A NATIONAL STUDY OF SCIENCE CURRICULUM EFFECTIVENESS WITH HIGH ABILITY STUDENTS

This study assessed student growth on integrated science process skill s after being taught a 20-36 hour science unit. The prototypical unit, Acid, Acid Everywhere, was implemented in 15 school districts across seven states. Although seven science units for high ability learners h ave been developed through a federally funded project, the student out come results only from Acid, Acid Everywhere, the most widely replicat ed unit, are reported here. All units were based on the Integrated Cur riculum Model (ICM) developed specifically for gifted learners; the mo de stresses advanced content, high level process and product, and a co ncept dimension. Results indicate small, but significant, gains for st udents integrated science process skills when compared to equally able students not using the units. Implementation data reflected satisfact ion of teachers with the units, especially in terms of student interes t and motivation. The effectiveness of this curriculum, designed to al ign with the new science standards and to be appropriate for gifted st udents, lends credibility to the argument for using the new content st andards as a basis for curriculum development efforts with gifted lear ners.