is the major focus of the Research and Outreach aspect of CIRC. This program is aimed at youth, mainly from underrepresented groups such as girls and students of color, with the primary purposes being to increase the representation of these groups in science careers and to encourage these groups to pursue a secondary education. This is achieved by training thinking and reasoning (via student-relevant science-related subjectmatter) in the scientific method about problems in everyday life (skills which are known to be related to intellectual development and success in high school and college).
To achieve this goal, CIRC has developed an extensive curriculum for the TLAS program. The curriculum consists of 13 individual, autonomous lessons which discuss the scientific method using issues and ideas which are salient to the average high school student. Each lesson is centered around six common themes:
- Ask: What is Science?
- Define the problem: See many sides
- Distinguish fact from opinion: What constitutes evidence?
- Weigh evidence and make decisions
- Move from science to society
- Revisit, reflect, re-evaluate, and review
In addition to training students to think scientifically about everyday, real-world problems, the curriculum furthers the goals of TLAS and CIRC by discussing how science impacts daily life through policy decisions. In this way students get to see how scientific findings can affect us all, thus making science more salient to students' everyday lives.
Teachers - Looking to participate in TLAS? Click here for more information on how to get your class involved with the program, and to see some sample lessons.
