Foundations of Science Education

Overview

This course will introduce you to science teaching by analyzing what science is and how we learn it. You will investigate what science is by doing some of it yourself, understanding major arguments from the philosophy of science, and analyzing the portrayal of science in the classroom. You will also understand research in science education that attempts to make sense of how we learn science and where we do not learn science as it should be. Assembling these ideas for yourself should enable you to understand your own philosophy of science teaching and allow you to better implement teaching strategies and develop science curricula for your classroom in the future.

Learning objectives

Develop a personal understanding of the goal of scientific literacy, and be able to produce and justify a philosophy of teaching based on such an understanding.
Understand current research regarding science learning, as well as its application to science teaching and assessment.
Understand the nature of scientific knowledge and its philosophical underpinnings and be able to integrate these understandings with traditional discipline specific content knowledge and scientific inquiry.
Become familiar with national and state level science curriculum standards and recommendations.

Course details

This course is currently hosted on our online site via Canvas. You can investigate the full syllabus, assignments, readings, and the like via this link. Enrolled students can contribute to discussions, pages, and assignments, while others are welcome to access general course contents.

Course Resources:

Local Resources:

General Resources:

Next Generation Science Standards
Project 2061
Tools for Ambitious Science Teaching
Annenberg Media for Science, including A Private Universe Project, Minds of our Own, and an associated survey of your own ideas.
Understanding Science
Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science
Understanding prejudice test
From The Onion: "$50 Billion Science Thing"