Improving Science Literacy in General Education: An Interdisciplinary Approach

提高通识教育中的科学素养：跨学科方法

• 批准号: 9653090
• 负责人: Alexandra Moore
• 金额: $ 14万
• 依托单位: Hartwick College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-06-01 至 2000-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9653090&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; Science; Literacy; General; Education

Our goal is to improve the scientific literacy of Hartwick College students, and in so doing, develop a successful model for reform that might be adapted to the needs of other institutions. We will revise our general education curriculum so that those students whose desire to do science is fueled only by graduation requirements will leave that experience with a much fuller appreciation of what science is, how science is done, why science is important, and most significantly, a solid understanding of some of the important issues in modern science. We hope to engender in students the confidence and the ability to make informed decisions about science & technology issues. We feel that the most significant barrier to increased scientific understanding is the lack of connection between the science courses offered to non-science majors. These courses are designed with the assumption that students have no prior knowledge of the subject matter and have limited mathematical skills. Thus at Hartwick, where students must complete three math & science courses to graduate, each faculty member starts from scratch and cannot build on the efforts of our colleagues who may have taught these students in previous semesters. Additionally, as math is purposefully removed from coursework, students see math as a completely separate enterprise, rather than as an integral part of science. This approach effectively cheats our students of the thorough science education that they deserve. Furthermore, by requiring courses to be distributed across different departments and allowing students to take the courses at any time, we make it extremely difficult for students to see the connections between the various scientific disciplines. We force science to appear fragmented rather than coherent. We will develop a series of three sequenced, thematic, interdisciplinary courses in math and science that would satisfy Hartwick's general education requirement. The program theme is "The science of the Environment," and will be staffed by members of the departments of mathematics, biology, chemistry and geological & environmental sciences. The program targets first-year students who enter college as undeclared majors. Thus a secondary goal is to encourage some of these undecided students to consider a career in science.

我们的目标是提高哈特威克大学学生的科学素养，并在这样做，制定一个成功的改革模式，可能会适应其他机构的需求。我们将修改我们的通识教育课程，使那些渴望做科学的学生只受到毕业要求的刺激，他们将离开这一经验，更充分地了解什么是科学，科学是如何完成的，为什么科学是重要的，最重要的是，对现代科学中的一些重要问题有一个坚实的理解。我们希望培养学生对科学技术问题做出明智决定的信心和能力。我们认为，增加科学理解的最大障碍是为非科学专业提供的科学课程之间缺乏联系。这些课程的设计假设学生没有事先的主题知识，并有有限的数学技能。因此，在哈特威克，学生必须完成三门数学科学课程才能毕业，每个教师都是从头开始，不能建立在我们的同事谁可能教这些学生在前几个学期的努力。此外，由于数学是有目的地从课程中删除，学生认为数学是一个完全独立的企业，而不是作为科学的一个组成部分。这种方法有效地欺骗了我们的学生，使他们得不到应有的彻底的科学教育。此外，通过要求课程分布在不同的部门，并允许学生随时参加课程，我们使学生很难看到各种科学学科之间的联系。我们迫使科学显得支离破碎，而不是连贯一致。 我们将开发一系列的三个顺序，主题，在数学和科学的跨学科课程，将满足哈特威克的通识教育的要求。该方案的主题是“环境科学”，并将由数学，生物，化学和地质环境科学系的成员组成。该计划的目标是作为未申报专业进入大学的一年级学生。因此，第二个目标是鼓励这些犹豫不决的学生考虑从事科学事业。