Much research evidence suggests that students become disenchanted with science because their science classes overemphasize microscopic models of phenomena and formal methods of analysis and also fail to integrate everyday and scientific reasoning. This project will develop and evaluate a new approach to science teaching and learning that is rigorous as well as pragmatic, useful, and engaging for students. We will focus on improving introductory science courses so that they attract and retain students and meet the needs of society and the demands of the workplace. Specifically, we will identify goals for science courses that are both rigorous and useful, develop assessments that both educate students and inform teachers, investigate classroom partnerships between teachers, students, and computers that are both efficient and effective, and conduct longitudinal case studies of participation and persistence in science that are both interactive and retrospective. Building on our recent research on teaching and learning, we will seek to provide a new, more substantial research base for science education reform. We will refine our proposed solutions by conducting in-depth studies of students in small groups. We will then test these solutions in middle school classes taught by a project team member. Finally, we will study students longitudinally from the eighth grade through high school to determine the effect of our approach and related interventions on persistence and participation in science courses and careers. By comparing the beliefs and decisions of students who tend not to participate in elective science courses to those of students who aspire to be scientists, we will be able to provide a much richer understanding of persistence and participation than has been provided by other investigations.
