To successfully teach topics from Benchmarks , educators should know what to expect of students at various grade levels. Yet many educators may not have access to the latest education research. Curriculum developers and teachers can use the Cognitive Research component as a guide to findings on how students understand and learn specific concepts that are essential to science literacy. The Research Base and its accompanying bibliography are supplemented with a new collection of references to articles on research findings in teacher journals. This research literature sheds light on the ability of students of various ages to understand many of the topics in Science for All Americans and Benchmarks , provides rationale for the placement of benchmarks, and identifies common preconceptions that students may hold.
Design workshops to prepare teachers for reform.
After Benchmarks for Science Literacy was published in 1993, Project 2061 staff, teachers, and education consultants designed a variety of workshops to help educators consider the far-reaching implications that specific learning goals would have for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The Project 2061 Workshop Guide component of the CD-ROM includes a general framework, menus of options, and complete example scripts that school districts or schools can use to design their own versions of these workshops for faculty and staff. Teachers can use the background materials as the basis for the self-guided study of Project 2061 and its reform tools. The professional development components included on the CD-ROM have been tested and used by educators around the country. Each component can be used on its own for a specific task or in combination with other components to accomplish more advanced goals.