The National Science Teachers Associate will offer classes and webinars to help teachers make the transition, Wheeler said.

"There's going to be a need for a lot of support for the teachers," the association director said. "It's a new way of doing science in the classroom. Much more relevant, much more application-oriented."

Diana Callison is in her first year teaching biology at the same South Carolina high school she graduated from four years ago. The way she learned science and the way she teaches science aren't at all the same, she said.

"There's a lot more technology, new content, even new cutting-edge things...that weren't around four years ago when I was there," Callison said.

Vendors are already preparing supplies aligned with the new science curriculum, too.

Jeff Chirikjian, vice president of biotech education company Edvotek, said they sell kits that teach students techniques nearly identical to those used in crime labs and research facilities. The difference? Scale and price.

One kit the company sells allows students to amplify and analyze 12 DNA samples. The kit costs around $400, thousands less than a professional laboratory version that handles 96 samples.

"We made it simple, easy to use and safe, but yet it's still real science," Chirikjian said.

Of course, just because the classrooms operate differently doesn't mean everything will change.

"There's a lot of work that's been done on how to motivate kids, how to get them excited and so on," said Bennett, the astronomer, "but we forgot to tell the kids you actually have to go home and study hard."