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A definition of the state in terms only of its powers over its members is not wholly satisfactory, however. Although all states make a claim to supremacy within their boundaries, they differ widely in their ability to make good their claims. States are, in fact, often challenged by competing associations within their boundaries; their supremacy is often more formal than real; and they are sometimes unable to maintain their existence. Moreover, a definition in terms of power alone ignores the fact that there are great differences among states in the structures they employ for the exercise of power, in the ways they use power, and in the ends to which they turn their power. Some of these differences are explored in the discussion that follows of two general categories of nation-states: the unitary state and the federal state. Partly from administrative necessity and partly because of the pressures of territorial interests, nearly all modern states provide for some distribution of governmental authority on a territorial basis. Systems in which power is delegated from the central government to subnational units and in which the grant of power may be rescinded at the will of the central government are termed unitary systems. Systems in which a balance is established between two autonomous sets of governments, one national and the other provincial, are termed federal. In federal systems, the provincial units are usually empowered to grant and take away the authority of their own subunits in the same manner as national governments in unitary systems. Thus, although the United States is federally organized at the national level, each of the 50 states is in a unitary relationship to the cities and local governments within its own territory.
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7- Comparative Politics
Comparative Politics :Comparative politics is the comparative study of other countries, citizens, different political units either in whole or in part, and analyzes the similarities and differences between those political units. Comparative politics also entails the political study of non-US political thought. Here are a few tips when choosing resources for comparative political research: Use a subject encyclopedia to research major comparative political theories and concepts. Use country profiles to locate basic information, facts and statistics about individual countries.Search for research articles in a general article database such as EBSCO Discovery. Use a subject database such as PAIS to locate politics specific articles. Background Resources: International Encyclopedia of Political Science. The International Encyclopedia of Political Science provides a definitive, comprehensive picture of all aspects of political life, recognizing the theoretical and cultural pluralism of our approaches and including findings from the far corners of the world. The eight volumes cover every field of politics, from political theory and methodology to political sociology, comparative politics, public policies, and international relations.
The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics: The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics focuses on the major theories, concepts, and conclusions that define the field, analyzing the similarities and differences between political units. Entries cover such topics as failed states, grand strategies, soft power, capital punishment, gender and politics, and totalitarianism, as well as countries such as China and Afghanistan. Country Profiles: This section includes databases that provide detailed profiles of most countries worldwide. Country profiles include basic country facts and figures such as population, capitol cities and so on. They also provide brief summaries of geography, environment, history, current politics and economics.
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BBC News Country Profiles: Full profiles provide an instant guide to history, politics and economic background of countries and territories, and background on key institutions.They also include audio and video clips from BBC archives.
CIA World Facebook: Developed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the World Factbook offers updated country profiles providing information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military and transnational issues for 267 world nations. The website provides a comprehensive collection of world maps that can be freely downloaded. Also includes a Guide to Country Comparisons. Categories include, geography, people and society, the economy, communications, transportation and military. Information can be downloaded into data files. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Video instructions available This link opens in a new window. Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) country analysis and forecasts covers over 200 countries and highlight political, economic and business developments in all significant markets, both established and emerging. Europa World Yearbook: Europa World Yearbook provides profiles for over 250 countries and territories. Profiles include political and economic information as well as statistics and information on religion, media and press. Political Risk Yearbook and CountryData : Political Risk Yearbook provides political risk reports for the current year for many countries. CountryData allows users to generate exportable tables with political risk rankings and economic indicators for current and historical years, as well as current forecasts, for various countries. Country Data is available on campus only. Use NYU VPN for off-campus access. World Bank Country Profiles
Country profiles prepared by World Bank staff are available for 157 nations. Sites provides direct links to the World Bank data catalog for each country along with access to the latest publications, news items, and development topics published by, or related to, World Bank operations.
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Statesman's Yearbook Online: The Statesman's Yearbook provides information on international affairs, covering key historical events, population, city profiles, social statistics, climate, recent elections, current leaders, defense, international relations, economy, energy and natural resources, industry, international trade, religion, culture, and diplomatic representatives, as well as fact sheets and more. Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports. Country profiles and information documents prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress.
