Designs for Science Literacy
Guiding K–12 curriculum reform
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.
Find out more about Designs for Science Literacy:
Excerpts from Chapter 7: Unburdening the Curriculum
Among the many recommendations for improving the coherence and effectiveness
of the K-12 curriculum, Designs for Science Literacy provides some
strategies for "reallocating time—time to focus on understanding
important facts, principles, and applications in science, mathematics, and
technology."
