U.S. Science Education: Rethinking How Kids Learn

The U.S. is becoming increasingly concerned over learning among the country's youth in areas of science and math. International testing has shown that American students fall behind foreign counterparts in a number of subjects. But is it just about the text and the test?

Students in Shanghai who took international exams for the first time outscored every other school system in the world. In the same test, American students ranked 25th in math, 17th in science and 14th in reading. A 2009 study showed that U.S. students ranked 25th among 34 countries in math and science -- behind states like China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland.

A report last month revealed that California is failing to provide high-quality science education to public elementary school students -- just 10 percent of elementary classrooms provide regular hands-on science experiments, and fewer than half of surveyed school principals think their students would receive high-quality science instruction in their respective schools.

President Barack Obama has made a call for improving science, technology, engineering and math education over the next decade through a number of partnerships and initiatives, and the U.S. Navy announced in June a plan to invest more than $100 million in science and technology education by 2015.

"I want us all to think about new and creative ways to engage young people in science and engineering, whether it's science festivals, robotic competitions, fairs that encourage young people to create and build and invent, to be makers of things, not just consumers of things," Obama said during his 2009 address at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences.

But what role do informal ways of learning contribute to science education? On Talk of the Nation, NPR's Ira Flatow asks, how important are museums, TV shows and after-school clubs to teaching kids science?

Flatow discusses the issue with Lynn D. Dierking, interim associate dean for research at the College of Education, Techbridge Executive Director Linda Kekelis and Susan Singer, Laurence McKinley Gould professor of the natural sciences at Carleton College.

"I think that what these opportunities do for children and adults is they help them understand at a deeper level some of the things that they have learned in school or they may get them excited about something that then they want to pursue in more depth in school," Dierking tells Flatow. "But there's definitely evidence in my work and the work of other people doing research on this area that these experiences can be exceedingly powerful."

LISTEN to the full Talk of the Nation report below, and visit NPR's website for the complete transcript.

Comments

[foresure]

09:11 PM on 11/16/2011

Let me save the American tax payer untold money to be spent on endless "educational research".

1. Send a polite letter to the Vatican, Latin not required, asking them send a copy of their educational materials, rules and regulations, and lesson plans for their best schools. Offer to pay copying and postage, they have incurred some big expenses lately.

After polite discussion with the Teachers' Union impose at least 80% of the standards of the Catholic curriculum on the public school. Sans the religion.

2. Reduce class size to no larger than 10-15 in elementary school, and 15-20 for high school.

3. Have a buy-out provision for any teacher with five years or more in service to leave the profession with one years salary.

4. Pay tuition for any teacher seeking college training outside the education industry.

5. Require every teacher, ever five years to demonstrate proficiency in English at the 12th grade level, and Arithmatic at the 8th grade level. Provide training for those that fail that standard. After failing three times, they are required to leave, taking their one year severance pay.

6. A dress code for both students and teachers. For teachers, suit and tie for men, equivalent for women. Transgender people would have their choice of one or the other, but must keep the same choice for the whole school year.

Too expensive? Transfer funds from the "Build an Afghan School" program to the Build an American School progam.

[AstorsCatfish]

08:50 PM on 11/15/2011

So it has become clear that to achieve "No Child Left Behind" you just have to make sure NOBODY learns, then nobody is behind!

[Mary Nissenson]

01:42 AM on 11/16/2011

I was about to say that the surest way to leave no one child behind is to abandon all of them. But you've already done that.

So, let me add that the surest way to make poverty insurmountable is to decimate the public school system... a point not lost -- nor, "incidental" -- to those who are actually waging class warfare.

They delude themselves into believing that, by destroying that bridge between poverty and wealth, they somehow protect themselves and secure their exclusivity. Instead, they destroy their own kingdom The future they're obliterating is their own, and their own children's.

As has been made painfully clear in the Republican debates (by the audience, as well as the candidates) is that the right has lost its moral compass. They've forgotten that much of the great wealth in this country grew out of the improved living standards of the masses.

Ironically, those who pose the greatest threat to our educatioal system are the ones in greatest need of learning... not so much math and science, as history. French history, in particular.

[AstorsCatfish]

03:12 AM on 11/16/2011

Griselda, what are you doing up so late?

There is a sugar wrapper I have kept for a number of years. It says "The man who rows the boat generally doesn't have time to rock it". I think of the WWII machinists I used to work with. They are the ones who actually created value. They are, in my view, the genuine conservatives. They rowed. The current crop of weasels - half of them don't even know they are weasels - haven't ever really rowed. They should all be put together with a giant Monopoly game and kept out of the way.