Key Subject Databases. Subject-specific databases provide articles and resources solely within a specific discipline. This section lists the best political science databases providing coverage of scholarly literature across all major political science areas and sub-disciplines including comparative politics . Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO). Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is a source for theory and research in international affairs. It includes scholarship, working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals, case studies for teaching, and policy briefs. PAIS International: PAIS International contains journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies for public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations. Policy File: Policy FIle offers access to U.S. foreign and domestic policy papers and gray literature, with abstracts and links to timely reports, papers, and documents from think tanks, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), research institutes, advocacy groups, agencies, and other entities. Pro quest Political Science: ProQuest Political Science gives users access to leading political science and international relations journals. This collection provides the full-text of core titles, many of which are indexed in Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. New to ProQuest Political Science are hundreds of recent, full-text, political science dissertations from U.S. and Canadian universities, as well as thousands of current working papers from the Political Science Research Network.
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Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration. Comparative Politics Data Resources: Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) is a collaborative program of cross-national research among election studies conducted in over fifty states. Comparative Political Dataset : The "Comparative Political Data Set" (CPDS) is a collection of political and institutional country-level data provided by Prof. Dr. Klaus Armingeon and collaborators at the University of Berne. It consists of annual data for 36 democratic countries for the period of 1960 to 2014 or since their transition to democracy. Eurostat: Eurostat , the statistical office of the European Union, provides statistics at the European level that enable comparisons between countries and regions. Users can bulk download tables and access full metadata and documentation for data that measures indicators across a range of socio-demographic and economic indicators. The Quality of Government (QOG) Institute
The QOG Institute at the University of Gothenburg studies good governance and corruption on a global scale. QoG provides a range of datasets available for free, and data visualization tools. QoG Standard Dataset contains the most qualitative variables from the Standard Dataset. The QoG Expert Survey is a dataset based on our survey of experts on public administration around the world, available in an individual dataset and an aggregated dataset covering 107 countries.The QoG OECD dataset covers countries who are members of the OECD. The EU Regional Data consists of 450 variables from Eurostat and other sources, covering three levels of European regions - country, major socio-economic regions and basic regions for the application of regional policies.
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8-political risk analyst
Political risk analysis, in risk management, analysis of the probability that political decisions, events, or conditions will significantly affect the profitability of a business or the expected value of a given business decision. A wide spectrum of political risks may affect business, and political risk analysts use both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to analyze and assess such risks. Although political risk analysis has a long history, a series of international crises in the 1970s prompted its development into an institutionalized business practice. They included the 1973 oil embargo by OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and the Nicaraguan and Iranian revolutions of 1978–79. Academic research on political risk analysis also emerged in earnest in the 1970s and '80s. Political risk analysts identify political risks and their variables, assess their significance and the relationships between them, and make recommendations regarding the management and mitigation of political risks. Social science research and nonacademic interpretations of current affairs influence all three phases—namely, the analysis, assessment, and management of political risk. Although political risk analysis could apply to the domestic activities of a business, in practice it usually comes into play when a business is considering activities in other countries. In the academic literature, the focus is generally placed on foreign direct investment (FDI) rather than on relatively passive portfolio investment. The exposure of assets or personnel in FDI reinforces the relevance of political risk analysis. However, political risk can also affect the expected profits and market stakes of exporters, contractors, and licensors.
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Sources of political risk : Several sometimes overlapping government functions can have an impact on business. In many industrialized countries, government's role as a regulator is especially extensive, resulting in legislation related to the environment, health and safety, employment, trade unions, and consumers. A government can also serve as a restrictor of business activity (tariffs and trade quotas), a redistributor of business income (taxation and social welfare policies), a customer (procurement), and a sponsor (subsidies and other corporate welfare). Some scholars have argued that political risk analysis displays an inherent bias, according to which any government intervention in the economy is negative. It is in any case meaningful to locate the particular relationships between multinational business and national governments or other political actors when assessing the actual political risk. The particular cultural and historical context may also influence political risk—for example, in cases in which energy or mineral companies are associated with earlier colonial projects in Africa or the Middle East. The most familiar relationship between business and political authorities is a cooperative arrangement, in which negotiations are ongoing and a normal part of operations. A second kind of relationship is collaborative, consisting of privately owned companies with a strong governmental presence or joint ventures between private businesses and public-sector companies.
