After World War II it became evident that our nation was undergoing revolutionary changes in
the nature and practice of science and its impact on the social, economic, and political aspects of the nation as well as on human welfare. Although 350 years have now elapsed since it was first proposed that a purpose of science education ought to be the contributions that science makes to public life and the common good, the appropriate curricula have yet to emerge. To bring this debate into focus led me to write the first article using the phrase scientific literacy as a goal of science education (Hurd, 1958).