Cross-Cultural Biology Curriculum Comparison Draft #1

This topic submitted by Brian Streng ( strengbl@muohio.edu) at 1:20 PM on 4/28/08.

Check out this spider! Thank God they're small! See other arachnids from Costa Rica.

Tropical Field Courses -Interdisciplinary Studies-Miami University

I am a High School Biology teacher-to-be for the state of Ohio (hopefully). I did my student teaching in Australia and developed an interest in cross-cultural education. My goal with this project is to look into the Costa Rican education system and draw some comparisons between how it is laid out, and specifically the curriculum.

I am going to translate the 77 page biology curriculum using an internet translation site. This will be the main source for the curriculum comparison as I intend to look at comparisons specifically in vertical alignment, environmental education, evolution, and others.

I will also be looking at the system as a whole. My hope is to interview two individuals that I know who were raised in Costa Rica, and gain an understanding of how their system is set up. One of these is Olman who is currently a musician at Bowling Green University, and another is Melina, who is an old friend from high school who is actually teaching in Costa Rica. The later will be difficult to contact as her information has been lost but the attempt to contact continues.

I hope to give the class a good impression about how the education system in Costa Rica varied from their own experience. It is important in cultural understanding to realize how things we take for granted, such as how our education system works, may be totally different someplace else.

My topic is important because as a country I feel that the US could do more in its efforts to improve environmental awareness within the secondary schools. Costa Rica is in a location where there are endless biological opportunities. Hopefully we could learn a thing or two from their system that we can use here. As a future educator I feel that I personally have a lot I could potentially walk away with, but the rest of the class as well will have an opportunity. Being a biologist is relatively rare, and people look to us to help answer questions. As such it is important that we learn how to educate the public as common citizens regarding environmental issues, because it is a common conversation, and as biologist people are going to be looking to my classmates for guidance.

Curriculum
Content
Similarities
Differences
School Systems
Similarities
Differences
Influence of Local Habitat
Local Pedagogy

Resources
Interviews
Olman
Melina
Biology Curriculum (to be translated)
Ministry of education website
Journal articles regarding Costa Rican Education

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