Product Description
Robert Karplus, a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, became a leader in the movement to reform elementary school science in the 1960s. This book selects the enduring aspects of his work and presents them for the scientists and science educators of today. In an era when `science education for ALL students’ has become the clarion call, the insights and works of Robert Karplus are as relevant now as they were in the 1960s, ’70s, and ‘8… More >>
A Love of Discovery: Science Education – The Second Career of Robert Karplus
Tags: Career, Discovery, Education, Karplus, Love, Robert, science, Second
#1 by Sara Phillips on April 13, 2010 - 2:57 pm
Once upon a time, science was taught in classrooms using wordy textbooks and a chalk board. There were no practical lessons and there was no room for exploration. Then a man called Bob Karplus came along and changed all that.
“A Love of Discovery” describes the achievements of Bob Karplus in transforming American classroom science.
Karplus initiated the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) in the early 1960s which aimed to find methods of teaching students of all ages scientific concepts in a way that would excite and inspire them about science. Their method was essentially, “Don’t tell me, let me find out.” They guided students through practical problems allowing them to make their own observations about the world.
The editor of “A Love of Discovery”, Robert G Fuller, states in his introduction that the book is “an attempt to support the claim that several of his contributions to science education are as important today as they were when he first made them.” In one sense the book achieves its aim. It introduces a new generation of readers to Karplus’ work. It places many of his key papers in one easy volume. However to some extent the book also fails this aim. The many contributors are eager to point out the success of Karplus’ program, its translation into numerous languages, and its use in schools across the world. However all this success gives the feeling that the book is redundant: We don’t need to hear about Karplus because we already know.
The structure is a slightly awkward mix of plain-English introductory chapters written by ex-colleagues, and Karplus’ own research papers. The juxtaposition of these two styles does not work particularly well. The introductions to Karplus’ papers are filled with praise for the man and his work, but seem to have only a loose association with the papers they are supposed to be introducing. The resulting structure means the book loses momentum and the ideas presented do not seem to build upon the one before.
Nonetheless, the book is a valuable one in that it is a tribute to a man who achieved so much in his work. The difference that Karplus’ research made to science education is clear. Many science educators would find Karplus’ methods a useful tool in their classrooms today.
Rating: 3 / 5