Any education that focuses predominantly on the detailed products of scientific labor—the facts of science—without developing an understanding of how those facts were established or that ignores the many important applications of science in the world misrepresents science and marginalizes the importance of engineering. 如果我们只教孩子前人已经总结出来的知识,而忽视这些知识是怎么建立的、怎么应用的,这样的教育既不能体现科学的内涵,而且忽视了现代工程技术的价值,意义十分有限。
孩子们必须懂得,科学不是一个个孤立的知识点( a body of isolated facts),而是一开始就要进行科学实践,从而形成科学的思维习惯(scientific habits of mind),学会做科学探究(scientific inquiry),善于做科学探讨( reason in a scientific context )。
清楚定义问题:How do we define a problem? 设计解决方案:How do we design a solution? 测试和改进解决方案:How do we test and improve a solution?
Matter and its interactions (物质的结构和属性、化学反应、核反应) Motion and stability: forces and interactions(力和运动的概念,它们之间的交互,系统之稳定和不稳定,等等) Energy(能量的储存和传播,能量和动力的关系,能量和化学反应等) Waves and their application in technologies for information transfer(波的属性,电磁辐射,信息传输等)
Earth's place in the universe (宇宙中地球所处的位置,宇宙和星系,地球和太阳系,地球演变史等) Earth‘s systems(地球的物质组成和系统,地壳运动,水系统,天气和气候,生物地理等) Earth and human activity(地球和人类的关系,自然资源,自然灾害,全球气候变化等)
Engineering design(工程设计,学会定义问题,设计和优化解决方案等) Links among engineering, technology, science and society (理解工程,技术,科学和社会这四者之间的各种关系)