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In response to the growing emphasis on addressing global socio-scientific issues like climate change and viral pandemics in K-12 education, we designed three socio-scientific units for middle school science. We call this curriculum Grand Challenges (GC). The GC curriculum shifts from traditional methods to a focus on socio-scientific issues that resonate locally and globally and prepare students for future complexities. GC is a response to the evolving landscape of science education which emphasizes transformative, future-focused approaches that engage students with science content through contextualized, disciplinary practices. This study explores the implementation of the GC curriculum by two teachers, highlighting their choices and the impact on instruction. The findings reveal the crucial role of teachers in actualizing innovative curricula, the challenges of adopting new practices, and the need for robust support systems. This work contributes to understanding how to effectively integrate socio-scientific issues into science education, fostering critical thinking and global citizenship among students.
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Thinking globally, acting locally in the 21st century: Bamboo to bioproducts and cleaned mine sites
Current solutions to global challenges place tension between global benefits and local impacts. The result is increasing opposition to implementation of beneficial climate policies. Prioritizing investment in projects with tangible local benefits that also contribute to global climate change can resolve this tension and make local communities’ partners instead of antagonists to change; the approach advocated is a new take on “thinking globally, acting locally”. This approach is a departure from the usual strategy of focusing resources on solutions perceived to have the largest potential global impact, without regards to local concerns. Reclamation of polluted mine sites by using fast growing bamboo to remove heavy metals provides a case study to show what is possible. Effective implementation of thinking globally while acting locally will require increased coordination between different types of researchers, new educational models, and greater stakeholder participation in problem identification and solution development.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2021871
- PAR ID:
- 10620874
- Publisher / Repository:
- Elsevier
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- iScience
- Volume:
- 27
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2589-0042
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 110763
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2024.110763
