Teaching Secondary School Science: Strategies for Developing Scientific Literacy

This book was the required text for a semester-long science teaching methods class. In our class, we used this book primarily as a resource, rather than reading from cover to cover. This book provides extensive citations to other works about science teaching and scientific literacy. Bybee, Trowbridge & Powell delineate a constructivist approach to teaching, focusing on inquiry as the primary means to teach science. I implemented a variety of strategies from the text into my student teaching in a middle school science classroom.

This book is a great reference for science teachers and is also a very good textbook for a Science Methods class. Its chapters about inquiry and lab safety are quite good.

The book was in excellent condition, however, it did take a couple of weeks to get it. I am very pleased with this transaction.

I am beginning my second semester using this book as my primary text for my secondary science methods class. My class has to provide students with a framework for teaching all the science content that they have mastered in their 3 years of college. This book provides an excellent source for students to think about what it means to be a science teacher, to understand major curriculum projects in earlier grades that will impact secondary science, and to address important issues of gender equity, inclusion, and national and state standards for teaching. There is too much material for me to cover fully in a 2 semester hour class, but, I try to talk about and discuss in class most of the content. The activities at the end of each chapter are excellent for giving students practical ways of applying information in the chapter. I have not found another book to equal this book's caliber and practical usefulness.