Advances in Biology and Geology: Evolutionary Perspectives

生物学和地质学的最新进展为我们提供了新的见解，使我们了解到今天的地球和现有的各种生命形式的形成过程。这项工作肯定了这样一种观点，即理解地球上生命的核心是进化。然而，高中地球科学和生物学课程并没有充分说明现代主题，如板块构造学或分子生物学，是如何让我们理解这个框架的。生物科学课程研究（BSCS）将与美国动物学家学会和美国地质学会合作，设计、开发、实地测试和分发关于我们对进化的理解进展的印刷材料和交互式视频光盘，用于高中地球科学和生物课程。这些材料的设计将纳入全年的生物和地球科学课程，而不是作为一个单独的单元；这种方法将促进整个课程中进化论观点的结合。教材还将通过强调假设形成、数据分析和科学知识的试探性等概念，使学生熟悉“作为一种认识方式的科学”。科罗拉多州博尔德市的媒体设计协会将制作视频光盘和互动软件；位于华盛顿州西雅图的VideoDiscovery公司将出版并销售完整的节目。纽约州罗彻斯特的沃兹自然科学机构将为所有现场测试学校提供实验室设备和材料，并将在项目达到商业分销时成为材料的官方供应商。

Recent progress in biology and geology has provided new insights into the processes that have led to our earth as we find it today and to the existing variety of life forms. This work affirms the view that the central for understanding life on earth is evolution. However, high school earth science and biology curricula do not adequately address the ways in which modern topics such as plate tectonics or molecular biology inform our understanding of this framework. The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), in cooperation with the American Society of Zoologists and the Geological Society of American, will design, develop, field test, and distribute print materials and an interactive videodisc on advances in our understanding of evolution for use in high school earth science and biology courses. The materials will be designed for integration into biology and earth science curricula throughout the year rather than as a separate unit; this approach will promote the incorporation of evolutionary perspectives throughout the curriculum. The materials also will acquaint students with "science as a way of knowing", by emphasizing such concepts as hypothesis formation, data analysis, and the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. Media Design Associates, Boulder, Colorado will produce the videodisc and interactive software; VideoDiscovery, Seattle Washington, will publish and market the completed program. Wards's Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, will provide laboratory equipment and materials for all field-test schools and will be the official supplier of the materials when the program reaches commercial distribution.