Enhancing the Scientific Awareness (Literacy) of Non-science Majors via an Interdisciplinary Physical Science Course

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Interdisciplinary (99) Chemistry, physics, and education faculty are engaged in designing, developing, and pilot testing a physical science course that is designed to enhance the scientific awareness of nonscience majors. This is being done in a three cycle iterative process where each cycle ends with assessment leading to subsequent improvements. Currently the university required curriculum for non-science majors does not provide direct experiences with the methods and processes of science. This developing course is providing an undergraduate science experience that is inquiry-based and content-relevant to students' personal experiences. This is being accomplished by including materials that are contextually familiar and potentially interesting to Michigan students. Students taking the new course are learning the scientific approach to problem solving -- a process that requires basing opinions on facts and observable evidence. Use of peer learning groups in active-learning classroom activities and computer laboratory study are part of the course design. We expect this pedagogical design will prove effective in improving critical thinking and communication skills. The course is also teaching methods for locating information on scientific topics and for understanding and interpreting scientific data. The course is constructed around three modules -- the science of everyday life, science of the microscopic world, and the earth and beyond. These choices are making extensive use of modules developed by two NSF Chemistry Initiatives known as Modular Chemistry and ChemLinks. Each module area is being developed with some flexibility. Eventually there will be a minimum of two alternative module implementations developed in each module area to provide flexibility of choice for the many faculty who are (or soon will be) teaching it. This project is also adapting materials from the textbook "Physical Science" by J. Faughn, R. Chang, and J. Turk (Fort Worth, Texas: Saunders College Publishing, 1995), from "Workshop Science: Exploring Nature Through Active Learning," by S. Franklin, D. Jackson, and P. Laws, AAPT Spring Meeting, Lincoln, NE (1998), the Integrated Science Program at Cal State - Chico (R. Lederer, "A Problem Solving, Simulation, and Teamwork Approach to Teaching Integrated Science, being developed under a 1997 NSF grant), and the general education program at UCLA (www.college.ucla.edu/ge/). A systematic effort will be made to identify and recruit future secondary science teachers from students entering the university, particularly those who enter with an undecided career. Project products will include modified ChemLinks/ ModularChem modules, assessment tools to measuring levels of scientific awareness, and a workshop for training faculty and teaching assistants in the teaching and assessment methodologies used in this course.