Yesterday I wrote about the drive to “standardize” curriculum in the U.S. through the implementation of Common Core Standards.  Already, we have the Common Core Standards in Mathematics and Reading, and National Research Council has hired Achieve (the same organization that wrote the Math and Reading standards) to write the new generation of science standards.  This top-down effort is largely driven by private organizations and corporations, who have convinced the U.S. Department of Education to implore  all of the states to adopt these uniform standards.   The uniform standards will lead to a national battery of tests, which will be used to track student achievement, as measured on these tests.

Today, I received an email from Ingvar Stål, PhD, Senior lecturer in Physics, Chemistry and Science at Botby Högstadieskolas (Junior High School) in Helsinki, Finland.  We’ve been writing to each other over the past year or so because of our mutual interest in science teaching from a innovative point of view.  On the 16th and 17th of September, Dr. Stål will host a conference at Botby Junior High School for science teachers around Finland to learn about his and his colleagues approach to science teaching.  In 2005, Dr. Stål offered an optional “club” science course, wanting to find out if an optional science course was offered, would students enroll in the course.  Now, five years later, the optional science curriculum at Botbay enrolls 1/5 of the students in the school, and the two-day conference at the school to learn about how a club program became an optional science curriculum.  If you follow this link, you can read about their program, find out about their curriculum, and see the results of student’s science work and investigations.

The program at Botbay Junior high is not only optional, but is designed to offer students opportunities to explore science, using their inquisitiveness and curiosity, and professional expertise of their teachers to facilitate this process.  Here is what Dr. Stål says on his school’s website about the Botby Science Program.

Why does the wind blow? Where does the rivers water flow? Why is a lemon sour? What is thunder and lightning? What’s needed to shoot a rocket? How can we catch a criminal? Why are you sick and why do you get a fever? How old is Earth? The list of your and your friends’ questions about reality can continue. But where do you get your answers to your questions? There is actually a source for it. The source is called science. Natural science is a fascinating world – interesting and fun. Science in general consists of astronomy, geography, physics ,chemistry and biology. Many physical, biological, chemical, astronomical and geographical phenomena are linked together. SCIENCE helps you to examine how, why and for what can we use knowledge about nature to our benefit without destroying nature itself.

With this website we want to tell the inquisitive students and teachers about science teaching in our school.

The model of teaching that Dr. Stål has created at his school, and is sharing through science education research, and teacher training is the kind of approach to teaching and learning that ought to be reflected in our schools.