An authoritative relationship exists when a multinational corporation and a government are at loggerheads. In most cases, a government can impose new rules, which may result in divestment by the company. Two other relationships are far less frequent. A home government may use a multinational company to promote its political objectives. Alternatively, in the case of subversion, a multinational company may actively work to undermine a host government, sometimes with the covert encouragement of the company's home government. In the latter two cases, the conduct of business can also constitute a source of political risk.
Risks to business in a country may ensue not only from actions by the government in that country but also from actions by governments in other countries. Opposition groups and other domestic stakeholders and the particular political circumstances in a country may also become linked to political risk. In some countries, owing to the power or authority of informal networks linked to the government, such groups, rather than the government itself, may be the main source of political risk to a particular business.
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Types of political risk: Political risk may vary at different business levels—that is, for all foreign business actors, for a particular industry or company, or for a particular project. Political risk also depends on the type of investment, its methods of financing, its location, and the time frame involved. Political risk may affect several aspects of a business, including personnel, assets, contracts, operations, transfers, and company goals. Risks to personnel and operations may include intimidation, kidnapping, sabotage, and terrorism, especially if the risks arise from political concerns. However, some risks may ensue from nonpolitical actors and constitute a general security risk only, requiring a distinct set of preventive measures and responses. Asset risks may include general nationalization and specific expropriation, restrictions on ownership, and an insistence on locally owned shareholdings or local directorships. Contractual risks may include changes in contractual conditions due to legislative or bureaucratic action and the violation or termination of contracts due to violence or political change, including revolution, civil war, secession, interstate war, coup d'état, or peaceful succession. Risks to operations constitute a broad category and include all host country regulations that affect business operations. They may include labour relations, taxation, restrictions on labour or technology transfers, and local product content regulations. Some other examples are quotas and tariffs, environmental and consumer protection, antitrust and merger laws, discrimination in awarding contracts, and bureaucratic nepotism. Transfer risks could include exchange controls, profit repatriation, and restrictions on royalty payments. Local variations of these risks are possible in countries where the regional authority of an area is at loggerheads with the central government or where a local power broker is the actual authority on the ground.
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Methodology of analysis: Some multinational corporations have in-house analysts, while others at least partially outsource the task of analysis to specialist providers. A company's need for political risk analysis may differ at different times. The perceived need for political risk analysis tends to be greater near a decision to enter or avoid a particular country's marketplace, but different forms of political risk analysis are also used as a regular form of early warning, to periodically review in-country operations, or sporadically in response to new uncertainties or setbacks. Analysts use both quantitative and qualitative models for analysis, and there is no consensus on the methodology. A model is an extended representation that is used to better understand, adapt to, manage, and control identified political risk factors. The number and nature of variables, their combinations, and the weights assigned to them by the model builders are based on the interpretative frameworks used by political risk analysts. Quantitative assessment models purport to assess various indices, such as political stability, based on nominal, ordinal, or interval variables. Some models have been designed for particular sectors—for example, the financial or energy sector—and most models also include an element of qualitative judgment. The main qualitative techniques are judgmental forecasting—for example, the so-called Delphi method, which is the accumulation of expert opinion under controlled conditions. Informal brainstorming between experts is also used, especially when time is of the essence. A more systematic model may be used to identify key assumptions and key drivers and then to construct several alternative futures within different time frames and to estimate the likelihood of different outcomes and their impact on particular business concerns. Political risk analysis aims to provide insight into areas of the political process in which a business needs to intervene if it wants to change the business environment, mitigate its potential risks, or maximize its opportunities.
