Building an Understanding of Science

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This award supports the construction of a website that will provide an accurate portrayal of what science is and how it works, as well as tools for teaching those ideas. This project has at its heart a public re-engagement with science that begins with teacher preparation. To this end, its immediate goals are to (1) improve teacher understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise and (2) provide resources and strategies that encourage and enable K-16 teachers to incorporate and reinforce the nature of science throughout their science teaching. Specifically, the website will: (1) Provide clarification on what science is and what it is not. (2) Depict science as an ongoing process that is both creative and disciplined. (3) Identify and clarify misconceptions about science. (4) Emphasize the relevance and excitement of science. In addition, to support K-16 science teaching, the site will: (1) Provide a conceptual framework for teaching the nature of science at all grade spans. (2) Provide a searchable database of vetted teaching resources. (3) Include strategies for integrating and reinforcing the nature of science within content areas mandated by state and national science standards. (4) Offer course components targeting pre-service teachers. Building on the successful model used in past projects, the design and development of the Understanding Science website will rely upon a collaboration of scientists, teachers, and graduate students working together to build a product that is sound in both science and pedagogy and that meets the needs of the primary audiences. Because this project spans multiple learning levels and scientific disciplines, an Advisory Board provides additional expertise across all major disciplines of the natural sciences, cognitive science, philosophy of science, and teacher education. Research indicates that students and teachers at all grade levels have inadequate understandings of the nature of science, which may be traced to classrooms where the nature of science is often taught as a simple, linear, and non-generative process. This false and impoverished depiction disengages students, discourages public support, and may help explain current indications that the US is losing its global edge in science. Even beyond the health of the US economy, many arguments support a concerted effort to raise public understanding of science. The public has a genuine need to critically assess conflicting representations of "scientific" evidence in the media and to make decisions based on their assessment of these claims. To do this, they need to understand the strengths, limitations, and basic methods of the enterprise that has produced those claims. This project takes an important step towards this goal by providing teachers with tools to effectively teach the nature of science.