Nobel Laureate Seeks To Turn Science Curriculum on Its Head

By Peter West

Anaheim, Calif.

The order in which scientific disciplines appear in the curriculum should be reversed so that each student receives an early and solid grounding in mathematics and physics, a Nobel laureate who is involved in education reform argued at a meeting here.

Speaking at a special forum as part of the National Science Teachers Association's 42nd annual meeting, Leon M. Lederman, a physicist and the director emeritus of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., said he supports a national effort to revise the curriculum into a "pyramidal'' model with a strong foundation...