Science is a vitally important subject that adds enrichment to the secondary school experience. The framework of thinking involved in scientific disciplines involves an ability to practice inquiry and analysis of data to make supported statements about natural phenomena. This inquiry engages students, mentally, allowing them to construct new frameworks in which to allow their minds to organize information. 

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     For the past 100 years, science has been practiced in the classroom, primarily to teach a structured body of knowledge that has been garnered and synthesized from a collective human experience of life since the dawn of human curiosity.  Science courses are described by DeBoer (1991) as involving both a process and a product in the same course. A science course, such as biology, combines lectures—the process—and laboratory experiences—the product, which sets it apart from other disciplines, such as art or history, and adds to the depth of content and skill that it provides. One of the important aspects of science is the nature of science as a framework for exploring the world. Exploration first involves being curious about processes around us and then systematically studying these processes in order to uncover the underlying patterns in nature. In the classroom, the nature of science as a mindset should include an emphasis on the mutable nature of the discipline. This type of mindset will allow for growth and a shift in knowledge, as new studies further refine what we understand about each discipline. 

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     Science education provides numerous benefits to the adolescent student and has a place in secondary schools. The strongest case for teaching science as a course course at the secondary level, is that the content knowledge, coupled with the scientific process of investigation, and the nature of scientific-thinking as an ever-expanding framing about the world around us, teaches students higher levels of organization and illuminates the world around them. 

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     It can be argued that one individual’s life will be enriched by gaining a better understanding of scientific processes, which comes from course content. Let’s take an example of a student who learns via a biology unit that heredity can be a doorway into a better understanding of one’s place in their family and wider cultural gene pool. What affect does that individuals heightened understanding of heredity have on society as a whole? Taking the example of the individual who learns about heredity in a biology class in 10th grade, let’s scale out for a moment to understand how that knowledge can affect their decision-making later in life. This biology student must have also learned about genetics, meiosis, and sexual reproduction. While they were learning about the genesis of human life, they might also have been curious about questions about population and human evolution. These questions, when raised in class, might allowed the teacher to lead the class into a thoughtful discussion about the interrelatedness of the human species, as understood and grounded in scientific thought. Scaling outwards, the connections reached by such a class discussion has larger and more connected implications in the world outside of the classroom for these students and serves to place the content of “biology” in a more relevant context. This example is just one way that students might become “scientifically literate” by connecting topics in class to wider issues. Scientific literacy implies that a student is able to take the content out of the classroom and apply it to their life outside of the classroom in various ways which: 1) improve their lives and allows them to cope in an increasingly technological world, 2) allows them to deal responsibly with science-related societal issues, 3) shows acquired knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate for the pursuit of science, and 4) shows awareness of the nature and scope of a wide variety of science-related careers (Bluhm et al., 2002). A lesson about heredity, can unintentionally lead to gained scientific literacy through a better understanding of where content meets society.

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            Science is an extremely varied and versatile subject and has a place in the secondary science curriculum. Adolescents crave risk-taking and subjects like biology, when taught effectively, can allow students to take risks, explore new ideas and build deeper understandings about themselves as theorists in a world where individuals fit into a larger society.

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