Effecting Change in Science Education

To My Fellow Candidiates:

Outside my inclusion classroom I believe I have affected change in science education at my school.  As the "unofficial" science coordinator at my school, many teachers of science have sought my advice on quality science lessons and activities.  In addition I have modeled inquiry standards based science lessons in my classroom as part of our school's on-going peer professional development.  These particular lessons integrated other content areas such as mathematics, language arts and technology. Last year, as coordinator, I, along with the science fair committee, implemented a standards based science fair. Using the scientific method, students collaborated in teams on a given science topic that had to be presented to a panel of judges.

From a district perspective, several years ago I served on the district's science curriculum committee in  bringing Full Option Science System, FOSS, inquiry based kits into our district.  Currently as a committee, along with our mathematics and science, we are exploring new  inquiry based science kits that have more of a literacy component to it.

I think I can say with certainty an obstacle that most us as science educators have is ample time to effectively implement our science programs.  In this day of high stakes testing under the requirements of NCLB, science education in many schools is often put on the back burner.  Unless reforms are made to  NCLB to include science as part of the requirements, this will be a challenge difficult to overcome. Science needs to be on a equal plane as language arts literacy and mathematics in order to  for our country remain a competitive and tcchnologically innovative power in a 21st century global economy.

Our Sputnik?

To My Fellow Colleagues:

Russia initiated the "Space Race" with the launching of Sputnik in 1959. What grew out of that tumultuous era was the United States becoming a better educated, more innovative and more technology advanced society.  We are now faced with another Sputnik.  Asian countries like China, Japan and Singapore, just to name a few, along with India are outperforming United States fourth and eight grade students in math and science according to the 2007 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, TIMSS.  If the United States is to maintain it's status as a global economic power, it must reinvent the way science is taught in schools along with STEM education.


In 2009 President Obama launched his "Educate to Innovate" campaign.  It calls for $260 million in public and private investments


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