Course Description
Examination and selection of science curriculum materials and assessments. Evaluating and reformulating materials for relevance to middle grades classrooms. Special attention to examples and problems drawn from the life, earth, and environmental sciences.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students are required to complete an additional applied
project, culminating in a presentation to the class, choosing
from a selection of trade books, intended for an adult audience
and about current topics in Life Science or Earth/Space Science,
and developing a middle grades lesson around the subject matter
keyed to appropriate grade-level objectives.
Athena Title
Science Curric for Mid Grades
Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
- to understand science and engineering practices of science teaching and learning - to survey major issues in science curriculum - to survey major issues in science assessment - to introduce the range of uses of electronic technologies in science teaching and learning - to survey major ethical, cultural, and social issues in science teaching - to illustrate the application of these general principles using examples typically prominent in middle grades life and earth science teaching
Topical Outline
Science and engineering practices The learning cycle approach to science teaching Examples of hands-on, minds-on activities appropriate for middle grades science Rationales for the overall goals of a middle grades science program, with reference to various recent U.S. national science standards documents Criteria for the design of the specific scope and sequence of the life science and earth science components of a curriculum plan for middle grades science, with reference to both state and local objectives and recent U.S. national science standards documents Selecting and constructing traditional assessment items Examples of alternative assessment approaches in middle school science Electronic databases and technologies as teaching tools Computer simulations of natural phenomena and of scientific problem solving processes as teaching tools for middle school science Computer-network-accessed data and communications as a resource for science teaching Gender equity issues in science and education Use and treatment of animals (living and dead) in the science classroom Health/sex/AIDS education as an aspect of science teaching and middle school curriculum Historical and current conflicts between science and religion with regard to the subject matter areas of astronomy, historical geology, and evolutionary biology
Syllabus