HR: 08:30h
AN: U11C-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Caliifornian perspective on High School Earth and Space Sciences in University admissions
AU: * Moores, E M
EM: moores@geology.ucdavis.edu
AF: Eldridge M. Moores, Department of Geology University of California, Davis, CA 95616
AB: The Earth and Space Sciences (E&SS--including geology, geophysics, soil science, oceanography, astronomy, and atmospheric science) are a crucial part of K-12 science education. The Council of Scientific Society Presidents, the AAAS, and the NRC (1996) National Science Education Standards list E&SS on a co-equal basis with physical sciences (physics and chemistry) and life sciences (biology, etc.). E&SS subjects are tangible, exciting and inspiring, and motivate students to take more science. In the past year there have been ample examples of both in California, the US and the Indian Ocean of the need for such knowledge on the part of populations as a whole and university-bound students in particular. California especially is one state where E&SS knowledge has a direct impact upon students and other residents of the state. Despite these facts, there is reluctance in some circles to approve the E&SS as an 9-12 laboratory science acceptable for satifying university admission requirements for laboratory science. Many academics perceive of E&SS as being somewhat inferior to physics, chemistry and biology, despite the earlier development of E&SS, the foundational role of E&SS in modern science, and the the growing general need of such knowledge. Many academic decision-makers still perceive that science education needs to emphasize a reductionist approach, as exemplified by physics or chemistry, rather than a more holistic or integrative approach of E&SS. Winning approval of E&SS as a laboratory science for admission to a University, as provided for in the NRC Standards, requires convincing both faculty and administration of the desirability of such a move.
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
SC: Union [U]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005