Science Strands

The “strands” portion of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (2001), state that all middle school students should learn about the following:

1. The Nature of Science, including developing understandings of science as a human endeavor and views of science sharpened by historical perspectives.
2. Science as inquiry, including the ability to effectively and safely use science process skills along with appropriate materials, scientific equipment, and technology in order to conduct scientific inquiries.
3. Competencies with respect to technologies relevant to science including competencies in performing technological design and knowledge and understanding of relationships between science and technology.
4. Understandings of science in personal and social perspectives including understandings of personal and community health, population growth, environmental quality, natural and human-induced hazards, current events/challenges and careers in science and technology.

In general, most of these strands can be strongly supported through many of the interactive Internet sites discussed above that are designed to give students access to virtual laboratory or other research equipment and settings. In fact, the only significant gap in the use of such sites for promoting learning within these strands is the goal of helping students to develop understandings of science from a historical perspective. Teachers might benefit from having students work with sites such as those listed in Table 4, which have marked strengths in facilitating the relevance of historical perspectives in science learning. Also included in Table 4 are the categories of content standards for Grades 6-8 from the National Science Education Standards. Incorporating these standards in the table provide clear evidence of how selected interactive web sites align with both state and national content standards.

Clearly the wealth of useful Internet resources designed to support science learning includes many interactive web sites highly congruent with and supportive of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study (2001). Highly interactive Internet sites, such as those referenced here, hold tremendous promise for facilitating relevant student learning.

Table 4: Science Strands (6-8)