Developing a Large Enrollment Physical Science Curriculum

该项目的长期目标是提高普通民众的科学素养。大多数学院和大学向非理科专业的学生提供科学通识教育课程。这些班级通常有90多名学生，其中许多是未来的小学教师。在大班中，讲课是传统的方式。但研究表明，学习科学的最好方法是通过引导式探究，通过做实验并与同学讨论他们的想法和观察，引导学生发展自己的想法。在过去，项目为大约30名学生的小班开发了这样的课程。这个项目改编了一个成功的指导性探究物理课程，用于大班教学。除了教授基本的科学概念外，这门课程还涵盖了科学的本质(科学家做了什么)和学习的本质(学生如何学习)。课堂技术很重要。教师不是让学生做实验，而是使用投影仪来展示实验的演示和视频，并运行在线模拟。学生们与坐在他们周围的学生讨论想法。观众反应系统(点击器)记录和整理个人和群体的反应。家庭作业是通过互联网完成的。有时学生在网上小组合作；有时使用模拟器。这使得教师可以收集关于整个课程进度的数据，并相应地为后续课程量身定制。该课程正在全国范围内进行测试，以收集有关它是否比传统课程更有效地改善科学学习，以及它是否与小班版本一样有效的信息。讲师参加研讨会，学习如何授课，他们有大量的在线资源来帮助计划和执行每一节课。这使得各机构更容易采用该课程。一家知名的教育出版商正在出版学生和教师材料。

The long-term goal of this project is to improve the scientific literacy of the general population. Most colleges and universities offer general education classes in science to non-science majors. These classes often have more than 90 students, many of them prospective elementary-school teachers. In large classes, lecturing is the traditional approach. But research shows that the best way to learn science is through guided inquiry, where students are guided to develop their own ideas by doing experiments and discussing their ideas and observations with classmates. In the past, projects have developed such curricula for small classes of around 30 students. This project adapts a successful guided inquiry physical science curriculum for use in large classes. As well as teaching fundamental scientific ideas, the course covers the nature of science (what scientists do) and the nature of learning (how students learn). Classroom technology is important. Instead of having the students do experiments, the instructor uses a projector to show demonstrations and videos of experiments, and run online simulations. Students discuss ideas with the students sitting around them. Audience-response systems (clickers) record and collate the responses of individuals and groups. Homework is done over the internet. Sometimes students collaborate in online groups; sometimes simulators are used. This allows the instructor to gather data about the progress of the whole class, and tailor subsequent classes accordingly. The curriculum is being tested across the country to gather information about whether it improves science learning more than traditional courses, and if it is as effective as the small-class version. Instructors attend workshops to learn how to teach the class, and they have extensive online resources to help plan and execute each lesson. This makes it easier for institutions to adopt the curriculum. An established educational publisher is publishing the student and instructor materials.