Next Generation Science Standards Released
April 15, 2013 RSS Feed Print
New science standards call for more hands-on learning, but that doesn’t come cheap.
Science education in the United States is not up to snuff.
Most high schoolstudents can scratch the scientific surface – follow instructions, conduct experiments – but few succeed at analysis and explanation, two critical components of real-world inquiry, studies reveal.
The Next Generation Science Standards aim to change all that. Released last week, the standards follow in the footsteps of the Common Core State Standards for math and reading by setting a uniform benchmark and encouraging depth over breadth in science curriculums.
"The way I imagine that it might play out is that there will be more hands-on time for students," says David Evans, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, an organization comprised of roughly 60,000 science education professionals. "There will be deeper investigations into the