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BSCS Science Learning, formerly known as Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), is an educational center that develops curricular materials, provides educational support, and conducts research and evaluation in the fields of science and technology. It was formed in 1958, and became an independent
non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
in 1973, headquartered in
Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
. In 2018, BSCS changed its name to BSCS Science Learning.BSCS name change announcement
/ref>


History

Soon after receiving a National Science Foundation grant in 1958, the
American Institute of Biological Sciences The American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) is a nonprofit scientific charity. The organization’s mission is to promote the use of science to inform decision-making and advance biology for the benefit of science and society. Overvie ...
established the base for BSCS activities at the
University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...
. Arnold Grobman, a herpetologist, served as the first director of BSCS, from 1958 until 1965. Hiram Bentley Glass, a geneticist, chaired the first Steering Committee (later the Board) from 1959 until 1965. The BSCS leadership during its first decade of operation was mainly made up of professional biologists. These professional biologists worked with high school educators and administrators to develop and implement new curriculum materials. During the first Steering Committee meetings in 1959, the BSCS decided to target high school biology, mainly at the tenth-grade level, for improvement. In the summer of 1960, the BSCS convened an intensive summer writing conference in Boulder, at which three new high school biology textbooks were developed. The three versions were: Blue, a
molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...
approach; Green, an
ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
approach; and Yellow, a
cellular biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...
approach. These three versions, and their corresponding newly developed laboratory exercises, were piloted at high schools around the United States during the 1960–61 school year. The curriculum materials were then revised during the summer of 1961 based on feedback from teachers, students, and professional biologists, and tested again during 1961–62. In 1963, the three textbook versions were published commercially. All three BSCS curriculum versions stressed key biological themes, such as science as inquiry, the complementarity of structure and function, genetic continuity and
evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
. The BSCS textbooks emphasized evolution as a major scientific theory at a time when it was largely omitted from existing high school curricula, and the BSCS organization has remained committed to the teaching of evolution since its inception. The BSCS also expanded its work beyond standard tenth-grade biology curriculum to produce educational materials for exceptional students, for teachers, and for all educational levels, from kindergarten to adult. In 2018, BSCS celebrated its 60th anniversary and officially changed its name to BSCS Science Learning.


Products

In 2022, BSCS released a new high school biology program,
BSCS Biology: Understanding for Life
', which includes a new instructional model calle
Anchored Inquiry Learning


Evolution controversy

During the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, in 1957, the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
successfully launched the first Earth orbiting artificial satellite,
Sputnik I Sputnik 1 (; see § Etymology) was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. It sent a radio signal back to Earth for t ...
. The event triggered alarm in
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
by heightening fears there that the Soviet Union was achieving technological and strategic superiority. One response to what the Americans termed the ''
Sputnik crisis The Sputnik crisis was a period of public fear and anxiety in Western nations about the perceived technological gap between the United States and Soviet Union caused by the Soviets' launch of ''Sputnik 1'', the world's first artificial satelli ...
'' was to invest money and expertise towards a re-invigoration of the country's science and technological educational system. It was during this period that the BSCS was engaged to develop updated high school
biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
textbooks. The biology texts they developed covered
evolutionary theory Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
, which was by this time overwhelmingly accepted as biology's central organizing principle. These books became widely used in the nation's high schools, and as a consequence, the public
controversy Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...
about the teaching of evolution in public schools re-ignited. After a 1968 Supreme Court decision nullified decades-old laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution in many places of the country, some evolution opponents turned their efforts against the public funding of evolutionary teaching, including publicly funded textbooks. The BSCS textbooks were featured in the 1973 case '' Willoughby v. Stever'', a suit filed by an evangelical opponent of evolution who attempted, and failed, to have the evolution instruction in the textbook legally recognized as an
unconstitutional Constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applicable constitution. When l ...
establishment of religious secularism. The case was dismissed as meritless, and was cited as legal precedent in other groundbreaking decisions in the American cultural battle over evolution in the schools.


Notes


References

*''The BSCS Story: A History of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study'' edited by Laura Engleman, Colorado Springs: BSCS, 2001. * *


External links


BSCS official home page
{{Authority control Non-profit organizations based in Colorado Textbook controversies Curricula Education controversies in the United States