Dr. Greene’s article, Put a Little Science in Your Life, emphasized the importance of making time in your science lessons to discuss the big questions. He argued that topics like the formation of the universe or origins of life take a back seat because we are too focused on working our way through our standards-driven curriculum. Dr. Greene points out that science teachers are shackled to a sequence of topics laid out in our curriculum which leaves no room for discussions about cutting-edge experiments and discoveries that are happening right now.

Dr. Greene wrote:

We rob science education of life when we focus solely on results and seek to train students to solve problems and recite facts without a commensurate emphasis on transporting them out beyond the stars.

As a physics teacher, I start each year teaching motion, then forces and so on. Almost every concept in our physics curriculum was nailed down over 400 years ago. But Dr. Greene’s article got me thinking- what about the physics that is being investigated today? Modern physics is full of extraordinary stories. It deserves to be showcased with more than a few videos and a couple Einstein activities scattered throughout the year.

My school as a model of the LHC

So now I’ve entered the 2008-2009 school year with a new goal- to weave current, cutting-edge science into my lessons. Fortunately, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) went online early this morning. To mark the event, my students converted our school’s third floor into a model of the new accelerator (it helps that I teach in a round school). We strung yarn around our circular hallway to represent the two beams. Students hung posters along the hallway that described things like quarks, string theory and the Big Bang. Other students put up posters where the yarn beams cross to describe the experiments that are taking place in our model of the LHC.

This year I still plan to teach motion and forces, but my examples won’t be just about cars, arrows or balls. I hope to throw in a proton or muon from time to time too.

Vivek Wadhwa

This week we talk with Vivek Wadhwa, columnist for Business Week, Wertheim Fellow at the Harvard Law School and executive in residence at Duke University. Wadhwa will be discussing his recent article (The Science Education Myth) regarding science education in the United States.

Preview from the show:

“It’s commonly accepted that the U.S. is falling behind other countries because our children score badly on math and science test scores and so on. The National Academies has sited this data; the President alluded to it in his last State of the Union address in 2006, the U.S. Department of Education talks about it. Everyone seems to accept the fact that the U.S. is falling behind and there is something wrong with our education system…I had a suspicion this was wrong.”

“We actually added up the numbers, and we found that the U.S. graduates a comparable number [engineers] to India, and the Chinese numbers are bogus. Basically they’re published from the Chinese government and you can’t challenge it; the Chinese numbers are high, but there are huge quality issues in both India and China.”

“The U.S is in pretty good shape. Maybe there are a few small nations, like Latvia and Singapore that come in first place, but those are small countries and you can’t compare a population of the size and the diversity of the U.S.A. with countries like Singapore, which are small and have a different system than we do.”

“Almost every indicator that they looked at showed the same trend – that the U.S.A. was improving; it wasn’t getting worse. And that no other country in the world was improving like the U.S.A. was.”

“If you look at what spurred the sciences, it was Sputnik. The Manhattan project employed 100-200,000 engineers. Whenever there’s been a crisis, the U.S. has responded to it by putting together national programs. The fact is that global warming is a critical national program. The fact that we’re consuming oil and burning up the world is a critical threat to the U.S.A. There are so many diseases that need to be eradicated. Instead of spending another 100 billion dollars on Iraq, why don’t we take 100 billion dollars and spend it on doing constructive research on eliminating diseases, of improving the world.”

“I think the U.S. really has to get its act together. We have to create the demand for engineers and scientists, and create the excitement, and create the motivation for our students to move into these fields. Just graduating more doesn’t solve any it just creates unemployment. But create a demand, create an excitement, is how you solve one of the problems.”

Links:

• The Science Education Myth, by Vivek Wadhwa from Business Week
• Assessing the Evidence on Science and Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand, by B. Lindsay Lowell, Harold Salzman; report by the Urban Institute
• Rising above the Gathering Storm; report from the National Academies Press
• State of the Union Address by the President; January 31, 2006
• U.S. Must act to Close Dentist Gap from Pure Pedantry
• A Silver Lining to Our Science Struggles by David Epstein, from SEED Magazine (article as podcast)
• In Science Classrooms, A Blast of Fresh O₂ by Natalie Angier from the New York Times
• Math and Science Education from NPR’s Science Friday; November 9th, 2007

Direct download: nsta_lol4.mp3

Dr. Sean B. Carroll

Dr. Sean B. Carroll (Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin) talks to us about evolution, his new project, and science literacy.

Direct download: nstalol2.mp3

Gerry Wheeler

Meet the hosts of NSTA’s Lab Out Loud podcast – Dale Basler and Brian Bartel. Later, we chat with NSTA Executive Director Gerry Wheeler, as he reflects on Sputnik and its impact on science education, the importance of science literacy and 21st century skills, and how NSTA is helping science teachers both young and old.

WSST

• The Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers
• WSST’s Periodicity

Gerry Wheeler Reflects on Sputnik:

• When Science Suddenly Mattered, in Space and in Class (NY Times)
• Sputnik Left Legacy for U.S. Science Education (NPR)
• Sputnik heralded space race, focus on learning (USA Today)
• Science: Sputnik Redux (Edutopia)

Visit NSTA’s new website at www.nsta.org NSTA’s New Science Teacher Academy
With support from The Amgen Foundation, the program will support new middle and secondary school science educators by providing opportunities for professional development such as online mentoring and financial support to attend NSTA’s national conference.

• New Science Teacher Academy
• The Amgen Foundation
• The Science and Mathematics Teacher Shortage: Fact and Myth

Toyota Tapestry

• Home
• 2008 Online Proposal

Direct download: nsta_lol1.mp3