Building an Understanding of Science

该奖项支持建立一个网站，该网站将准确地描述科学是什么以及它是如何工作的，并提供教授这些想法的工具。这个项目的核心是从教师准备开始，让公众重新接触科学。为此，其近期目标是(1)提高教师对科学事业性质的理解，(2)提供资源和战略，鼓励和使K-16岁的教师在其科学教学中纳入和加强科学的性质。具体来说，该网站将：(1)澄清什么是科学，什么不是科学。(2)将科学描述为一个既有创造性又有纪律的持续过程。(3)识别和澄清对科学的误解。(4)强调科学的相关性和兴奋性。此外，为了支持K-16科学教学，该网站将：(1)为所有年级的科学本质教学提供一个概念性框架。(2)提供可供查阅的教学资源资料库。(3)包括在国家和国家科学标准规定的内容领域内整合和加强科学性质的战略。(4)提供针对职前教师的课程组成部分。在过去项目中使用的成功模式的基础上，理解科学网站的设计和开发将依赖于科学家、教师和研究生的合作，以建立一个在科学和教育学方面都是健全的、满足主要受众需求的产品。由于该项目跨越多个学习层次和科学学科，咨询委员会提供了自然科学、认知科学、科学哲学和教师教育等所有主要学科的额外专业知识。研究表明，所有年级的学生和教师对科学的本质理解不足，这可以追溯到课堂上，在课堂上，科学的本质往往被作为一个简单的、线性的、非生成性的过程来教授。这种虚假和贫穷的描述让学生失去了参与，阻碍了公众的支持，并可能有助于解释目前的迹象，即美国正在失去其在科学方面的全球优势。即使在美国经济健康之外，许多观点也支持共同努力提高公众对科学的理解。公众确实有必要批判性地评估媒体对“科学”证据的相互矛盾的表述，并根据他们对这些说法的评估做出决定。要做到这一点，他们需要了解提出这些索赔的企业的优势、局限性和基本方法。该项目向这一目标迈出了重要的一步，为教师提供了有效教授科学本质的工具。

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.