The cycle of history that I think I see goes something like:
In the beginning of a group (a society, a company, a nation) there is such a need for skills that those who can produce fare well. Over time this produces wealth. The productive are busy with producing. When there is sufficient wealth it now becomes the most advantageous to be a charlatan and plunder the wealth. It it fertile ground for the charismatic and the politicians - the talkers rather than the doers. Then it all goes down hill until there isn't enough to support the weasels.

[rationalitymatters]

12:21 PM on 11/16/2011

Brilliantly stated. I commend you.

[kman22]

03:52 PM on 11/15/2011

If this is not another indicator that NCLB is a complete failure what will be? Testing and homework do not mean learning is occurring. Smarter people than us have been discussing educational philisopies for years and NONE of them created Testing and homework as the foundation for success. A good education is STILL a well rounded education, filled with many opportunities for students to ask questions and find answers. The fewer opportunites to ask and find the dumber our schools become.

[cynicalsevei]

02:47 PM on 11/15/2011

I bet our students would be number one in texting, procrastinating, and figuring outhte best ways to get out of work, though. Let's look at the big picture!

[sfbbmom]

01:10 PM on 11/15/2011

Public schools that want to improve science and math capability in students would do well to study how the Waldorf private schools do. There is a strong program in science and math from kindergarten -- tied to a child's developmental level. The schools also have strong music programs -- shown to make children stronger in math. From grade 1, most Waldorf schools teach two foreign languages (a few only teach one) which also aids science and math. Most Waldorf grads are very strong in math and science.

[livepaths]

12:46 PM on 11/15/2011

Computers are only assistants and a good teacher’s will always be needed.
However, social networks such as facebook and YouTube as well as great resources including Wikipedia and Wolfram-Alpha are here to stay so that educators must use them in the teaching process. Many academics are posting great educational videos and materials online. The only problem is to sort the good ones from the rest and present them in an organized manner.

This effort is being done by: http://Utubersity.com which presents the best educational videos available on YouTube in an organized, easy to find way to watch and learn.

They are classified and tagged in a way that enables people to find these materials more easily and efficiently and not waste time browsing through pages of irrelevant search results.

The website also enhances the experience using other means such as recommending related videos, Wikipedia content and so on. There's also a Spanish version called http://utubersidad.com

This is a project that YouTube should embrace itself, with curated content from academics and maybe using a different URL (Youtubersity?) so it won’t be blocked by schools.

[ScienceGuyOrg]

12:17 PM on 11/18/2011

This does look to be a good resource but as mentioned in the last sentence, YouTube is blocked by many schools, maybe most schools. I had the same idea when I created http://www.scienceguy.org with a custom video viewer which did not transfer the comments, many of which are nasty. The website is used more for presenting science related projects such as mousetrap cars and water rockets.

I wish there was a better solution as there is some great video content for education.

[umbrarchist]

04:04 AM on 11/15/2011

What the hell could be simpler than giving kids science fiction stories that contain GOOD SCIENCE? The producers admitted that Star Wars was not science fiction in 1977 but most people today think it is. People have not been paying attention to all of the talk about the Dumbing Down of science fiction. We so many Liberal Arts people trying to make money writing what they call science fiction but they either can't recognize or refuse to admit that that is not what it is.

All Day September by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2295/all-day-september

The Fourth R by George O. Smith
http://www.onread.com/book/The-Fourth-R-17950/

Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton
http://www.mysterious-strange-weird.com/index-sensational-mysteries.html
http://www.onread.com/book/Eight-Keys-to-Eden-6514/

There Will Be School Tomorrow, by V. E. Thiessen
www.feedbooks.com/userbook/11643.pdf

THE YEAR WHEN STARDUST FELL by Raymond F. Jones
http://www.amazon.com/Year-When-Stardust-Fell/dp/1935774409
http://www.readcentral.com/book/Raymond-F-Jones/Read-The-Year-When-Stardust-Fell-Online

Starman's Quest by Robert Silverberg
http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/s/9682-starmans-quest-by-robert-silverberg

Black Man's Burden by Mack Reynolds
http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2008/08/mack-reynolds-on-africa-islam-utopia-and-progress.html
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4826/black-man-s-burden

Hyperion by Dan Simmons is not science fiction.

[awed1]

12:40 AM on 11/15/2011

behind states like China, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Finland. they are countries, not states

[kman22]

03:47 PM on 11/15/2011

Nope they are States also called Independent states or sovereign states.

