Making Science more palatable for the public
June 21, 2007 by The_Urban_Scientist
Science is like the Brussels sprouts on a child’s dinner plate. Just like a mom insisting her child eats his veggies; the American public is needs to learn science. But the American public just has no interest in science or math. Many people have no liking for science (http://sciedsociety.blogspot.com/2007/05/helping-people-overcome-their-a...).
So the scientific community has three options.
1) Make the science fun and light – like the mom playing airplane to coax the veggies in a child’s mouth. And there are lots of great fun science programs being hosted by zoos, botanic gardens, science museums, children’s museum, even at school programs like Family Science Night. But how long can we play that game? Not too long. By middle school most students’ interests in science has peaked. Not only that, the extra-curricular and professional development support offered by informal science institutions stops abruptly at grade 8.
2) Force science on them. “You can’t leave the table until you’ve cleaned your plate”. Science is required for most public school students until grades 11. But requiring more science doesn’t necessarily translate to better science understanding or interest in studying science further.
3) Make the science lessons relevant – dress up the veggies in cute arrangements, serve with ranch dressing. Focus on sharing science that is relevant to people, that appeals to them. “Framing” science information may be our best strategy for getting people (of all ages) to gulp down more science (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/316/5821/56).
Why? Right now, science is a very heavy subject. It is weighted down with lots of jargon and technical information. Technical information isn’t interesting to most people. As scientists, we are very concerned with the details – blame it on our training. We unconsciously think “Surely you can’t really understand or appreciate the matter at hand if you don’t know the whole story – the whole twisted, up-and-down, every caveat and exception story?” It depends. Do you need to know how the food is grown and transported in order to take it home and cook it, and feed it to your family? No, but if you’re a farmer or produce manager those details might be more interesting to you.
The average person wants to know the ehat matters right now. The more they know the more they will want to know, later (we hope). The average person doesn’t care enough or doesn’t have the time and/or energy to get that deep, all at once. It’s a process and if we’re lucky, they’ll want to come back for more.
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Comments
Not enough time
October 31, 2007 by Anonymous, 2 years 4 weeks ago
Comment: 25764
Option #4:
If you are proposing science education as a solution to world problems, then it is important to focus on exactly which problems your proposing to solve and what the time-lines and key leverage points are to solve them.
Of course teaching science to the masses is the ultimate solution to many world problems given an unlimited amount of time. But unfortunately we may not have an unlimited amount of time. Lets be optimistic and say we have 10 years to turn around our CO2 emissions http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14834318/ - from NASA Scientist James Hansen - who finds the majority of our CO2 emissions coming from coal burning power plants and cement factories.
"But the American public just has no interest in science or math." .... Do you really think the best approach is to be trying to educate the masses right now?
Or is it some other issue your are seeking to solve via mass education?
When our leaders are uneducated in science and bent on profit motives why would we expect anything to change? To solve these immediate problems - What we need is more scientists in positions of leadership and less politicians.
-Will Ruddick
A recent nonfiction book that demystifies science
June 22, 2007 by Fred Bortz, 2 years 23 weeks ago
Comment: 24030
Natalie Angier recently tried this approach with The Canano: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, a book that I found too easy and too flowery, but I recommend it as a gift to introduce science to the reluctant ones.
See my review at www.scienceshelf.com/TheCanon.htm
Fred Bortz -- Science and technology books for young readers (www.fredbortz.com) and Science book reviews (www.scienceshelf.com)
Science + art + History + mYstery
June 22, 2007 by Regina (not verified), 2 years 23 weeks ago
Comment: 24027
I am teacher of math and ,actually I am writing books that help me to share my teachings: MATH + ART + Science and HISTORY
It is a way to demystify those subjects
I would like to present to you the series of books entitled, "Caius Zip – The Time Traveller,"
The main idea behind the "CAIUS ZIP – The Time Traveller" series is to show the history made by great men and how mathematics and other subjects were important in their decisions. Caius Zip is a young man that participates in these discoveries and in the great battles. In each adventure, he acquires maturity and learns that to get out of trouble he must use his most important ability that he unknowingly uses very well: the power of deduction
The first book, " Einstein, Picasso, Agatha and Chaplin:, How to explain the theory of relativity, cubism, travelling in time and unmask a murderer " has been published
Description
Caius Zip, the young time traveller, arrives at Paris in 1905. The turn of the 20th century is a period that sizzles with ideas and realizations and the Universe is about to be contemplated as it never was before.
In this fiction, Einstein was resting in Paris before his innovating Theory of Relativity enlightened him. At that same time, Picasso was just starting on his idea of breaking with conventional perspective.
Both characters seek the same concept: space-time relation. The encounter between art and science is finally possible by means of a limitless imagination.
There are the descriptions of interesting places of the belle époque in Paris and the memorable dialogue between Caius, Einstein, Picasso, Agatha, André Salmon, the poet and Getrude Stein, the sponsor of the novice Picasso, at the Spanish painter's atelier on how art, literature, science, travelling in time and mystery are intertwined.
Caius penetrates the birth of the theory of relativity and cubism and also manages to solve a murder mystery with the help of his two teenage friends, Agatha Christie, with her investigative mind and Charlie Chaplin, who provides a touch of magic to this surprising work of fiction.
After all and as Einstein once said: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed".
Please,see a passage from the book in: http://www.caiuszip.com/relativiting.htm
best regard
Regina Goncalves