NSF Funds Major Precollege Science Education Reform Program

Abstract

It is the largest single financial effort in precollege science education reform since the post-Sputnik era of the late 1950s. That's how Luther S. Williams, the National Science Foundation's assistant director for education and human resources, describes $8.6 million in NSF grants to fund a new program that may drastically change the way science is taught. The U.S. Department of Education already has furnished $1.5 million in grants to pilot the program at state and local levels. Curricula for more than a million science students in five states will be affected by the scope, sequence, and coordination (SSC) program. If the pilot projects are successful, they could transform middle level and high school classes nationwide, NSF says. Students may have completely new science class schedules, with time spent in science courses increased as much as 50%. Six NSF grants, all three-year awards ranging from $1.3 million and $1.5 million, will go to the National Science ...