Five professors who all sat on the state’s science standards committee, worry that three bills supported by the Florida Department of Education make no mention of physics in proposed high school graduation requirements. The group has implored Commissioner Eric J. Smith (himself a science teacher) in a letter sent this morning to reconsider his backing of CS/HB 543, HB 1293 and SB 2654:
The letter writers are FCS supporter Paul Cottle, FSU physics professor, Florida Gulf Coast associate professor of physics Michael Fauerbach, FSU associate professor of physics Hon Kie Ng, FSU professor of physics Harrison B. Prosper and FSU professor of physics Horst Wahl.
A similar letter will also go to DOE from Earth Sciences faculty involved. This is a deplorable backsliding of science expectations at the high school level and will gut the important work of the entire cadre of people who worked on the physical sciences, earth/space sciences, and nature of science aspects of the Next Generation Science Standards (they are called that now, right?).
HB 543 and HB 1293 both passed their House committee stops today – so at high school level, this is where we stand as of this evening.
Science = Biology I
Science FCAT = gone
Physics = irrelevant
Earth Science = irrelevant
Please contact your own representatives and senators and get them to stop these bills’ science components, at least. Or maybe you can post here why these might be good for science? I certainly can’t see how. Thanks!