1 On behalf of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, this lesson was prepared by Arizona State University’s Mars Education Program, under contract to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology. These materials may be distributed freely for non-commercial purposes. Copyright 2014; 2012; 2010; 2000. Last edited: April 24, 2014 Marsbound! Mission to the Red Planet

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students’ attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students’ attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils’ interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.

Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications

National Science Education Standards

What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: * When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? * What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? * How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? * What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? * How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of science--about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science education--teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.

Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grades K-8. Committee on Science Learning, Kindergarten through 8th grade: National Research Council, Board on Science Education, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning Taking Science to School answers such questions as: * When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? * What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? * How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? * What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? * How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of science--about the role of research and evidence This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science education--teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn

Taking science to school: learning and teaching science in grades k-8

Recent arguments in science education have proposed that school science should pay more attention to teaching the nature of science and its social practices. However, unlike the content of science, for which there is well-established consensus, there would appear to be much less unanimity within the academic community about which ideas-about-science are essential elements that should be included in the contemporary school science curriculum. Hence, this study sought to determine empirically the extent of any consensus using a three stage Delphi questionnaire with 23 participants drawn from the communities of leading and acknowledged international experts of science educators; scientists; historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science; experts engaged in work to improve the public understanding of science; and expert science teachers. The outcome of the research was a set of nine themes encapsulating key ideas about the nature of science for which there was consensus and which were considered to be an essential component of school science curriculum. Together with extensive comments provided by the participants, these data give some measure of the existing level of agreement in the community engaged in science education and science communication about the salient features of a vulgarized account of the nature of science. Although some of the themes are already a feature of existing school science curricula, many others are not. The findings of this research, therefore, challenge (a) whether the picture of science represented in the school science curriculum is sufficiently comprehensive, and (b) whether there balance in the curriculum between teaching about the content of science and the nature of science is appropriate.

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What “ideas‐about‐science” should be taught in school science? A Delphi study of the expert community

What do pupils and their parents think of the science education they are offered? What kind of science education would they value and why? These questions were the essential central strands of a two-year study conducted in England between January 1998 and December 1999 using focus groups (Osborne and Collins, 2000). 144 pupils, age 16, at the end of their compulsory science education, 117 parents and 26 teachers were interviewed and their views recorded and analysed systematically. The findings show that pupils held well-defined views about what they valued in school science, and what they found to be of little interest or value to their daily life. Their parents' views were more disparate but there were clear expectations that school science would prepare their children to deal more effectively with contemporary socio-scientific issues. The significant implications of these findings for the school science curriculum and its implementation are discussed.

Pupils' and parents' views of the school science curriculum

Pupils' & parents' views of the school science curriculum : a study funded by the wellcome trust

The Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE) Research Network is part of the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) - the largest programme of educational research ever conducted in the UK. EPSE is undertaking four related projects, whose overall aim is to help us understand better the relationship between science education research and practice, and thereby increase the impact of research, leading to improved learning of science by more pupils. The four EPSE projects are the only ones in the TLRP that focus specifically on science education. In this article, three of the EPSE projects are briefly outlined. A second article (also in this issue of SSR) discusses the fourth project. As the projects are still in progress, all the findings reported are interim ones.

Sue Collins

Papers

Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications

What “ideas‐about‐science” should be taught in school science? A Delphi study of the expert community

Pupils' and parents' views of the school science curriculum

Pupils' & parents' views of the school science curriculum : a study funded by the wellcome trust

Towards Evidence-Based Practice in Science Education