In this chapter, we turn our attention to the high school curriculum. How is it different from the middle school curriculum? How is it related to the middle school curriculum? Grade 10 is the year when a large number of students end their science curriculum career. How can we encourage students, especially and girls and minorty students to take more sciences in high school, not so they will become scientists, but rather so they can be more aware and responsible citizens as they continue their lives on the Earth, and choose careers in science, technology (and mathematics) related fields. We'll look back at the curriculum, move to the contemporary scene, and then make some predictions about the future by looking at some exemplary high school programs.

Finally, the chapter concludes with an examination of the science curriculum in six other countries, Australia, China, Costa Rica, Japan, Nigeria, and Russia. We live in a period of human history in which all nations of the Earth are interdependent in many ways, and connected by the advances in technology and communications. A global perspective on science education is necessary in this period of global connectedness. What is the nature of science education in these countries? How is it different than the curriculum in the United States? What comparisons can be made? What are some contemporary problems and concerns?

The high school science and mathematics curriculum is under a great deal of pressure to produce the most academically talented group of high school students in the world. Most of this pressure is coming from politicians, from the White House to governor's houses. In the 1990 State of the Union Address, the President indicated that the improvement of mathematics and science was of the highest priority in his administration. A few days later, he appointed a commission to advise him on mathematics and science.

Yet, with all this rhetoric, which is not new to high school mathematics and science scene, life goes on in American high schools. In this chapter, we will examine the high school science curriculum, swinging briefly into the past to examine some of the curriculum reform programs of the 50s and 60s, then looking at the contemporary curriculum, and finally examining exemplary programs as clues to the possible future of the high school science curriculum.

PREVIEW QUESTIONS

• What is the nature of contemporary high school science curricula?

• What were the characteristics of the high school science curriculum reform projects of the 1960s.

• What are the characteristics of exemplary high school science programs?

• What are the science curriculum patterns in other nations?

• How does the science curriculum of the US compare with the science curriculum in other nations?