Science education curriculum includes textbooks, instructional materials, and complete instructional programs designed to help students master the content and processes of science. Learning science requires that students acquire a rich understanding of both the science facts about the natural world as well as how science explains these phenomena. Such rich learning requires an equally rich set of instructional experiences. The history of science education curriculum has been defined by the tension between what is known to be good instructional practice and the difficulties that arise when attempting to implement such practices widely in U.S. schools.

When the study of science was recognized as a legitimate school subject during the last half of the 19th century, science education curriculum reflected the current understandings of how children learned; ...