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9- conclusion
Governance, as we have always maintained, the process of making and implementing collective decisions for a society. We have also argued that although the governance debate involves a number of questions about the role of social actors in this process, government remains a central actor, if not the central actor, in the process. We don't say this just because we're terribly old-fashioned Neanderthals who won't admit that the world has changed. We know very well that the world of government has changed, but there are empirical and normative realities that make us believe that we must understand the institutions of government if we are to understand governance in a democratic society. In social science and politics, power is the ability of an individual to influence the actions, beliefs or conduct (behavior) of others. The term authority is often used for a power perceived as legitimate by the social structure, not to be confused. with authoritarianism. Power can be viewed as bad or unjust; However, power can also be seen as good and as something inherited or given for the exercise of humanistic purposes that will help, displace and empower others as well. In general, power arises from factors of interdependence between two entities and the environment. The use of power does not necessarily involve force or the threat of force (coercion). An example of the use of power without oppression is the concept of "soft power" (in relation to hard power). Much of the recent sociological debate about power revolves around the question of its means of enabling - in other words, power as a means of making social actions possible as much as it can coerce or prevent them. In corporate environments, the ethical instrument of power is fulfillment, and as such, it is a zero-sum game. Simply put, power can be expressed by whom as ascending or descending. With top-down power, the superior of a company influences his subordinates to achieve the goals of the organization. When a company displays ascending power, subordinates influence the decisions of their leader. In political science, a political system defines the process of making official government decisions. It is generally compared to the legal system, the economic system, the cultural system, and other social systems. However, this is a much simplified view of a much more complex category system involving questions of who should have authority and how much influence government has over its people and economy.
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C. society for science
A society is a group of people who form a semi-closed system. At its simplest, the term society refers to a large group of people sharing their own culture and institutions. A society is a network of relationships between people. The English word society is derived from the French société, which had its origin in the Latin societas, a "friendly association with others," from socius meaning "companion, associate, comrade or business partner." Thus, the meaning of society is closely related to what is considered to be social. Implicit in the meaning of society is that its members may share some mutual concern or interest, a common objective or common characteristics. The social sciences generally use the term society to mean a group of people who form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is defined as a network of relationships between social entities. A society is also sometimes defined as an interdependent community, but the sociologist Tönnies sought to draw a contrast between society and community. An important feature of society is social structure, aspects of which include roles and social ranking.
The social science are a group of academic disciplines that study human aspects of the world. They differ from the arts and the humanities, in that the social science tend to emphasize the use of the scientific method in the study of humanity, including quantitative and qualitative methods. Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a non profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including the bi-weekly Science News magazine and the free-accessible online Science News for Students. The organization has headquarters in Washington, D.C. It promotes the understanding and appreciation of science and the role it plays in human advancement.In pursuit of this goal, it publishes Science News and Science News for Students, and sponsors events including the International Science and Engineering Fair, the Regeneron Science Talent Search, and the Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) competition.
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1-History
Society for Science was founded in 1921 by journalist Edward W. Scripps and zoologist William Emerson Ritter, under the name "Science Service", with the goal of informing the public of the latest scientific discoveries and achievements.The Science Service emerged from a reorganization of a group that Scripps and Ritter had originally founded in 1919 as the American Society for the Dissemination of Science. Scripps and Ritter accomplished their goal by distributing the latest science research to the public through a news service for reporters. In 1922, due to interest from non-journalists, Science Service started distributing Science News-Letter, which became a magazine in 1926. It quickly became a prime source of science news for libraries, schools, and individuals. In 1942, Science Service launched the first of its prestigious education competitions, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. In 2008, Science Service was renamed as the Society for Science & the Public (SSP), in order to better reflect the mission of the organization to advocate for science in the public interest. Between the World Wars, Science Service sponsored Science Clubs of America, founded by Watson Davis. It was a national organization to popularize science among amateur scientists. High school science clubs were encouraged to join.
From 1940 through 1989, Science Service sponsored the Things of Science Club. Subscribers received a monthly box containing some kind or material or artifact, along with an pamphlet describing experiments that could be done with it. Sometimes the kits contained parts that could be assembled into a scientific instrument. Beginning in 2003, it published Science News for Kids, an online magazine aimed at students, and also at teachers and parents. In 2021, the organization announced it had shortened its name from Society for Science & the Public to Society for Science.
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2-mission and vision
Vision: A world where people understand, value, and participate in science.
Mission: Advance citizen science through communication, coordination, and education. Goals: The Citizen Science Association actively works to:
* Establish a global community of practice for citizen science
* Advance the field of citizen science through innovation and collaboration
* Promote the value and impact of citizen science
* Provide access to tools and resources that further best practice
* Support communication and professional development services
* Foster diversity and inclusion within the field
Our values of diversity, respect and collaboration, accessibility, participation, and integrity and transparency guide our day-to-day activities and our vision for the future. They serve as the cornerstone for our work to advance our goals, serve our members, and engage a broader constituency of individuals and organizations to collaboratively build a global network for citizen science. Diversity : Having multiple perspectives leads to stronger outcomes. We embrace the full range of citizen science actors and support the many ways of pursuing scientific research, the many methods of engagement in citizen science, and the great breadth of projects.
