An Organisms Index To The School Science Review

A comprehensive and critical guide for new and experienced teachers on the teaching and learning of science. It combines an overview of current research with an account of curriculum changes to provide a valuable and practical guide to the business of classroom teaching.

This book discusses how we can inspire today’s youth to engage in challenging and productive discussions around the past, present and future role of animals in science education. Animals play a large role in the sciences and science education and yet they remain one of the least visible topics in the educational literature. This book is intended to cultivate research topics, conversations, and dispositions for the ethical use of animals in science and education. This book explores the vital role of animals with/in science education, specimens, protected species, and other associated issues with regards to the role of animals in science. Topics explored include ethical, curriculum and pedagogical dimensions, involving invertebrates, engineering solutions that contribute to ecosystems, the experiences of animals under our care, aesthetic and contemplative practices alongside science, school-based ethical dialogue, nature study for promoting inquiry and sustainability, the challenge of whether animals need to be used for science whatsoever, reconceptualizing museum specimens, cultivating socioscientific issues and epistemic practice, cultural integrity and citizen science, the care and nurturance of gender-balanced curriculum choices for science education, and theoretical conversations around cultivating critical thinking skills and ethical dispositions. The diverse authors in this book take on the logic of domination and symbolic violence embodied within the scientific enterprise that has systematically subjugated animals and nature, and emboldened the anthropocentric and exploitative expressions for the future role of animals. At a time when animals are getting excluded from classrooms (too dangerous! too many allergies! too dirty!), this book is an important counterpoint. Interacting with animals helps students develop empathy, learn to care for living things, engage with content. We need more animals in the science curriculum, not less. David Sobel, Senior Faculty, Education Department, Antioch University New England

Why do students continue to dissect animals in biology classes? Why, despite the excellence of teaching resources for veterinary and human medical education that substitute for dissection, do those provided for pre-college students fall short in convenience, flexibility, and coordination with the curriculum? Why Dissection? Animal Use in Education looks beyond the typical yes-or-no debate about dissection to understand how we came to our current practice of dissection in intermediate and high school biology, even as preparation of health professionals has moved away from dissection. Despite the many forces that support the continued use of dissection in pedagogy, teachers retain much autonomy in how they teach in the classroom, and legislation in many states provide specific requirements for what should and should not be taught in separated science and health curricula, offering students the option to not engage in dissection. Why Dissection? walks students, teachers, and parents through these options to help them make more informed choices regarding their science education options.