NEW MANUAL EMPHASIZES EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS

Science education in the United States is in the midst of a major reform movement, scientists and educators say; it is also, some of them warn, in crisis. "We have a tremendous national problem," says Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences. "We are so far away from where we should be with regard to the seriousness with which we take children's education and the attention it gets from the whole country that we need a major change in our whole way of thinking."

The producers of a new book hope to contribute to such a change of thinking by suggesting how scientists and K-12 teachers can collaborate to improve precollege science education. Recently published by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Science Education Partnerships: Manual for Scientists and K-12 Teachers is a collection...