Name: Al Bodzin
Title: Associate Professor, Teaching, Learning, and Technology College of Education, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.
Education: Ph.D., Science Education, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. M. Ed., Science Education, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. B.S., Biology and Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.

The time may be right to update k-12 science education, according to Al Bodzin, associate professor of Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Lehigh University. Renewed public interest in energy conservation could be the catalyst for new environmental literacy programs in schools. The U.S. has gone through almost a full generation without significantly changing k-12 science curriculum to reflect the global issues our society faces, he said. Geospatial information technologies can be a powerful teaching tool in bringing environmental literacy to the classroom, Bodzin told HotChalk recently.

Q: What are geospatial information technologies?

There are lots of Web sites where teachers can access these. Two examples are the National Atlas of the United States and the National Geographic Map Machine.

Q: What’s environmental literacy?

A: Environmental literacy is the idea that people are knowledgeable enough about the environment to make informed decisions.

This includes critical questions such as: Where’s the best place to build a new shopping mall in our community? What can we do to reduce our carbon footprint? What’s the best energy mix we should be using to power our homes and the things that we do?

We’re not seeing as much environmental education in the classroom as we’re hoping to for a couple of reasons. First, most teachers don’t know these resources exist. Second, there’s not a lot of well-developed curriculum. The commercial k-12 publishers aren’t including it in their offerings.

Q: How does the U.S. k-12 science curriculum compare to other countries?

A: We know from the latest TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) research that we’re in the middle of the pack. Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Norway, and Sweden are at the top. At the bottom are South Africa, Colombia, and Kuwait.

Q: What would an ideal science curriculum look like?

A: It would promote inquiry-based teaching and learning, meaning students would engage with investigative questions, gather data and evidence, analyze it to formulate conclusions, consider alternative explanations, and communicate their findings to others.

That’s what scientists do, and we don’t see a lot of this in our country’s schools.

There’s a lot of content that has to be covered in the science curriculum because of No Child Left Behind -- more than can possibly be taught in an in-depth fashion.

What I’d like to see is more in-depth focus on fewer topics, and more focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Q: What’s an example of inquiry-based learning?

A: Take middle school students. We could ask them, “Where is the best place to build the next Wal-mart Supercenter in our area?” Students could use GIS data to analyze land use in the community and look at infrastructure that exists for building roads. They could then present their findings as if they were a local planning commission.

Q: What’s the relation of U.S. science education to our role in the global economy?

A: The way we’re teaching science today doesn’t seem to work in terms of preparing students with the necessary skills they need for the global economy. Our students aren’t competing for jobs in their communities; they’re competing with differently educated workers in India and China.

Sheila Riley is a San Francisco-based freelance journalist. She is also an experienced online editor and ESL curriculum developer, and teaches ESL at City College of San Francisco.

 ^{POSTED ON HOTCHALK.COM}

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