GENERAL AIMS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

Science education contributes to the growth and development of all students, as individuals, as responsible and informed members of society, and as productive contributors to New Zealand's economy and future.

The aim of science education in the New Zealand curriculum is to advance learning in science by:

• helping students to develop knowledge and a coherent understanding of the living, physical, material, and technological components of their environment;
• encouraging students to develop skills for investigating the living, physical, material, and technological components of their environment in scientific ways;
• providing opportunities for students to develop the attitudes on which scientific investigation depends;
• promoting science as an activity that is carried out by all people as part of their everyday life;
• portraying science as both a process and a set of ideas which have been constructed by people to explain everyday and unfamiliar phenomena;
• encouraging students to consider the ways in which people have used scientific knowledge and methods to meet particular needs;
• developing students' understanding of the evolving nature of science and technology;
• assisting students to use scientific knowledge and skills to make decisions about the usefulness and worth of ideas;
• helping students to explore issues and to make responsible and considered decisions about the use of science and technology in the environment;
• developing students' understanding of the different ways people influence, and are influenced by, science and technology;
• nurturing scientific talent to ensure a future scientific community;
• developing students' interest in and understanding of the knowledge and processes of science which form the basis of many of their future careers.

Science education, along with the other essential learning areas, contributes to the development of the essential skills described in The New Zealand Curriculum Framework. ¹