Course Description

Teachers are important mediators of science curriculum and effective teaching. Teachers translate teaching materials into practice within their classrooms. This course will focus on the process, instructional framework and design principles used to inform the development of coherent inquiry-based science instructional materials.

Course Goals

The course is divided into three major areas:

1. The history and theoretical questions undergirding the importance of curriculum development.
2. The framework supporting reform-based science curriculum and their development.
3. The development of an inquiry-based unit of study.

Learning Goals:

1. Examine underlying frameworks of science curriculum development, including learning goals-driven and backwards designs to guide the planning of a context-specific unit of study.
2. Explore inquiry-based science as an organizing theme in science curriculum development and in transforming teaching practices.
3. Delineate core science ideas and cross-cutting themes outlined in the standards for your course and use these as the framework for developing the context-specific unit of study.
4. Discuss challenges associated with the implementation of science curriculum and develop strategies to overcome them in science classrooms.

Download the Course Syllabus