Developing Science Literacy in Non-SME&T Majors

科学文盲问题是一个全国性的问题。虽然大学本科课程在教育中小企业T专业方面做了令人钦佩的工作，但它们并没有为这些领域之外的专业提供足够的技术背景。失败的原因之一是学生没有将预科班教授的技能转移到他们的科学课上。为了达到学生的身体，要么大量的科学类必须有针对性的，或者，替代地，一个类，基本上招收所有学生。满足这一要求的两个班级是数学和英语。大量的NSF项目已经针对数学课程。相反，这个项目正在努力修改开始的英语课，以纳入材料，将准备学生理解的概念和方法在科学课上教授。这是一种新颖的方法，据我们所知，尚未以我们提出的规模进行尝试。这种未经尝试的方法可能被证明是非常有效的，我们正在构建的材料可以被纳入两年制和四年制院校的英语入门课程，而不会造成太大的干扰。本建议中提出的教学方法可以很容易地纳入当前的英语课程，并提供了一个工具，教科学推理技能在一个威胁较小的环境比数学或科学类。这种方法对数学和科学焦虑水平高的少数民族和女性特别有效。

The problem of science illiteracy is a national problem. Although university undergraduate programs have done an admirable job at educating SME&T majors, they have not provided majors outside of these fields with an adequate technical background. One of the reasons for this failure is that students are not transferring the skills taught in preparatory classes to their science classes. In order to reach the student body, either a multitude of science classes must be targeted, or, alternatively, a class that essentially enrolls all students. Two classes that meet this requirement are beginning Math and English. A large number of NSF projects have already targeted math classes. This project instead is working to revise the beginning English class to incorporate materials that will prepare students to understand the concepts and methods taught in science classes. This is a novel approach, that to our knowledge, has not yet been attempted on the scale that we propose. This untried approach may prove quite effective and the materials we are constructing can be incorporated into introductory English classes in both two- and four-year institutions with minimal disruption. The pedagogical method presented in this proposal can be easily incorporated in current English classes and offers a vehicle to teach science reasoning skills in a less threatening environment than the Math or science class. This approach should be particulary effective with minorities and women whose math and science anxiety levels are high.