ABSTRACT
Recent calls for improving school-aged children’s achievement in science have stirred debate and public discussion at every level of the educational process. These discussions have been prompted by the recognition of our nation’s failure to adequately prepare students. Whether tested in the international (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1995) or national (NCES, 2000) arenas, our children are not mastering mathematics or science sufficiently. According to a National Assessment of Educational Progress study (NCES, 2000) less than one third of students achieve a “proficient” level of science achievement-that is, only a small fraction of the students tested demonstrated competency in challenging subject matter. At 12th grade, almost half the students do not attain “basic” levels of achievement, meaning that they lack “partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at a given grade” (NCES, 2002, p. 1). As a result, a broad range of calls for improving student achievement has been issued (e.g., Department of Education, 2002; NCMST, 2000).
