1. Introduction -- 2. Evolving Views on the Nature of Nature -- 3. The Intended Curriculum: Locating Nature in the Science Standards -- 4. The Intended Curriculum: Nature as Represented in a Science Textbook -- 5. The Enacted Curriculum: Representations of Nature in Science Teaching -- 6. The Received Curriculum: Nature as Understood by Students -- 7. A Sustainability Science based Framework for Science Education. .

This book focuses on the representation of nature in science education in schools in the United States. Given the importance of our relationship with the nonhuman world for the fate of our planet, this work gives special attention to the representation, instruction, and understanding of the relationship between the social and the natural world. It also proposes an alternative, sustainability science-based conceptual framework for ecology and environmental science topics in science education, which is compatible with the current social-ecological understanding of life in the Anthropocene epoch.