COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Goals
In today’s society, scientific literacy and reasoning are essential parts of being informed, active citizens.
During this year-long course, students will develop a solid understanding of basic scientific concepts as well as scientific thinking and communication through guided inquiry learning activities, laboratory experiments, collaborative discussions/projects and research opportunities.
Instead of taking notes from a lecture in class, students will explore chemistry and biology through new education standards rich in content and practice to reach internationally benchmarked science education, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Science Department Philosophy
Our students will progressively develop scientific skills, knowledge, and conceptual understanding in order to competently evaluate decisions based on numerical and descriptive data and scientific reasoning. Through the art of scientific practice, our students will find continued interest, meaning, and delight in exploration of our physical world. Our graduates will be prepared to achieve success in science courses at the university level.
Our students develop conceptual models in order to improve the quality of their predictions and basic understanding of the physical world. Through a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning, experimentation, observation, analysis, creative questioning, and inspired guesswork they refine their ideas of how nature behaves. Students are motivated by both the practical and the aesthetic rewards of their investigations. Thus they are encouraged to look for connections to other aspects of human life, be they social, commercial, political, ecological, or other.