We respect, value, and celebrate the diversity of human perspectives and experiences across the globe within the citizen science community and our members. We value all citizen science projects, from 'scientist driven' to 'community driven,' from contributory to co-created, from online game-based to in-the-field and in-person, and beyond. The practice of citizen science will grow stronger when more diverse actors pose questions; inform processes; guide methods; collect, interpret, analyze, curate, and share data; and benefit from citizen science efforts.
Respect and Collaboration : Citizen science requires meaningful collaboration among many professions, cultures, domains of expertise, and disciplines. We are committed to building a community of respect and collaboration within our membership and across organizations. Citizen science exists at the crossroads of diverse domains, from astronomy to community organizing, from environmental justice to crowdsourcing, from gaming to environmental education, from science experts to science novices. To operate in this space we must be respectful, listening to one another with curiosity rather than judgment. We strive to complement and collaborate with existing organizations rather than reproducing their work. Accessibility: We value actions that lower barriers to involvement and engagement in our association, in its leadership, in citizen science, and in science itself. Our meetings and the virtual and physical spaces we maintain are open to all citizen science practitioners. The CSA is committed to using plain, accessible language that is free from jargon. We envision a citizen science network in which all individuals participating or interested in citizen science are welcome, irrespective of where they are in their project's lifecycle, their citizen science career, their scientific knowledge, or their unique abilities. Participation : Our organization is an expression of the ideas and work of our members, our working groups, our partners, our staff, and our board.We value a membership that actively shapes the agenda of our association, contributes work to move our mission forward, and maintains or evolves the open culture of our community. We acknowledge and celebrate all levels of participation and create opportunities for members to share ideas, contribute, and critique.Integrity and Transparency: We are committed to operating with integrity and openness, and adhering to the best practices of scientific research, engagement, and outreach. We honor our roots in science and bring forward the best practices of transparent, rigorous scientific research. We are committed to building a climate of openness and trust with members, partners, funders, working groups, board, staff, and all those conducting the work of citizen science. We seek maximum appropriate participation in decision making. We aim to operate strong communication channels that proactively share our plans and invite collaborative input.
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3-Regeneron Science Talent Search
The Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS) is the nation's oldest and most prestigious science competition for high school seniors, providing an important forum for original research that is recognized and reviewed by a national jury of professional scientists. Alumni have made extraordinary contributions to science and have earned many of the world's most distinguished science and math honors, including thirteen Nobel Prizes. The Regeneron Science Talent Search, known for its first 57 yearsas the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, and then as the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) from 1998 through 2016, is a research-based science competition in the United States for high school seniors. It has been referred to as "the nation's oldest and most prestigious" science competition. In his speech at the dinner honoring the 1991 Winners, President George H. W. Bush called the competition the "Super Bowl of science. Annually, around 1,800 high school seniors from around the country accept the challenge of conducting independent science, math or engineering research and completing an entry for the Regeneron Science Talent Search. The competition recognizes 300 student scholars and their schools each year and invites 40 student finalists to Washington, D.C. to participate in final judging, display their work to the public, and meet with notable scientists and government leaders. Each year, Regeneron STS scholars and finalists compete for $3.1 million in awards.
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4- science education
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to non-scientists, such as school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences. The Cosmic Calendar is a method to visualize the chronology of the universe, scaling its current age of 13.8 billion years to a single year in order to help intuit it for pedagogical purposes.The first person credited with being employed as a science teacher in a British public school was William Sharp, who left the job at Rugby School in 1850 after establishing science to the curriculum. Sharp is said to have established a model for science to be taught throughout the British public school system. The British Academy for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) published a report in 1867calling for the teaching of "pure science" and training of the "scientific habit of mind." The progressive education movement supported the ideology of mental training through the sciences. BAAS emphasized separately pre-professional training in secondary science education. In this way, future BAAS members could be prepared. The initial development of science teaching was slowed by the lack of qualified teachers. One key development was the founding of the first London School Board in 1870, which discussed the school curriculum; another was the initiation of courses to supply the country with trained science teachers. In both cases the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley. John Tyndall was also influential in the teaching of physical science. In the United States, science education was a scatter of subjects prior to its standardization in the 1890s.
