Building a Useful Science Curriculum - Part 1

Two important scientific findings have been made in the past few months - one in archeology and the other in astronomy. Frankly, there have been hundreds of scientific advances recently, but the two that I have encountered this weekend alone that would insight interest and curiosity in every student.

1) Scientists are trying to reverse bio-engineer dinosaurs from chicken embryos.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/12/60minutes/main5629962.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
2) Scientists found water on the moon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111301986.html

HOLY COW! Think of the richness of a curriculum that could be developed around either or both of these topics. Think of how interesting, engaging, and exciting these topics would be for children. Think of the depth and breadth of the skills and content that a student can gain from just exploring these two current science topics. But how can a single teacher dedicate the time to develop such a course, ensuring that there are valid learning outcomes and reliable ways to measure student achievement? It's impossible.

I propose a national curriculum development group who is charged with immediately developing progressive curricula based on what is actually currently going on in the world. It should integrate literacy, science, social studies, mathematics, and the arts on all grade levels. This is no Obama back-to-school address lesson plan. These curricula would be all-inclusive - multi-directional lesson plans, learning intentions, multiple assessment opportunities - in a sort-of "choose-your-own-ending" unit of study based on how the children receive the topic. This group would have to act quick, releasing curricula very shortly after the development in the field. Perhaps they can even have an emergency response team that puts out teaser-lessons just to spark interest among the students and get them excited as they wait for the full thing.

As a rookie teacher and novice curriculum designer, I lack the confidence in my own teaching. I can go rogue and just scrap what I'm doing and build a curriculum around dinosaurs or the moon or even the H1N1 vaccine on the fly. But am I doing my children a disservice by deviating from the NYC pacing guide that ends with the 8th grade science test? How can I measure the success of my curriculum? And, most basically, when will I sit down to actually plan out this humongous undertaking.

Students are constantly saying that what they're learning in school is boring. And educators respond with something like "well, you have to know it to move on to the next grade." Well, I'm not too fond of this answer (even though I've used it myself). If students are bored, then teachers are really, really bored - teaching the same content over and over in the same ways in order to achieve results on a standardized test. Maybe new and interesting curricula will spark excitement among our educators. And they, in turn, will pass on their enthusiasm to the children.

Soon the day will come when teachers can say "...I'm sorry class; we cannot continue memorizing the parts of a cell today. Instead, we have to discuss colonizing the moon [bringing dinosaurs back to life]." I wonder how students will respond.