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from the STEM-the-tide-of-science-illiteracy dept.
Richard Chirgwin at El Reg wrote a really good article.
With national action on a science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) curriculum moving slowly, the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW) is taking the plunge by suggesting STEM-targeted extensions in its High School Certificate.
Proposals have been put forward that would see physics, chemistry, and biology offered at the advanced "three-unit" level*. At the time of writing, all are only offered at the lesser "two-unit" level.
After more than a year reviewing the state's senior curriculum, the NSW Board of Studies has also proposed a pan-science topic for students who aren't seeking a scientific speciality.
The proposed Senior Science topic wants to help students "in becoming scientifically literate citizens with the means to investigate personally relevant local and global scientific issues," the brief for the proposal explains.
That would plug a gap in science education in NSW: at the moment, students have to choose a specialty (physics, chemistry, or biology) to study science at HSC-level [high school completion], which looks like a wasted effort for anyone intending to pursue the humanities at university.
That course option would also be handy for NSW if the federal government goes ahead with an idea floated by former education minister Chris Pyne that senior science should be made compulsory.
The proposals also include revisions to high-level maths topics, history, and English.
The NSW Board of Studies proposals for all subjects are here, and are open for comment until 29 November.
Bootnote: For readers beyond NSW: senior high school students in the State have to accumulate at least ten units of study; a three-unit physics course, for example, would be a significant chunk of a student's exit score, as well as helping them survive first-year university studies.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:15AM
Meanwhile 20 years later, in 1998, we got wood shop, biology, physics, and chemistry.
The biology class was decent, I'll give them that. I can't speak for wood shop, since I got enough of that around the house to not worry about taking one class on it. The chemistry class left me too unprepared to pass college level chemistry. I understand chemistry well enough now, but I've come leaps and bounds due to my own desire to know more.
We did have a mandatory cooking/general life skills class that they presented the opportunity to test out of once a year. Apparently it was known for being a very difficult test, but the hardest thing that was on it was showing that you know how to balance a checkbook, and that you could calculate compound interest. The actual cooking part was not anywhere on the test, so I can't speak for how compelling it was, but I was cooking before high school, so I doubt it was really something I'd be interested in.
I'll note that we had four years worth of Spanish available to us, and we DID actually have a CompTIA A+ prep course. We also had an enitre high school career's worth of voluntary English courses you could take and PE literally any moment of the day you felt like taking it.
At this point, I should probably mention that we had one of the brightest classes in a long time, and only maybe about 10 out of the 80-something graduating students made it out of the rural area in which we lived, and it was supposed to be one of the BETTER public schools in the area...
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:22AM
Oh yeah, we did have about 5 minutes of electronics in "science" in... I want to say eighth grade, where we covered how light bulbs work. Nothing otherwise, and that was when they weren't preempting "science" for mandatory DARE classes that, you know, taught us how to identify real drugs from fake ones and giving us all the information we needed to know in order to buy them if desired. Might as well have just given us a like to Erowid.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!