Currently, there is an increasing understanding that teaching and learning good school science may produce extensive contributions to economic development. The importance of scientifically literate citizens and workers is likely to increase further in the coming decades as a result of the fast replacement of traditional technologies by new, efficient, science-based technologies. This volume, the first in the Secondary Education series, contains articles written by science educators from various countries which give an overview of some of the current best practices in school science and environment education. One of the main purposes of this book is to demonstrate that valuable information is available in developing countries, several of which have attempted to implement significant science education reforms in recent years. The papers collected in this volume come from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. While the majority address reforms in specific developing nations, some papers look at issues that cross national barriers. For example, two papers address the use of low-cost/no cost equipment to deliver hands-on science instruction. One paper examines extremely high technology--high cost methods of enhancing science instruction--methods that, although more commonly used in industrial nations, are now spreading to the wealthier developing countries.
