What the Standards Emphasize

The picture above was created by taking all of the words that are found in the document National Education Science Standards (1996) and feeding them into an online program that creates a picture based on those words.  Using an algorithm, it looks at the words that are most used within the document and places them within the picture; their size and intensity are a product of their frequency and usage within the document.

 

Looking at the picture, automatically words like “science” and “students” jump out. So do “teachers” and “understanding,” “school,” “national,” “content,” and “learning.” Smaller words such as, “resources,” “need,” “work,” and “processes” are hard to see but they are there. I chose this format because after reading through these standards I was still confused what was required of me as a high school chemistry teacher. I thought these requirements would be much more black and white. The expectations of the role of teachers needs to have enough gray area to allow for the teacher to use his or her own expertise and discretion and not be tied completely to rigid black and white rules.

 

I am currently doing my placement at a public magnet school. After having conversations with my teacher, it seems his chemistry requirements fall into a “no man’s land” zone. Aside from the requirements in his advanced placement course, his other courses do not have any requirements.

 

When I am teaching I will use these standards found in the National Education Science Standards. My Subject Area Specialist and Cooperating Teacher have helped me throughout the semester learn more about the available standards. Currently, chemistry is not covered in the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) testing but it is covered in the Keystone testing. I plan on using the National Education Science Standards to guide my curriculum and lesson planning.