Teachers say a draft national science curriculum will be a significant step backwards for year-seven students in New South Wales.
The Science Teachers' Association says year-seven topics have been chosen so they can be taught without a laboratory or a specialised teacher because high school does not start until year eight in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
The association's president, Margaret Watts, says the proposed changes will make it much harder to engage young students.
She says science in year seven will be reduced to a largely descriptive course without the opportunities for hands-on experiments.
"There is going to be a delay in children getting to use the equipment that they would begin to use and learn science in the way that they would normally begin to learn science in year seven in NSW, through the inquiry method, through doing investigations, through learning to use a range of science equipment," she said.
The Greens say the State Government should reject the draft curriculum.
The Government says it is only a draft curriculum, which people have the opportunity to comment on until May 23.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/09/2868428.htm?section=justin
Fri 9 Apr 2010 - 6:36