My Texas SBOE Testimony In Support of Strong Science Standards

Martha Griffin Public Testimony, SBOE meeting, March 25, 2009 Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about keeping our science standards strong for all Texas students. I want to say a special hello to Barbara Cargill. Barbara and I were friends at Baylor University where we lived just a few doors down from each other in Russell Hall our sophomore year. I’ve spent a long career in science education, as a middle school and high school teacher, a museum educator and as an officer of the Science Teachers Association of Texas. I currently have the privilege of consulting in low performing schools to mentor first year science teachers. I am here to support the high school Biology and Earth and Space Systems TEKS as originally presented by the science writing teams, free from the amendments adopted at your last meeting. We have many new and inexperienced teachers in our schools and they need standards that are clear and scientifically accurate, and that are approved by the scientific community. Let me share one example – out of many I’ve observed - about how weak language in the standards creates confusion in science classrooms. As used in science, we know that a theory is an explanation based on observation and experimentation. It has been tested and confirmed. Theories become more refined over time as technologies change, but the original foundations of the theory stand the test of time. In fact, a theory is predictive and helps us more fully understand natural phenomena. I observed a first year teacher who was covering the IPC objective on the history of the atomic theory. Because of the current strengths and weaknesses language, she told students that the atomic theory could “completely go away in a couple of years and be something totally different because that’s the way science works.” As a new teacher, not completely grounded in science content, she made the common mistake non-scientists make in thinking that because of ongoing refinements of theories, they are here today, gone tomorrow, which is inaccurate for the atomic theory as well as the theory of evolution by natural selection. We need to train and develop science teachers who know how science really works and can share that with their students. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about the need for our standards to be clear and scientifically accurate. Thank you. Martha Griffin has a M.Ed. in science education, and is an independent consultant in low performing schools in HISD and other school districts in Texas, building capacity for student achievement in science. She is a past vice president of the Science Teachers Association of Texas, a former science museum education vice president and a former secondary science teacher. She resides in SBOE10 in Fort Bend County.