National and State Academic Standards
All curricular activities were designed by a selected team of science
and mathematics middle school teachers. Marine scientists from the
University of South Florida's Department of Marine Science proofed the
activities to ensure their scientific accuracy.
The activities adhere primarily to two sets of academic standards:
1) The National Science Education
Standards and 2) Florida's
Sunshine State Standards.
About the Standards
1) The National Science Education Standards
The following exerpts are taken from the National Science Education
Standards, a book that was published in 1998 by the National Academy Press
in Washington, DC.
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"The National Science Education Standards are designed to guide our nation
toward a scientifically literate society. Founded in exemplary practice
and research, the Standards describe a vision of the scientifically literate
person and present criteria for science education that will allow that
vision to become reality" (p. 11).
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"Teaching and teachers are at the center of the reform in science education"
(p. 15).
The Making Waves team targeted the Science Content Standards for
this project. The Science Content Standards are divided into 8 categories:
Unifying concepts and processes in science, Science as inquiry, Physical
science, Life science, Earth and space science, Science and technology,
Science in personal and social perspectives, and History and nature of
science. These standards are also divided into specific grade levels:
K-4, 5-8, 9-12. Because we are targeting the middle school level,
we focused specifically on the standards for grade levels 5-8.
2) Florida's Sunshine State Standards
The following excerpt is taken from the web site for the Sunshine State
Standards.
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"The Sunshine State Standards, approved by the State Board of Education
on May 29, 1996, are available on the Florida Department of Education's
web site in the areas of the arts (dance, music, theatre, visual arts),
English/language arts, foreign language, health, math, physical education,
science, and social studies. standards for each area are divided
into four grade level groupings (Pre-K to 2, grades 3-5, grades 6-8, and
grades 9-12), with a web page devoted to each. A typical page contains
major subject area topics with relevant standards and their subcategories
elaborated upon underneath."
The team behind Making Waves targeted a middle school audience (grades
6-8 from the Florida Sunshine State Standards) studying science and math.