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A Newsletter Exploring Science
& Biomedical Research Issues
For School Educators
Volume 1, Issue 11, Winter 2006

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Teachers Are Our Hope If We Are To Be Scientifically Literate

By Jack Bley, D.V.M.

Are Americans too comfortable? Do we take for granted the benefits we derive from science and technology? Those of us in science education, especially, often hear variations of these questions, and the implication is that we are not doing enough to prepare our students to be citizens - and consumers - in the complex world within which we live. As science teachers we should be concerned because so many high school graduates take non-credit, remedial English and math classes (currently 53% and 45%, respectively, at Kalamazoo Valley CC) before they are admitted to credit-bearing classes in college, and as science teachers we must assume some responsibility for the general ignorance of our fellow citizens when it comes to all science knowledge, both general/basic knowledge and contemporary advances.

Consider that a 2001 National Science Foundation survey found that only 45% of Americans can define DNA and only 48% know that electrons are smaller than atoms; that 20% believe the sun goes around the earth and 48% think that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time. Carl Sagan said that 95% of the U.S. population was (is) scientifically illiterate. Even if that last statement sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, the burden of creating a scientifically literate voting, consuming, and understanding public lies squarely on the shoulders of the teachers of science, from elementary school through high school. When you consider the complex issues in science, medicine and technology that are constants in our world, and then you consider that less than half of those who graduate from high school (a minority who start in some communities) will go on to college, and that most of those will not take any science beyond survey courses, we have to admit that the level of understanding necessary to make informed decisions about our environment, our defense, and ourselves is limited at best. "Education is the guardian genius of democracy" a Texas educator once said, and in our rapidly changing world (the inventor of the iPod now works for another company and has already announced his invention of the iPod's replacement!), we cannot rely upon others to make decisions that will be crucial to our very survival.

This is why in the Michigan governor's State of the State and in the President's State of Union messages there were increased emphases on education with the development of initiatives to boost the number of AP science and math teachers by 70,000 and to fortify the high school graduation requirements to include additional math and science classes. The rationale goes well beyond politics; not only must we maintain our current, but slipping, competitive advantage in the world, but we must also prepare a citizenry that will first, understand, then second, support through votes, taxes and diminishing resources, good science.

But as scientists and teachers we know it will not be easy to compete with the "feel good" and ignorant snake oils offered up as valid alternatives to the hard work that is our discipline. Scientific method is hard work. It requires patience and incremental advancement, and as anyone who has paid attention to how our pharmaceuticals are discovered and developed, there are oh-so-many dead ends that create temporary frustration, cost time and money, but from which we still learn and move on to the next hope. Unfortunately, and because the public is ill-, or non-informed, science is criticized because contradictory results about the same issue (consider global warming), are spun by politicians and others with conflicting agendae, and the public is left confused, too often relying upon hyperbole and drama, and too impatient to hear the end of the story, so too often conclusions are made prematurely and emotionally. How many issues is our society currently considering which require knowledge and patience beyond the 30-second sound bite to resolve? The list of recent popularized science news below is incomplete, but daunting.

Should we simply rely upon an educated elite to understand these issues for us and settle back into our easy chairs? I fear that too many of us have chosen the latter course, and I base this upon my experience as an adjunct instructor in a pre-nursing program which includes a good cross section of students representing our society. Teaching human physiology and microbiology to well motivated learners with demographics that cut across age, economics and backgrounds has been personally rewarding while at the same time distressing. Despite an impressive list of past science courses taken in high school and college, most of my students are sadly deficient in science knowledge - especially contemporary issues such as those listed above. I would even use the word "ignorant" to describe how little is known about what goes on in and around their own bodies, a subject that should be the most interesting to any of us. These are future health care providers so they should represent a higher intellectual stratum then the average citizen, but despite their chosen career, they have more knowledge about the latest celebrity break-up in Hollywood, then they do about stem cell research, for instance.

Please don't think I am demeaning my students - far from it, I am privileged to be their teacher - but I must use them as an example of what is wrong with literacy preparation - and not just scientific literacy - today. Despite having all taken the prerequisite classes in chemistry and anatomy, far too many valuable class hours are spent - wasted, I maintain - reviewing both of those disciplines, and on concepts that should have been learned in high school and earlier. Or which could have been picked up in an occasional reading of contemporary and popular literature or from the nightly news. Bad habits, poor learning/study habits and contentment prevent on-going, life-long learning. These are habits which should have been developed long before "higher" education.

Sorry, readers, I must cut to the chase: we are not getting our money's worth in education today. Throwing more money at this problem is not the answer, either; a complete revamping of the system starting with the so-called education colleges which prepare future teachers and ending with minimum graduation requirements for our kids are crucial, or we will lose our supreme position as world leaders in science and technology, and that will result in our finally learning what being uncomfortable really means, but too late. At the end of this article are some solutions I propose that may get us back on track.

Alternatively, we can let the witch doctors, charlatans and opportunists use junk science, emotion and ignorance to train our kids. Or as Amanda Cook, the parent of two school-age girls in Maine, was quoted as saying in a recent news story tellingly entitled "Poll: Parents, students don't see any crisis in math or science" (AP): "There aren't many jobs that scream out 'math and science'. ...Most parents are saying you're better off going to school for something there's a big need for." Now where do you think she got that idea?

Continued on page 2...

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