Aaron J. Powner, M.Ed.
High School Science Teacher
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SEEd = Science with Engineering Education
Utah State Board of Education: USBE Science Curriculum and Information Page
SEEd Standards: Grades 9-12 (full document) | Individual Course SEEd Standards: Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Earth and Space Science, Environmental Science, Physics, Wildlife Biology, Zoology
NGSS = Next Generation Science Standards (2013)
3D's of Science Literacy | SEEd Articulation of SEPs, DCIs, and CCCs
CCSS = Common Core State Standards (2010) - Reading, Writing, Math
The Big Players in Science Ed History
1848 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) was formed as the first permanent national organization of the scientific community in the United States. The goal of AAAS is to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of all its disciplines. Despite the many contributions AAAS made during its first 50 years, the Association came close to extinction more than once. Ultimately, an alliance with Science magazine, which had failed as a private venture, rejuvenated both the magazine and AAAS. For more than 150 years, AAAS has been interwoven with the growth of American science. See the AAAS Archivesfor more information about the history of the association.
1857 National Education Association (NEA) was formed by educators to unite as one voice in the cause of public education. At the time, learning to read and write was a luxury for most children -and a crime for many Black children. The NEA has transformed public education and the profession of teaching over the past 150 years. In 1966 they joined forces with the American Teachers Association. There are millions of NEA members, and what was once a privilege for a fortunate few is now an essential right for every American child, regardless of family income or place of residence.
1863 National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine(a.k.a. The Academies, or NAS) were founded in 1863 as another permanent private national organization of the scientific community. They are a private, nonprofit institution that provides expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world.
1916 National Research Council (NRC) was formed by the National Academies to produce official private sector scientific research reports that the US government uses to shape policies, inform public opinion, and advance government-funded scientific research.
1944 National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) is the NSTA is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning. Its leadership is composed of
1950 National Science Foundation (NSF) was created by the US Congress as an independent federal agency to "promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to securer the national defense..."
1982 Committee of Ten - Standardization of Science Education was created by the NEA to organize and standardize science education in the United States. This committee promoted the idea that the goal of high school is to prepare some students to succeed in college, but to help all students to do well in life, contributing to their well-being and the good of society. At first the main emphasis in science education was STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
1985 Project 2061 was founded the year Halley's Comet passed near Earth. Project 2061 is a long-term initiative of the AAAS to help all Americans become literate in science, mathematics, and technology. Children who were just starting school then will see the return of the Comet in 2061. 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.
1989 Science for All Americans (SFAA) was published after years of research by Project 2061 to define science literacy broadly, emphasizing the connections among ideas in the natural and social sciences, mathematics, and technology. Science for All Americans includes specific recommendations for learning.
1993 Project 2061 Update: Benchmarks for Science Literacy was published by the AAAS. They clarified their intentions by saying their recommendations are not a curriculum, a curriculum framework, or a plan for a curriculum. The benchmarks publication provides educators with sequences of specific learning goals that they can use to design a core curriculum—one that makes sense to them and will help students achieve the basic science literacy goals outlined in Science for All Americans. Benchmarks does not advocate any particular teaching methods or curriculum design, nor does it spell out goals for advanced performance. Rather it defines Outcome Based Education (OBE) with regards to scientific literacy.
1996 Achieve was founded at the 1996 National Education Summit by a bipartisan group of state governors and business leaders. Achieve is a nonprofit education organization that leads the effort to help states make college and career readiness a priority for all students.
1996 National Science Education Standards were published by The National Research Council (NRC) with participation and support from the NAS, NSF, US Department of Education, NASA, National Institute of Health, and other scientific foundations. The focus of these 1996 standards was to foster inquiry-based science education, based on the theory of constructivism rather than on direct instruction of facts and methods. This approach remains controversial as an effective teaching method. These standards were adopted by many states, but not all. This was a first attempt at national standards. They were meant to evolve as scientific debates and cultural values shift over the generations.
2009 Carnegie Foundation published Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship in the Global Economy as recommendations by a commission of distinguished researchers and public and private leaders. They evaluated modern educational data and drew two conclusions: (1) the U.S. system of ecience and mathematics education is performing far below the realistic expectation of preparing young people to be competative in a 21st century knowledge-based economy, and (2) that a significant update to science and math educational standards was needed since most of the recommendations had been developed in the 1990s and were neither uniformly adopted nor utilized by most states. In addition, major new advances have taken place in the world of science and in our understanding of how students learn science effectively.
2012 A Framework for K-12 Science Education was publised by an NAS committee on building a conceptual framework for effective science literacy education. This publication reported that the employment fields of science, technology, and education will hold an increasingly vital place in the modern world, but there are not enough workers in the US entering STEM professions. This published framework encouraged educators to focus on a "limited number of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts, be designed so that students continually build on and revise their knowledge and abilities over multiple years, and support the integration of such knowledge and abilities with the practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering design." The publication also says that 21st century Americans need science education in order to engage in and "systematically investigate issues related to their personal and community priorities," as well as to reason scientifically and know how to apply science knowledge in daily human life.
2013 Next Generation Science Standards(a.k.a NGSS) are an update to the the national standards released in 1996. The new standards are the product of collaborative research and development by 26 state governments(DOEs), NRC, NSTA, AAAS, Achieve, and numerous national and international STEM-related corporate sponsors. The writing teamexplained that the NGSS are intended to "combat widespread scientific ignorance, to standardize teaching of science among states, and to raise the number of high school graduates who choose scientific and technical majors in college...." NGSS is organized into the three dimensions of science literacy (3D Science Literacy), which include: science and engineering practices (SEPs), disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs). The NGSS correlate closely with the Common Core State Standards. For mor information about NGSS see also NSTA resources
2018 STEM Education Strategic Plan was produced by the US Department of Education's, and sets out a Federal strategy for the next five years based on a 2012 Congressional Visionfor a future where all Americans will have lifelong access to high-quality STEM (science,technology, engineering, and math) education and the United States will be the global leader in STEM literacy, innovation, and employment. Related to this education is STEAM, which is designed to integrate STEM subjects into various art and humanities disciplines. The STEAM approach includes design principles and encourages creative solutions to real world problems with the use of critical thinking, engineering methods, and technology while building on students' mathematics and science base.
2020 Science with Engineering Education (SEEd) Standards were adopted by Utah for high school science courses, which are built around the NGSS 3D science literacy recommendations. The document entitled Articulation of SEPs, CCCs, and DCIssummarizes the 3D approach to science education. In addition, both STEM and STEAM are slowly being adopted in local science education.
DOK = depth of knowledge
BOK = bredth of knowledge
CBE = competency based education
OBE = outcome based education
ABE = achievement based education
PLD = proficiency level descriptor (Powner PLDs)
SEEd = Science with Engineering Education
NGSS = next generation science standards
CCS = common core state standards
STEM = science, technology, engineering, math
STEAM = science, technology, engineering, art, math
