A Core Course in Scientific Inquiry

大学毕业生的科学素养对于当今的科技社会来说是不可接受的。为了保住工作，并成为有投票权的公民，非理科毕业生需要更少的特定科学学科的事实，以及更多的技能来理解、处理和推理科学问题。该项目将开发一门科学课程，旨在灌输对如何实践科学的认识，以及以负责任的信心处理科学问题所需的技能。在满足国家对提高科学素养的需求的同时，它还将满足核心课程中的科学要求。这门新课程的主要受众将是文科、教育和社会科学的学生。该项目将通过设计一门课程，让学生在受控的发现环境中进行动手科学活动，从而达到预期的目标。学生不会在正式的授课环境中被告知内容细节。相反，他们将被赋予在观察到的现象中带来重要变量的活动，而不是在理论中。这门课程及其发展将以四个目标为指导：训练学生在观察过程中，帮助学生对他们观察到的东西进行解释，帮助学生创建模型来检验他们的解释，并引导学生将他们的解释应用到其他例子中。在本项目结束时，一门完整的、独立的、为期一学期的科学探究课程将被打包。将有一系列完整的学生活动，在80分钟的课堂时间内进行，包括准备材料，为学生提供进一步的解释，为教师提供资源材料。

The science literacy of college graduates is not acceptable for today's technological society. To hold jobs and to be responsible, voting citizens, non-science graduates need fewer facts from specific science disciplines and more skills with which to understand, approach, and reason about science issues. This project will develop a science course designed to instill an awareness of how science is practiced and the skills needed to approach science issues with responsible confidence. While addressing a national need for increased science literacy, it will also fulfill the science requirement in the core curriculum. The primary audience for this new course will be students in the liberal arts, education, and the social sciences. The project will reach its desired goal by designing a course in which students carry out hands-on science activities in a controlled discovery environment. Students will not be given the content details in a formal lecture setting. Rather they will be given activities that bring out important variables in observed phenomena, instead of in theories. The course and its development will be guided by four objectives: to train students in the process of observation, to assist students in developing explanations for what they observe, to assist students to create models which will test their explanations, and to lead to students to apply their explanations to other examples. At the conclusion of this project a complete, stand alone one semester course in scientific inquiry will be packaged. There will be a full series of student activities that can be conducted in an 80 minute class period with preparatory material, further explanations for students and resource material for teachers.