SEPUP
is a project that has developed STS modules for middle school/junior
and high school students. The modules are designed to highlight
chemicals and their uses in the context of societal issues, so that
that learners interact with real science. The goals of SEPUP
are:
• To provide educational experiences focusing on chemicals and their interaction with people and the environment.• To promote the use of scientific principles, processes, and evidence in public decision making.
• To contribute to improving the quality of science education in America.
• To enhance the role of science teachers as educational leaders.
The SEPUP materials are experience based and allow adolescent students to develop "evidence-based decision-making skills and capabilities necessary to become effective, contributing members of society." The materials emphasize concrete experiences as well inference and decision making to help students in their transition from concrete to abstract thinking.
Each module in the SEPUP series focuses on an issue such as toxic waste, groundwater, risk comparison, solutions and pollution. The module consists of a teachers manual, and a modular kits which contains equipment and teaching materials. The teachers manual provides an overview of the activities, conceptual overview, description of the six to eight activities for each SEPUP module, evaluation items, and a glossary of terms.
The activities include traditional science experiments, as well STS type activities. For example in the module Investigating Groundwater: The Fruitvale Story, students role-play different members of Fruitvale at a town meeting. In another unit Determining Threshold Limits, students investigate threshold by determining the threshold of taste for salt in a solution. In the Risk Comparison module students are introduced to chance and probability by flipping coins and rolling dice. The case study is introduced in this module. Students read and react to a story of smallpox inoculation and immunization, and in another activity they investigate John Snow's research on cholera.
SEPUP Modules
SEPUP Availability:
SEPUP Lawrence Hall of Science University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 or Addison-Wesley 2725 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park, CA 94025 (800) 447-2226