A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=13165

"WASHINGTON – A report (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165) released [July 19, 2011] by the National Research Council presents a new framework for K-12 science education that identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all students should learn by the end of high school.  The framework will serve as the foundation for new K-12 science education standards, to replace those issued more than a decade ago.  The National Research Council is the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering; all three are independent, nongovernmental organizations.

The committee that wrote the report sees the need for significant improvements in how science is taught in the U.S. [emphasis added]  The new framework is designed to help students gradually deepen their knowledge of core ideas in four disciplinary areas over multiple years of school, rather than acquire shallow knowledge of many topics.  And it strongly emphasizes the practices of science – helping students learn to plan and carry out investigations, for example, and to engage in argumentation from evidence."