[Robby777]

12:36 AM on 11/15/2011

Well, ask a teacher ! There needs to be science specialists in elementary. If you were to test elementary school teachers, you would find that they don't know science, period ! At one uniforming coference, One elementary teacher told me she was going back to her class room and do exactly like she had always done ! This was at a district wide conference to get everyone on the same page !!!

[Jelly Jam]

09:56 PM on 11/14/2011

How can we improve science education when instruction time is decreasing? Or when school systems are opting to focus solely on literacy above the principles of science? (Don't get me started on how they're taking history out of schools.) How can we expect students to be free-thinking, innovative, critical and creative when we slash art and music, which are subjects that stimulate the mind?

IF we want the kids to dive into science (technology, engineering, and math), we need to reinvest in education, and I don't just mean money. I agree we need to increase opportunities outside the classroom to spark interest, but we also have to increase interest in the classroom:

- Stop teaching towards the test, and teach kids to love learning by making it enjoyable.
- Lengthen the school day and school year (and improve teacher compensation as well).
- Teach teachers how to teach (not how to get their kids to pass a test) and stop these quick certification programs (like Teach for America). Although it def. helps, you need more than a degree in your field to teach; teaching is a skill that needs real training/work.
- I don't mind increasing reading/writing in all classes, but provide labs within the schools for the STEM classes as well. Demonstrate the applicability of science at each educational stage.

There are so many things we can do to improve science education, so we need to stop using band-aids, implement proven best practices, and redesign our education model.

[Matt Bodien]

07:27 PM on 11/14/2011

It is imperative that the US changes how it teaches its student Mathematics. Instead of teaching students how to manipulate and regurgitate formulas, we need to teach how to be a thinker - that is to problem solve and be creative. This will change students' often maligned perspective of Mathematics and more importantly, create generations of problem solvers and entrepreneurs instead of efficient rule followers.

10th grade Math teacher at Denver Public Schools

[ScienceGuyOrg]

04:08 PM on 11/14/2011

I am not a parent or a fulltime teacher but I think improving science education is the only hope for a good future for our country. If this planet is going to support over 7 billion people we will have to do things with new methods of using resources differently. As everything becomes more complex, this has created new problems which need better solutions.

I donate much of my spare time creating the projects on my website which is also my user account here. And teaching workshops on building such things as mousetrap cars, model solar cars, electric motors, kites, water rockets, and model airplanes.

Response to the workshops is good at times and not so good at times. It sure does not seem to be a high priority with most parents.

[Mytwocentstoo]

03:50 PM on 11/14/2011

Science teachers in California, at least in the school districts that I know of, have to use their own money to buy lab supplies so their students may do experiments. Research shows that actually doing activities, such as lab experiments, helps engage the students in their learning as they interact with peers and explore, and experiment, rather than sit at desks and be drilled on book knowledge. If we are serious about catching US students up in subjects like science shouldn't we properly fund curriculum supplies?

Second point would be to address the stress (home life, lack of parenting education and parents who have no knowledge of the developmental needs of children, poverty, lower SES, hunger, poor quality diet, bullying, abuse and neglect...) that students are under given that stress interferes with concentration and cognitive ability.

[Decentralized Improviser]

03:22 PM on 11/14/2011

Does anyone at huffington post recognize the amazing inverse relationship between the amount of money spent on public education & the amount of science funded by the DoD vs the US' ranking in science education & rate of real economic growth.

Sugata Mitra's new experiments in self-teaching: http://youtu.be/dk60sYrU2RU
Terence Kealey: The Myth of Science as a Public Good http://youtu.be/C_PVI6V6o-4

[SeekingClarity]

03:20 PM on 11/14/2011

Science is inconvenient.

[Tim Springer]

03:47 PM on 11/14/2011

Balderdash.

[SeekingClarity]

05:38 PM on 11/14/2011

It can be very inconvenient if one wants to believe whatever one pleases, which everyone has a perfect right to do. Unfortunately problems arise with maps that fail to model the territory, so science attempts to avoid this by means of a lot of observation, measurement and testing, all of which is painstaking and which may lead to conclusions other than those for which one was hoping.

And yet science provides a broadly applicable means by which to comprehend to complex and diverse events that occur in the real world and a basis for proposals (often after a fair amount of empirical tweaking) that actually work. Above all, I wish that general science instruction was delivering this message because it does not seem to be broadly grasped.

[umbrarchist]

12:56 PM on 11/16/2011

ROFL

Reality is inconvenient also. Let's get rid of it.