Cedar Rapids schools prepare new high school science courses

CEDAR RAPIDS - Freshmen in Cedar Rapids high schools next year will take updated science courses that teachers said are better aligned to statewide standards for instruction.

Starting with next year's ninth-grade class, students will be required to take courses covering a year of earth science, a year of life science (usually biology) and a year of physical science (chemistry and physics). Students now are required to take three years of science courses but have more flexibility in terms of which subjects those courses cover.

The change, teachers and an administrator said, fulfills a few purposes.

First, the district is shifting its school calendar next year from trimesters to semesters, meaning teachers will already have to update their courses somewhat.

Tightening graduation requirements in science also provides more consistency between the district's high schools, said Robert Young, an earth science teacher at Kennedy High School. Young said the district has been 'having issues with student mobility” between schools, and more consistency will help address that.

Perhaps most significant, the updated courses will be more closely aligned to statewide expectations, or standards, for what students should know. The district has aligned the new courses to the current Iowa Core standards, teachers said, while keeping an eye on the Next Generation Science Standards, as well.

A state panel this week recommended the Next Generation standards - which were developed by 26 states, including Iowa - as the replacement for the Iowa Core's science portion. The state Board of Education now will decide whether to adopt them.

Teachers said the district has prepared for that possible change.

'We kind of knew this was coming,” said Jennifer Brown, a chemistry teacher at Washington High School. 'The changes will mainly be in how the information is taught, and not necessarily in the content.”

For students, the updated courses will include more hands-on and engineering-based activities, teachers said. They also will focus more on applying the information students learn, rather than just memorizing facts.

In lessons on the periodic table, for example, teachers would emphasize learning about elements in order to see patterns in nature, said Ashley Waltman, a science teacher at Jefferson High SChool.

Students still will have options for scheduling the courses, said Karla Ries, the district's director of instructional services. The requirements are focused on subjects rather than specific courses, she said, so students can still take Advanced Placement or other alternative courses in those subjects.

The changes will not affect students in 10th through 12th grade next year.

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