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The development of a science curriculum emerged gradually after extended debate between two ideologies, citizen science and pre-professional training. As a result of a conference of thirty leading secondary and college educators in Florida, the National Education Association appointed a Committee of Ten in 1892, which had authority to organize future meetings and appoint subject matter committees of the major subjects taught in secondary schools. The committee was composed of ten educators and chaired by Charles Eliot of Harvard University. The Committee of Ten appointed nine conferences committees: Latin; Greek; English; Other Modern Languages; Mathematics; History; Civil Government and Political Economy; physics, astronomy, and chemistry; natural history; and geography. Each committee was composed of ten leading specialists from colleges, normal schools, and secondary schools. Committee reports were submitted to the Committee of Ten, which met for four days in New York City, to create a comprehensive report.In 1894, the NEA published the results of work of these conference committees. According to the Committee of Ten, the goal of high school was to prepare all students to do well in life, contributing to their well-being and the good of society. Another goal was to prepare some students to succeed in college. This committee supported the citizen science approach focused on mental training and withheld performance in science studies from consideration for college entrance.The BAAS encouraged their longer standing model in the UK. The US adopted a curriculum was characterized as follows:
* Elementary science should focus on simple natural phenomena (nature study) by means of experiments carried out "in-the-field."
* Secondary science should focus on laboratory work and the committee's prepared lists of specific experiments
* Teaching of facts and principles
* College preparation
The format of shared mental training and pre-professional training consistently dominated the curriculum from its inception to now. However, the movement to incorporate a humanistic approach, such as inclusion of the arts (S.T.E.A.M.), science, technology, society and environment education is growing and being implemented more broadly in the late 20th century. Reports by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), including Project 2061, and by the National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment detail goals for science education that link classroom science to practical applications and societal implications.
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Science is a universal subject that spans the branch of knowledge that examines the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.Science education is most commonly broken down into the following three fields: Biology, chemistry, and physics. Physics education is characterized by the study of science that deals with matter and energy, and their interactions.
Physics First, a program endorsed by the American Association of Physics Teachers, is a curriculum in which 9th grade students take an introductory physics course. The purpose is to enrich students' understanding of physics, and allow for more detail to be taught in subsequent high school biology and chemistry classes. It also aims to increase the number of students who go on to take 12th grade physics or AP Physics, which are generally elective courses in American high schools. Physics education in high schools in the United States has suffered the last twenty years because many states now only require three sciences, which can be satisfied by earth/physical science, chemistry, and biology. The fact that many students do not take physics in high school makes it more difficult for those students to take scientific courses in college. At the university/college level, using appropriate technology-related projects to spark non-physics majors' interest in learning physics has been shown to be successful. This is a potential opportunity to forge the connection between physics and social benefit. Chemistry education is characterized by the study of science that deals with the composition, structure, and properties of substances and the transformations that they undergo. Children mix different chemicals in test tubes as part of a science education program. Chemistry is the study of chemicals and the elements and their effects and attributes. Students in chemistry learn the periodic table. The branch of science education known as "chemistry must be taught in a relevant context in order to promote full understanding of current sustainability issues.As this source states chemistry is a very important subject in school as it teaches students to understand issues in the world. As children are interested by the world around them chemistry teachers can attract interest in turn educating the students further.The subject of chemistry is a very practical based subject meaning most of class time is spent working or completing experiments.
