The annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching conference was held in New Orleans from April 7-10 2002. NARST publishes the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, which is the primary academic journal for publications covering the topics of science teaching and learning.

Several hundred talks on student learning of science were presented at the conference. Two major topics were of interest to me as Director of Biology Laboratories at Barnard College: (1) Current curriculum changes at the K-12 level and (2) Research on student learning of evolution.

Current curriculum changes at the K-12 level are of central importance to Barnard College because we must be aware of what students have learned about science and how they were taught science before they attend our biology courses. Barnard’s current biology curriculum does not include any components of the Nature of Science (NOS), which is a major new focus of science education at all levels of the K-12 curriculum in the United States. NOS is a recommended component of K-12 and the college curriculum by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, and Project 2061. The Barnard biology faculty should be aware of NOS research and incorporate it in their curricula. In addition to research on NOS, there is a trend towards what is known as “authentic science.”  This paradigm was incorporated into the new BC2003 curriculum (Fall, 2001) and it clear from the conference that this approach should be expanded into the other lab courses.

Several talks focused on student learning of evolution. It is now quite clear that students who obtain high grades in evolution courses often remain committed creationists and often lack a sophisticated understanding of evolution. This is a product of several factors relating to course content. Based on talks at the conference, the most important content factor is Alternative Conceptions (ACs) of the nature of science (NOS). In addition to content factors, it is clear that lecturing on evolution has been demonstrated to be ineffective at facilitating student understanding of evolution. Problem solving laboratories have been demonstrated to promote student understanding of evolution more effectively.

In summary, information presented at the conference suggests new directions in which the Barnard Biology curriculum can grow.