Taking the six versions of the Chinese textbooks for junior high schools published by People’s Education Press from 1978 to 2013 as a closed corpus，this research conducts a quasi-quantitative analysis on the compilation characteristics of science Popularization articles，and explores their evolutionary laws in dimensions such as quantity，unit themes，genre forms，illustration designs，sources of authors and creation times. The research shows that from 1978 to 2013，the selection and compilation of science popularization articles in Chinese textbooks for junior high schools presented a wavelike upward trajectory in terms of quantity changes，dynamically conforming to the national science and technology development strategies and the needs of educational reforms；the setting of unit themes reflects distinct characteristics of the times，scientific nature and inheritance；the illustration designs have developed from scratch，with continuous expansion and innovation in forms and contents，demonstrating the organic integration of scientific communication and visual narration；the selection and compilation of works by foreign authors have changed from being single to being diverse，showing the internationalization of the vision of textbook compilation and the extensive inclusiveness of the scientific spirit. In the future，the selection and compilation of science popularization articles should，based on closely following the pulse of the times，strengthen the collaboration among multiple disciplines，promote the integration and interweaving of the contents of disciplines such as physics，chemistry and biology，make overall arrangements for the overall layout of textbook contents，and construct a more three-dimensional educational system for the comprehensive improvement of scientific literacy.