“A Response to the National Academies’ 2021 Call to Action”
Science Educator has published our article called “A response to the National Academies’ 2021 Call to Action.” The topic is teaching science for citizenship. For students to learn how to make better decisions involving science modest, feasible changes are needed in policy, curriculum, and instruction. Continue reading
Improving Science Education Standards 