| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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are often not relevant to the students' lives and leave no room for messy data, creativity, or the expression of personal strength (Cunningham & Helms, 1998). The results indicate that students who have done poorly in their initial science courses, particularly girls and urban students, tend to drop out of the science pool and usually do not return as these groups have been subtly excluded from science in the past (Simpson & Troost, 1982).
A universal treatment of science offers simplistic solutions; students need to understand science in its complex personal, social, and contextual dimensions (Koul, 1997). Other researchers shared similar thoughts about scientific ideas, norms, values, beliefs, expectations, and conventional actions of science transcending the culture(s) in which they were first developed and accepted (Aikenhead & Keeves, 1995; Jenkins, 1994). Schwab (1978) suggested that curriculum materials should reflect the tentative, fluid nature of scientific inquiry and that scientists differ widely in their views on the nature of science, the choice of data, and the nature of problems and explanations. Schwab (1978) further argued that students need to be aware of alternate possibilities in whichever path of inquiry they choose.
Curriculum should acknowledge multiple solutions and representations (Schwab, 1978). With the continuing emphasis on scientific literacy in policy documents and the concerns shared by researchers about the quality of science education, educators constantly explore ways to invite, engage, and retain students in science classroom. An important component of scientific literacy has been an understanding of the reciprocal impact of science and the general culture on each other (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996). It is crucial that citizens in a democratic society learn to critically evaluate the ideological implications of individual scientific claims and practices, as this level of scientific literacy is crucial for both consumers and producers of scientific knowledge to make all kinds of choices related to their lives (Drew, 1993).
Demographics and Definition of Urban Areas
An urban area (UA) is comprised of one or more places (central place) and the adjacent densely settled surrounding territory (urban fringe) that