9.5. Designing a Course of Study

Designing a course of study involves the same principles that you employed to develop a mini-unit. The difference is that for course design you will be clustering learning outcomes, and sequencing the resulting units of instruction. Planning interesting courses of study starts with the consideration of goals and rationale for science teaching, just as it did when you planned a mini-unit. The following discussion explores some of the elements that should be considered in designing a science course.

Elements of a Course of Study

I overheard some students make these remarks about one of their teachers while I was visiting their school. Some of their comments were: "I'm really looking forward to taking Mrs. D'Olivo's science course next year." "Yes, she plans interesting projects for the students, and her tests are not hard, but their are very interesting." Science courses can be interesting to students if they are carefully planned, and if the needs of the students are taken into consideration.

Course planning involves the same processes that were used to develop a unit of teaching. In the section that follows, I have selected a high school science program, entitled Global Science by John Christensen to illustrate how to describe the elements of a course of study. There are several reasons that I have chosen this program. First this is a program based on a textbook, and the odds are that most of your courses will be based on the use of a textbook. Secondly, Global Science is an example of an S-T-S course, and reflects an interdisciplinary approach. There are five elements that should be considered in the course planning process and they are listed below. These elements should be shared with the students as part of a course syllabus and distributed to them at the beginning of the course. An abbreviated form of them should be prepared for the students' parents.

• Rationale/Philosophy
• Learning Outcomes
• Units of Study
• Instructional Strategies (foci)
• Evaluation

To make the elements of a course plan concrete, here is a course plan for Global Science based on the curriculum written by John Cristensen, a high school teacher in Englewood, Colorado.

Sample Course Plan or Syllabus: Global Science: Energy, Resources, Environment Rationale/Philosophy. The rationale for Global Science is described in a letter to the students, and in a list of assumptions about secondary school science education. The letter follows and you can use it as a model for writing your own course rationales. Dear Student: You are living at an exciting time. In the next several years extremely important decisions are going to be made, and you will play a role in making them. These decisions will affect the position of your country in the world of nations, your feeling of who you are and how you relate to other people around you, the standard of living you will have, and the amount of personal freedom you will enjoy. Many of these decisions are related to energy, resources and environment. How well we make these decisions in large part depends upon how well we understand the issues. It is the purpose of this course to build basic background for understanding energy/resource/environmental problems. This is not just another science course. The problems we will be dealing with are in the here and now. You will find that the road your travel as you work through these pages can be an exciting journey---if you have the proper attitude. Science is a tool at our disposal. It is a powerful tool, and it will play an important role at this turning point in our history. What is exponential growth? How bad is the energy/resource/environmental problem? Does the Earth have a carrying capacity? Can we live better with less? What are our alternatives? How do we get there from here? The study of this course won't provide all the answers, but you'll be much better prepared to face many issues because of your experiences with these materials. Assumptions In addition to this statement, Global Science is based on the following four assumptions about secondary school science education: 1. The study of science should be a meaningful endeavor for all students in a modern society. 2. Science is best learned by experimenting and analyzing data---not just by reading and doing problems. This is how basic science skills are gained. 3. Society is best served, and student interest held, when relevant material is emphasized. 4. If only one science course is required at the high school level, that course should emphasize the ecosystem concept and resource use. Learning Outcomes. The following objectives constitute the learning outcomes for Global Science. To build a firm understanding of the ecosystem concept---the basic components of an ecosystem, how the living and nonliving interact, and the cyclic activities that take place. (cognition) To build an understanding of the concepts and laws that govern our use of energy and mineral resources. (cognition) To examine our present energy sources and consumption patterns and to apply this knowledge as a component of future planning. (cognitive skill) To build an understanding of the fundamentals of exponential growth (the phenomenon, growth rates, doubling times, graphical representation, applications in resource depletion). (cognition) To relate the fundamentals of exponential growth to population and resource situations at national and global levels. (cognitive skill) To explore the many energy sources not extensively used today. (cognition) To appreciate the complexity of developing useful, new resources by examining problems related to their wide-scale use. (affect) To examine how humans relate to their economic environment and understand how economics affects social/scientific decision making. (cognition) To develop an awareness of the "spaceship earth" ethic and the inter-relatedness of resources, economics, environment, food production and population growth. (affect) To develop basic scientific skills and attitudes as useful tools for problem solving (cognitive and psychomotor skills) To develop the skills and attitudes needed to continuously clarify and modify personal values and goals as we react to a changing world. (affect) To enable students to observe, analyze, and draw conclusions from situations related to resources and the environment and to use this information to take effective action as responsible citizens. (cognitive skill, affect) To acquaint students with careers and challenges in our resource industries and industries which will depend crucially on our resource decisions. (affect, cognitive skill) Units of Study. The approach to designing and sequencing the units of study in Global Science are based on the following themes: 1. The Earth and its resources are finite. 2. Humans are partners with nature, not masters of nature. The course is organized around ten units of study as follows: 1. The Grand Oasis in Space 2. Basic Energy/Resource Concepts 3. Energy and Society 4. Growth, Population and Food 5. Energy Supply and Demand 6. Energy for the Future 7. Mineral Resources 8. Making Peace with Our Environment 9. The Economics of Resources and Environment 10. Options for the Future Instructional Strategies (foci). Global Science involves the students in a numbers of instructional strategies as follows: • Global Science (course text) • Films (a detailed list is correlated by unit) • Field trips • Laboratory activities (every unit's development is focused around several laboratory, hands-on science activities. • Discussion • Problem solving activities • Debates • Case Studies Evaluation. A comprehensive evaluation plan is employed in the Global Science course. Since students are involved in a wide variety of learning activities, the evaluation plan reflects this diversity. Evaluation is based on the following criteria: 1. Course portfolio---Each student maintains a portfolio of his or her work including laboratory reports, a log in which the student makes weekly entries, copies of all homework, and reports. 2. Tests and Quizzes---Weekly quizzes and chapter tests (provided with the curriculum) are administered. 3. Cooperative Team Investigation---Each student works with a team to investigate a global problem and present results to the whole class. 4. Readings---students make concept maps of each chapter and write brief summaries of the main concepts of each map. 5. Laboratory activities---Labs are done in small teams (although membership changes during the course). Students are evaluated on the basis of their cooperativeness and contribution to the group's process, as well as on all activities. The principle of cooperative learning are employed in all laboratory activities.