Science Education

Position: NCCBI  supports legislative and regulatory encouragement for teaching “good science” in North Carolina’s public and private schools. The business and industry community supports efforts to enhance public understanding of the interrelationship between the sciences, including earth and environmental, and North Carolina’s economic growth and prosperity.

NCCBI supports the following actions to enhance science education:

• Producing a strategy for implementing science education goals in the K-12 Standard Course of Study for Science.
• Meeting science education needs of teachers in the classroom, including teaching resources and teacher training.
• Developing a partnership between business and state agencies involved in science education such as the Departments of Public Instruction, Environment and Natural Resources, and Commerce.

Explanation: The business and industry community believes that all students graduating from North Carolina’s public schools deserve a thorough education in the basic sciences.

Public environmental and land use policies, often guided by emotion, must instead be based on science and fact.  However, the public often lacks a thorough understanding of the “business of creating,” and of producing and manufacturing the products, goods and material wealth which support our economic lifestyle.

Students must understand that to produce and enjoy the “tools of life and commerce” such as; computers, automobiles, school buildings, highways, electric power, and nutritious food, mankind must convert natural resources; water, air, minerals, forests and soils, into products to improve our health and welfare. The common element for success in using or consuming these resources is the understanding and application of sound scientific principles and technology.

Therefore, a need is created for students, our future policy leaders, to obtain a solid understanding of the fundamental relationship between wise resource use, population growth and environmental protection.

Our primary and secondary schools must teach a balanced curriculum of economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology earth/environmental sciences and the social sciences to produce a graduate prepared  to extend his education at the university level or enter the workplace with the critical thinking skills to make reasoned, well-informed decisions.

As statewide educational policies are set, there is an implicit need to develop an effective working relationship between public agencies, local and state governments, industry and the public. As educational policies are set, a balance must be established between DENR’s   environmental objectives and the economic growth objectives of the Department of Commerce.  And teachers must be provided the classroom resources and skills to implement the science education goals set by state policies.

Administrative Procedures Act / Regulatory Reform
Air Quality

Brownfields Redevelopment

Communications

Endangered Species/Critical Habitats

Environmental Protection Policy

Environmental Justice
Executive Summary

Pollution Prevention, Waste Reduction, And Energy Management
Risk Management
Sustainable Development and Growth Planning

Water Quality Protection

Wetlands Protection