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2004 NSF K-12 Math, Science, and Technology Curriculum Developers Conference

Resources for Developing Curriculum Materials that Promote Science Literacy

Sofia Kesidou,
Lori Kurth,
Ann Caldwell,
Ted Willard
AAAS, Project 2061

To address the most prevalent deficiencies found in existing curriculum materials, Project 2061 is identifying, developing, testing, and making available to curriculum developers a set of resources that they can use to create goals-based materials that focus on important ideas and skills in science. We have selected 13 strand maps (drawn from Project 2061’s publication Atlas of Science Literacy), and for each of the benchmarks included in the 13 strand maps, we are developing the following resources:

• “Clarifications” that specify the benchmark’s constituent ideas and discuss the level of sophistication intended for the benchmark (distinguishing it from earlier grade or later grade benchmarks in the same topic).
• “Connections” that identify prerequisite ideas, skills, and appropriate links from one idea to another for each of the benchmarks selected.
• “Research summaries” that shed light on students' commonly held ideas that are relevant for the benchmarks selected and the likely sources of these ideas.
• “Diagnostic Questions” that can be used to elicit students’ commonly held ideas.
• “Annotated lists of real-world phenomena” that can help make the benchmark ideas plausible to students.
• “Representations” such as diagrams, analogies and metaphors, models and simulations that can make abstract benchmark ideas intelligible to students.

For researchers and developers, this collection of resources provides the starting point for a variety of investigations that have the potential to improve curriculum materials and classroom practice. For those responsible for teacher education or professional development, the resources can be deployed in ways that increase teachers’ understanding of science learning goals and teachers’ knowledge about developmentally appropriate representations or phenomena. The poster will present examples of curriculum resources developed for the strand maps “Waves/Light” and “Processes that Shape the Earth.”

This project is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. ESI-0352345). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.