Twenty Years of Science Curriculum Development: A Look Back

In 1954, the National Science Foundation (NSF) spent 1, 725 on its first precollege curriculum development activity. The money was used to support a conference of educators, scientists, and federal officials to discuss ways of improving science curricula in the schools. On November 27, 1956, a grant of 303, 000 was made to the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) to design a new high school physics curriculum. Thus began a 20-year period of science and mathematics curriculum development activity unparalleled in our nation's history. Between 1956 and 1975, more than 130, 000, 000 was appropriated by NSF for course content improvement projects. During this same period, an additional 565 million was used to support various teacher-training activities. The goal of many of the teacher-education efforts was the implementation of the new curricula.