7 - HUMBIO: Stanford University's human biology curriculum for the middle grades

Summary

“School is boring. It doesn't have anything to do with me.” That is a familiar statement to many parents of adolescents, and it was one of the most common responses received by Paul Hurd in his many surveys of junior high school and middle grades students in the United States (personal communication, January 19, 1989). Moreover, it is a statement of fact resulting from a serious mismatch between the developmental stage of students and the structure and content of the educational system to which they are subjected.

Young people come out of their elementary schooling generally excited about learning, full of questions about the world around them, and eager to receive affirmation and praise from their teachers and parents. Only a few years later, however, many of these students are uninterested in their studies, alienated from school, in conflict with their parents, and engaging in high-risk behaviors. The dimensions of this problem are enormous and well documented in reports and books (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989; Children' Defense Fund, 1991; Hamburg, 1992; Hechinger, 1992; Scales, 1991; Takanishi, 1993).

It is hardly necessary to repeat the litany of deeply troubling statistics. We would like to make two simple points, however: First, in our current world, it is virtually impossible to be a maximally healthy, productive, participating citizen without some basic understanding of science. Yet, students alienated from school as adolescents rarely achieve a higher level of science education. Second, science literacy is crucial for health promotion. We can develop program after program aimed at decreasing teen pregnancy, decreasing drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, decreasing violence, and promoting healthy behavior.