A new era of science education?
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said he wants to launch a new era of science education in America. America won the space race but, in many ways, American education lost the science race, he told the National Science Teachers Association Conference.
A decade ago, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) benchmarking study showed that our best districts could compete with anyone in the world, but our worst districts—which, of course, were in low-income communities—were on a par with third-world countries, he said.
Do you think we need a new era of science education? If not, why not? If so, what should it be? How should it be done?
A decade ago, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) benchmarking study showed that our best districts could compete with anyone in the world, but our worst districts—which, of course, were in low-income communities—were on a par with third-world countries, he said.
Do you think we need a new era of science education? If not, why not? If so, what should it be? How should it be done?
Labels: Science education
posted by Dawn Keller at
2:44 PM
9 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
More schools and teachers need to get their students involved in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science program. It is a great way to introduce the scientificc process to kids with hands-on experimentation.
BTW, the Secretary's speech tip-toed around, but said essentially nothing. Hopefully, this will improve once their goals are more firmly established.
You know... when it says "Comment deleted"--- it just heightens the desire to know what was said that was so offensive... argh!
Anyway... The best way I can see to increase the breadth and quality of science education is to first increase the breadth and quality of math education... science is super fun in school until it becomes more mathematik than math... If I had the mathematical prowess in high school that I have today, i would have taken more chemistry and biology classes...
Science is great when you are just working with "stuff"... but when you get beyond the stuff and everything is just an abstraction on paper... if you don't have the numbers skills to relate to the formulas, it just turns into a really complicated math class.
Oh, and every school district should have a "Mr. Wizard" to indoctrinate kids at an early age as to the awesomeness of science... you have to plant the seed if you want to... well... hoe your garden or something.
Ason just started a campus group that basically will be "Mr. Wizards" or "Bill Nye, the Science Guys" in the local elementary schools near his college. And you are right, math begets science begets math...that's why physics is to cool.
(BTW, the comment that was deleted was mine. When I reread it, there were typos, which were offensive to me, so I self-edited.)
Awe shuxors... I thought someone threw down with some obscenities :-)
All this "begetting" talk gets me in the mood for another teen pregnancy article!
One part of science education that is often neglected is the basic understanding of the scientific method. I'm getting tired of the phrase "it's only a theory" as if theory was a synonym for "guess". It's not only about evolution, it's about all areas where human knowledge is incomplete. If we want citizens to make smart decisions about nuclear power, global warming, AIDS treatment or... whatever... we better teach them to separate observation and data testing from guesswork.
I think part of the problem with that in popular culture, theory does mean guess. While the word "theory" has an entirely different meaning in popular culture than it does in science, people mix the two.
Dawn and Kathy... just keep saying it until someone grabs hold... I don't know how many times I have copied and pasted this link over the past couple of years... but one more time can't hurt:
http://wilstar.com/theories.htm
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