National Standards

River City and the National Science Standards

The National Science Education Standards list seven content standards for K-12 school science (National Research Council, 1996). River City maps to five of these standards.

1. CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop:
   • Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
   • Understandings about scientific inquiry
     1. River City is an inquiry-based project;
     2. As an inquiry-based project, students gather data, hypothesize, use tools to test, analyze and make conclusions;
     3. Students are guided to learn the skills necessary to conduct scientific inquiry;
     4. Simultaneously, they engage in an authentic and personal inquiry investigation.
2. CONTENT STANDARD C: As a result of their activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of:
   • Structure and function in living systems (grades 5-8)
   • Populations and ecosystems (grades 5-8)
   • Diversity and adaptations of organisms (grades 5-8)
   • Interdependence of organisms (grades 9-12)
     1. River City helps students understand disease and three forms of disease transmission;
     2. Students are guided to understanding the effect of disease on humans;Students investigate the niche of microorganisms;
     3. Students see the interactions between humans, microorganisms and the ecosystem they both inhabit;
     4. Students learn the role of microorganisms in causing disease.
3. CONTENT STANDARD E: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop:
   • Abilities of technological design
   • Understandings about science and technology
     1. Students are asked to design virtually an intervention that will potentially solve the River City epidemic;
     2. Students evaluate their intervention to see if it did indeed affect the spread of disease;
     3. Students learn that technological inventions such as microscopes drive scientific discoveries by expanding scientists' ability to make observations;
     4. Students investigate the intended and unintended consequences of a newly introduced technological invention.
4. CONTENT STANDARD F: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of Personal health
   • Community Health (grades 9-12)
   • Populations, resources, and environments (grades 5-8)
   • Environmental quality (grades 9-12)
   • Natural hazards
   • Human-induced hazards (grades 9-12)
   • Risks and benefits
   • Science and technology in society
     1. Students explore three different diseases with varying health impact;
     2. Students discover that there are human-caused health hazards in the river;
     3. Students' investigations lead them to understand that the causes of these hazards stem from natural occurrences such as heavy rain, water stagnation as well as human impact;
     4. Through experimentation, students are able to test out their hypothesis of the cause of the sudden increase in disease before making recommendations;
     5. Students need to weigh the advantages and drawbacks to various interventions before choosing what they view as the best option;
     6. Students join politicians, doctors, and university professors in working together to understand the impact on the poorest segment of the River City population.
5. CONTENT STANDARD G: As a result of activities in grades 5-12, all students should develop understanding of: Science as a human endeavor
   • Nature of science (grades 5-8) and of scientific knowledge (grades 9-12)
   • History of science (grades 5-8)
   • Historical perspectives (grades 9-12)
     1. Students participate in science along with men and women in various virtual roles;
     2. Students are exposed to concepts of nature of science;
     3. Students are encouraged to base their conclusions and decisions on evidence and to re-evaluate them in light of new evidence;
     4. Students travel back in time to experience the “dawn of microbiology” along with the culture and habits typical of that time

Reference

National Research Council. (1996). National science education standards: Observe, interact, change, learn. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.