That effort has now been boosted by a $1 million grant from the Annenberg Foundation. The award is for two separate programs at Caltech that share a common goal: to improve the kindergarten through grade 12 learning experience.
The Caltech Precollege Science Initiative (CAPSI) was founded in the mid-1980s and serves as a national model for systemic reform of science education. CAPSI is a K-12 program that collaborates with the Pasadena Unified School District. It begins in the earliest grades with the assumption that young children are naturally curious, and as a result are natural scientists. It avoids old-fashioned techniques like rote memorization and lectures; instead, it bases its science learning on hands-on experimentation. The secondary curriculum builds on the same hands-on philosophy, getting students involved in substantial science work that explores a particular topic over an extended period of time.
The goal has always been to provide materials and methods for improving science education that can be applied nationally, says Jerry Pine, a Caltech professor of physics who was one of the founders of the program. "The Annenberg grant will support what is now a critically important effort to improve secondary science education for all children," says Pine. "Equal opportunities and an informed citizenry are our goals, now unmet."
Educating teachers is another key factor in the CAPSI program. Too many elementary school teachers know little or no science when they begin their careers, and are often hostile to it, notes Pine. The development of techniques for improving teachers' skills has been a major part of the K-6 CAPSI project, and will be critical for the success of further reforms in grades seven through 12.
The Chemistry Animation Project (CAP), although focused on the chemical world, is similar to the CAPSI program in that it wants to revolutionize the way students learn. "We're trying to stimulate the thoughts and curiosity of teenagers," says project director Nathan S. Lewis, a Caltech chemistry professor who began CAP in 1992. "We want to get them to ask questions and to learn about the topics with vigor, instead of merely obtaining numerical answers for assigned problems on a topic that they cannot understand or fully visualize."
Lewis's idea was to apply the artistry and technological know-how that goes into producing special effects for Hollywood blockbusters to teaching students science. Using teams of students, faculty, and outside film professionals, the project has produced eight animated 3-D instructional units to help students visualize concepts in chemistry and biochemistry. One of its courses, for instance, features colorful animations of molecules interacting, carrying out the biological processes that underlie health and disease. The Annenberg grant will help CAP produce another seven videos.
Why a video over the traditional textbook? "Why write a textbook when you can do something really unique, exportable, and broadly applicable like these videos to do something about the problem?" asks Lewis. "I've had many students who were capable but simply couldn't 'see' what I was trying to explain to them from the drawings on the board. There was a clear communication gap that I, and most other instructors, had with even basic material of this type. So I decided to do something about it and started CAP."
The Annenberg Foundation was founded by Walter H. Annenberg. The foundation believes there is nothing more important than the quality of K-12 education in determining how productive and fulfilling the future will be for America's young people and society as a whole.
Contact: Mark Wheeler (626) 395-8733 wheel@caltech.edu
Visit the Caltech Media Relations Web site at: http://pr.caltech.edu/media
Written by Marcus Woo