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Biology education is characterized by the study of structure, function, heredity, and evolution of all living organisms.Biology itself is the study of living organisms, through different fields including morphology, physiology, anatomy, behavior, origin, and distribution.Depending on the country and education level, there are many approaches to teaching biology. In the United States, there is a growing emphasis on the ability to investigate and analyze biology related questions over an extended period of time. While the public image of science education may be one of simply learning facts by rote, science education in recent history also generally concentrates on the teaching of science concepts and addressing misconceptions that learners may hold regarding science concepts or other content. Thomas Kuhn, whose 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions greatly influenced the post-positivist philosophy of science, argued that the traditional method of teaching in the natural sciences tends to produce a rigid mindset. Since the 1980s, science education has been strongly influenced by constructivist thinking.Constructivism in science education has been informed by an extensive research programme into student thinking and learning in science, and in particular exploring how teachers can facilitate conceptual change towards canonical scientific thinking. Constructivism emphasises the active role of the learner, and the significance of current knowledge and understanding in mediating learning, and the importance of teaching that provides an optimal level of guidance to learners.Guided-discovery approach : Along with John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, and many others, Arthur Koestler offers a critique of contemporary science education and proposes its replacement with the guided-discovery approach: To derive pleasure from the art of discovery, as from the other arts, the consumer—in this case the student—must be made to re-live, to some extent, the creative process. In other words, he must be induced, with proper aid and guidance, to make some of the fundamental discoveries of science by himself, to experience in his own mind some of those flashes of insight which have lightened its path. The traditional method of confronting the student not with the problem but with the finished solution, means depriving him of all excitement, [shutting] off the creative impulse, [reducing] the adventure of mankind to a dusty heap of theorems.Specific hands-on illustrations of this approach are available.
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Research:The practice of science education has been increasingly informed by research into science teaching and learning. Research in science education relies on a wide variety of methodologies, borrowed from many branches of science and engineering such as computer science, cognitive science, cognitive psychology and anthropology. Science education research aims to define or characterize what constitutes learning in science and how it is brought about.
John D. Bransford, et al., summarized massive research into student thinking as having three key findings: Preconceptions: Prior ideas about how things work are remarkably tenacious and an educator must explicitly address a students' specific misconceptions if the student is to reconfigure his misconception in favour of another explanation. Therefore, it is essential that educators know how to learn about student preconceptions and make this a regular part of their planning. Knowledge organization: In order to become truly literate in an area of science, students must, "(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application." Metacognition: Students will benefit from thinking about their thinking and their learning. They must be taught ways of evaluating their knowledge and what they don't know, evaluating their methods of thinking, and evaluating their conclusions. Some educators and others have practiced and advocated for discussions of pseudoscience as a way to understand what it is to think scientifically and to address the problems introduced by pseudoscience. Educational technologies are being refined to meet the specific needs of science teachers. One research study examining how cellphones are being used in post-secondary science teaching settings showed that mobile technologies can increase student engagement and motivation in the science classroom.
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According to a bibliography on constructivist-oriented research on teaching and learning science in 2005, about 64 percent of studies documented are carried out in the domain of physics, 21 percent in the domain of biology, and 15 percent in chemistry. The major reason for this dominance of physics in the research on teaching and learning appears to be that understanding physics includes difficulties due to the particular nature of physics.Research on students' conceptions has shown that most pre-instructional (everyday) ideas that students bring to physics instruction are in stark contrast to the physics concepts and principles to be achieved – from kindergarten to the tertiary level. Quite often students' ideas are incompatible with physics views.This also holds true for students' more general patterns of thinking and reasoning. By country Australia: As in England and Wales, science education in Australia is compulsory up until year 11, where students can choose to study one or more of the branches mentioned above. If they wish to no longer study science, they can choose none of the branches. The science stream is one course up until year 11, meaning students learn in all of the branches giving them a broad idea of what science is all about. The National Curriculum Board of Australia (2009) stated that "The science curriculum will be organised around three interrelated strands: science understanding; science inquiry skills; and science as a human endeavour."These strands give teachers and educators the framework of how they should be instructing their students. In 2011, it was reported that a major problem that has befallen science education in Australia over the last decade is a falling interest in science. Fewer year 10 students are choosing to study science for year 11, which is problematic as these are the years where students form attitudes to pursue science careers.This issue is not unique in Australia, but is happening in countries all over the world. China : Educational quality in China suffers because a typical classroom contains 50 to 70 students. With over 200 million students, China has the largest educational system in the world. However, only 20% percent of students complete the rigorous ten-year program of formal schooling.
As in many other countries, the science curriculum includes sequenced courses in physics, chemistry, and biology. Science education is given high priority and is driven by textbooks composed by committees of scientists and teachers. Science education in China places great emphasis on memorization, and gives far less attention to problem solving, application of principles to novel situations, interpretations, and predictions.