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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) founded Project 2061 in 1985 to help all Americans become literate in science, mathematics, and technology. With its 1989 landmark publication Science for All Americans, Project 2061 set out recommendations for what all students should know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the time they graduate from high school. Science for All Americans laid the groundwork for the nationwide science standards movement of the 1990s. Benchmarks for Science Literacy, published in 1993, translated the science literacy goals in Science for All Americans into learning goals or benchmarks for grades K-12. Many of today's state and national standards documents have drawn their content from Benchmarks. These AAAS publications are the foundation for Project 2061's ongoing efforts to reform curriculum, instruction, and assessment. With recent publications like Atlas of Science Literacy and Designs for Science Literacy, Project 2061 continues to influence the direction of science education reform. Project 2061 staff use their expertise as teachers, researchers, and scientists to help make science literacy a reality for all students.
Resources for Educators
Project 2061's newest tools for educators include Designs for Science Literacy, a guide to improving the K-12 curriculum, and Atlas of Science Literacy, a collection of strand maps that help educators visualize the growth of science understanding.
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Science for All Americans
Project 2061 began its work in 1985-the year Halley's Comet passed near Earth. Children who were just starting school then will see the return of the Comet. What scientific and technological changes will they also see in their lifetime? How can today's education prepare them to make sense of how the world works; to think critically and independently; and to lead interesting, responsible, and productive lives in a culture increasingly shaped by science and technology?
With expert panels of scientists, mathematicians, and technologists, Project 2061 set out to identify what was most important for the next generation to know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology-what would make them science literate. The panels' recommendations were integrated into Project 2061's 1989 publication, Science for All Americans. Science for All Americans defines science literacy and lays out some principles for effective learning and teaching. In coherent prose, it articulates and connects fundamental ideas in science without technical vocabulary and dense detail.
Science for All Americans Online allows you to read the text of this book online at AAAS.
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Benchmarks for Science Literacy is the Project 2061 statement of what all students should know and be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12. The recommendations at each grade level suggest reasonable progress toward the adult science literacy goals laid out in the project's 1989 report Science for All Americans. Benchmarks can help educators decide what to include in (or exclude from) a core curriculum, when to teach it, and why.
Published in 1993 by Oxford University Press, Benchmarks for Science Literacy emerged from more than three years of work by Project 2061 staff in collaboration with teams of teachers at Project 2061's six School-District Centers, and with scientists and university consultants. It reflects the input of more than 1,300 individuals.
Benchmarks Online allows you to read the text of this book online at AAAS.
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In a first-ever joint arrangement, Project 2061 and the National Science Teachers Association have co-published Atlas of Science Literacy, a collection of 49 conceptual strand maps that show how students' understanding of the ideas and skills that lead to literacy in science, mathematics, and technology might grow over time. Each map depicts how K–12 learning goals for a particular topic relate to each other and progress from one grade level to the next.
Atlas organizes the strand maps into the same chapters as Project 2061's Science for All Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy. Furthermore, Atlas includes "clusters" of closely related maps within chapters that loosely correspond to the sections in Benchmarks. In addition to presenting the maps themselves, Atlas clarifies each map with comments on relevant issues and a summary of the cognitive research that relates to the map's topic. The book also discusses the intent and meaning of the maps, describes some uses for maps, and considers some of the implications of mapping for teaching and learning.
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Treating curriculum reform as a design problem is a basic proposition of Designs for Science Literacy, the latest addition to Project 2061's set of tools for education reform. Designs, and its companion CD-ROM Designs on Disk, deal with the critical issues involved in assembling sound instructional materials into a coherent K-12 whole. Rather than providing step-by-step instructions for creating an actual curriculum, Designs guides readers in applying general design principles to specific aspects of the curriculum. By offering a variety of options for restructuring time, instructional strategies, and content, Designs shows how to approach the curriculum design challenge in different ways to create very different curricula that serve a common set of learning goals.
Inside the back cover of Designs for Science Literacy is Designs on Disk, a companion CD-ROM that includes the searchable text of the book itself, databases, background readings, and utilities to help educators take on many of the curriculum design tasks recommended in the book. The disk provides links from these resources to relevant sections in the book to set a wider context or explain rationales. Designs on Disk shows some examples of the kinds of functions a computer-based curriculum design system could carry out.
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Support continues to grow for the science literacy goals in Project 2061's Science for All Americans and Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards. Yet much remains to be done before teachers and students across the country can reach those goals. For example, educators must themselves be literate in science, mathematics, technology, and their interconnections. They must know how to teach in ways that will help students understand and retain the most important concepts. And they must be able to select curriculum materials that meet benchmarks and standards.
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If lasting, meaningful reform of the science, mathematics, and technology curriculum is to occur, changes are needed throughout the entire education system. Science educators in many states and school districts are working toward such systemic reform. To help them in their work and to engage educators, families, business leaders, and policymakers in the debate about improving science education, Project 2061 has developed Blueprints for Reform.
Blueprints presents summaries of a dozen papers prepared by experts on aspects of the education system that must change to make Project 2061's vision of science literacy for all students a reality. Project 2061 has also framed questions that are designed to stimulate dialogue about the issues those papers raise. Blueprints focuses on three major themes:
The Foundation
The School Context
The Support Structure
Blue Prints On-Line allows you to read the text of this book online at AAAS.
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