Restructuring Science Education

Sheldon High School

Why is the project important?

This project involves the purchase of twelve student microscopes to generate an additional classroom set. The science department at Sheldon has embarked on a multi-phase project to restructure science course offerings and sequence with the goal of addressing several issues related to the achievement gap and science literacy. The ultimate objective is to offer a variety of science classes at different levels so that students with a wide range of abilities and interests can successfully pursue their goals for graduation and/or college entry.

As a first step towards this goal we have implemented a new mandatory freshmen science course called Science Foundations. This course will provide the foundation on which to build subsequent science course work in any or all of the disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics. In addition, this course is structured to prepare students to meet the Oregon tenth-grade benchmarks in physical and life sciences and obtain their Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM). Because of the biology component included in the new freshmen course there is an immediate need for an additional classroom set of microscopes. The total number of student microscopes currently available is inadequate to serve both the freshmen classes, and the tenth graders and upper classmen taking biology and AP biology.

Who, and how many will be served?

Each year this project will help serve 400+ freshmen students in regular education as well as 30+ special education students in a newly offered life science class. Indirectly it will help serve 400+ students per year taking biology or AP/IB biology. The immediate impact of the new microscopes will be felt by every incoming freshman student at Sheldon, as they all will take the Foundations course and benefit from the hands-on learning afforded by the new microscopes.

How will you evaluate the success of the project?

Through Science Foundations we will be able to better address the state benchmarks, and we expect to see an increase in CIM scores from all students completing this course in comparison with previous year's scores. Furthermore, we expect greater success among ninth graders completing their freshmen science course which should result in a measurable reduction in the numbers of students in need of science credit recovery courses.

Does this proposal build on existing programs at your school?

The curriculum for Science Foundations is built upon an existing framework of curriculum from existing courses, fine-tuned to address the state CIM benchmarks and the varying ability levels of ninth-grade students. We will use existing staff in a yearly rotation to encourage innovation in the classroom and foster a greater range contact between students and the science faculty. An important bonus of the success of the Foundations course is the opportunity to build new programs to better serve a diverse student population. As fewer students require credit recovery classes, we will have the available staffing to develop elective classes.

How will the funds be spent?

A class set of eleven scopes.