Recent progress in biology and geology has provided new insights into the processes that have led to our earth as we find it today and to the existing variety of life forms. This work affirms the view that the central for understanding life on earth is evolution. However, high school earth science and biology curricula do not adequately address the ways in which modern topics such as plate tectonics or molecular biology inform our understanding of this framework. The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), in cooperation with the American Society of Zoologists and the Geological Society of American, will design, develop, field test, and distribute print materials and an interactive videodisc on advances in our understanding of evolution for use in high school earth science and biology courses. The materials will be designed for integration into biology and earth science curricula throughout the year rather than as a separate unit; this approach will promote the incorporation of evolutionary perspectives throughout the curriculum. The materials also will acquaint students with "science as a way of knowing", by emphasizing such concepts as hypothesis formation, data analysis, and the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. Media Design Associates, Boulder, Colorado will produce the videodisc and interactive software; VideoDiscovery, Seattle Washington, will publish and market the completed program. Wards's Natural Science Establishment, Rochester, New York, will provide laboratory equipment and materials for all field-test schools and will be the official supplier of the materials when the program reaches commercial distribution.
