Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agusmed24a..03r&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2008, abstract #ED24A-03
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
0468 Natural Hazards, 0805 Elementary And Secondary Education, 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325), 1630 Impacts Of Global Change (1225), 1635 Oceans (1616, 3305, 4215, 4513)
Scientific paper
Introduction This paper will discuss the process that went into the development of new teacher standards for Florida's K-12 science benchmarks over 2007-2008. Florida developed its first set of science standards at about the same time that the National Science Education Standards debuted, in the mid-1990s, and the two documents produced had little in common with other, particularly with regard to controversial issue of evolution, and was also quite weak in the treatment of earth/space (or geoscience) content expectations. The process created panels of Framers and Writers (with much overlap) and led to the creation of a draft set of documents in the fall of 2007 after much electronic and face-to-face collaboration at several meetings. The public was then invited to comment on the draft, and the comments came fast and furious (some really were, in fact, furious). But most were highly complementary, and external professional reviewers lauded the changes from Florida's existing "mile-wide, inch-deep" standards to a much more reasonable core group of standards. Over a 60-day period, over 20,000 individual comments were submitted, and over 100,000 numerical ratings (on a 5 point scale) were entered. In January 2008, these comments were reviewed and that culminated in a final draft of the standards, presented to the State Department of Education and its Commissioner, in late January. The process became fraught with political pressures late, however, as anti-evolutionists led an assault on some aspects of the Life Sciences standards, which had repercussions in particular related to fossil evidence in the Earth/Space Science standards, The talk will summarize the process of evolution that this forced the standards to undergo. Nature of Science There is an expanded section of Nature of Science benchmarks and standards that are based on over twenty years of research in science education that cut across all standard areas (life, physical, and earth/space). This body of knowledge exists at all levels from kindergarten to 12th grade, and serves to assure that science is inquiry-based, if not directly experientially-based, encourages laboratory and field work in science, and serves to elevate science teaching. Impacts on the Florida Science FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) will also be discussed. Geoscience Components Our efforts concentrated on all aspects of Earth/Space Science, including astronomy, cosmology, hydrology, geology, climatology, meteorology, and oceanography (and various other sub-disciplines one could name). We include societal impacts such as the impact of the space program on Florida, disaster mitigation and preparation, and resource utilization. Linkages to physical and life sciences are explicit, allowing for the creation of new crosscutting curricula that might provide interesting new challenges for implementers at the district (e.g., county) level.
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