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。大多数学院和大学为非理科专业的学生提供理科通识教育课程。这些班级通常有90多名学生，其中许多人未来将成为小学教师。在大班授课中，讲课是传统的方法。但研究表明，学习科学的最佳方式是通过指导性探究，即引导学生通过做实验和与同学讨论自己的想法和观察结果来发展自己的想法。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引导探究物理科学课程，用于大班教学。除了教授基本的科学思想外，这门课程还涵盖了科学的本质（科学家做什么）和学习的本质（学生如何学习）。课堂技术很重要。老师不让学生做实验，而是用投影仪来展示实验的演示和视频，并运行在线模拟。学生们和坐在他们周围的同学讨论想法。观众反应系统（点击器）记录和整理个人和团体的反应。家庭作业是在网上完成的。有时学生在网上小组合作；有时使用模拟器。这允许教师收集有关整个班级的进度数据，并相应地调整后续课程。该课程正在全国范围内进行测试，以收集信息，了解它是否比传统课程更能促进科学学习，以及它是否和小班教学一样有效。教师参加研讨会学习如何授课，他们有广泛的在线资源来帮助计划和执行每节课。这使得机构更容易采用该课程。一个成熟的教育出版商正在出版学生和教师的材料。

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.