king away from the notion that students should have a clear understanding of critical scientific concepts.
“I want to be real clear that there is going to be plenty of content, but also [a focus on] how scientists use it,” he said. “So we want it to be more than just students memorizing facts, but we recognize that science is a body of knowledge.”
The framework document itself explains the governing philosophy behind its approach to science content.
“The continuing expansion of scientific knowledge makes it impossible to teach all the ideas related to a given discipline in exhaustive detail during the K-12 years,” it says. “But given the cornucopia of information available today virtually at a touch—people live, after all, in an information age—an important role of science education is not to teach ‘all the facts’ but rather to prepare students with sufficient core knowledge so that they can later acquire additional information on their own.”
Stepping back, the report’s authors say that the ultimate goal of the framework is to ensure that by the end of 12th grade, all students have “some appreciation of the beauty and wonder of science,” have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage meaningfully in public discussions, are careful consumers of scientific and technological information, and have the skills to enter careers in science, engineering, and technology if they wish.
Students should “see how science and engineering are instrumental in addressing major challenges that confront society today, such as generating sufficient energy, preventing and treating diseases, maintaining supplies of clean water and food, and solving the problems of global environmental change,” the committee says.
In addition, the panel expressed its hope that the vision of change in science education laid out in the document will “motivate and inspire” more people, and a better representation of the nation’s diverse population, to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Vol. 30, Issue 37